Dakota News Now has a story today on Senator John “California” Carley’s bill to bring an unfunded mandate for schools to post the ten commandments in every classroom in South Dakota’s public schools. (Wonder where they heard that?).
And in the story, while trying to claim it’s about history, Carley doesn’t exactly shy away from his goal of mentioning they’re specifically Christian values when he’s talking about public school curriculum:
He said the mention of God does not equate to a push of a religion and points to the Christian God’s role in prominent documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. He also points to the stories of many historical U.S. figures as proof.
“We call him Reverend Martin Luther King. We are illustrating the historical context that he was a reverend. he wasn’t a Muslim cleric or a Hindu priest. We put his title of what it is to illustrate truth.”
Suuurrreee it doesn’t equate to a push of a religion.
Didn’t we just go through a mandated social studies review where tax payers paid a pile of money to an out of state entity to tell us what to teach in our public schools here in South Dakota? If the document was important to the history of our country I would have thought it would have been included in that paid for curriculum package. Can’t local school districts who’s local taxpayer’s feel this document is important within their districts do this already without legislation?
Educating young people on the religious institutions and the guidance they provide to members of our community is an excellent idea. Just be sure to rotate the tenants of the various religions held by the great people of South Dakota whether they are Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and various indigenous beliefs. It might be nice to teach them that billions of people follow the philosophical teachings of Buddha and another billion others are exposed to the political/philosophical beliefs of Confucius as well. After all, the world is a big place and the more information they have the better.