Muscogee County School Board (Dave Bender)
Muscogee County's School Board voted Monday to use the King James version of the Bible in two elective course teaching the Bible as history and literature for high school students in the fall.
Muscogee's eleventh and twelfth-graders will also use "The Bible and Its Influence" as a secondary text in the courses, covering the Old Testament and New Testament eras. The courses will only be taught if 15 or more students request them.
Board member Dr. Peggy Connell, chief academic officer for Muscogee County says the issue of whether or not to teach the sacred texts wasn't the controversy, but rather which version of them: “There's not any controversy about that. This was passed by Georgia legislators last year, and the state board has approved the curriculum.”
But there were dissenting voices. Rabbi Tom Friedman of Temple Israel in Columbus told the board that teaching the Bible as history was liable to be a minefield of contesting interpretations of even basis concepts. He called for proper oversight of the curriculum.
Friedmann addressing the board.
(Dave Bender)
"The teaching of the Old and the New Testament periods objectively is very difficult and an requires an extensive amount of training, and a great deal of an academic background. Both courses can be taught objectively – with the proper input,” Friedmann told the board.
Muscogee County is one of the first major school districts statewide to adopt the plan, voted in, in the 2006 legislature to allow state-funded courses on the Bible in public schools.
