Alas, districts in thrall to the teacher unions actually see it as their duty to ratify the position of the teachers.

However, I do wonder if any of the district's English teachers are qualified to teach the subject with any degree of authority. That would certainly require an understanding of Elizabethan Lit and probably (at least) fluency in the Latin of the Vulgate (to say nothing of Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic).

Okay, now I'll do it. Lookit all those Dems she gave money to!

This isn't a right/left issue. But its a dumb decision. The Bible is a literary treasure and the course should have been taught.

There are tremendous problems with the HBHSD, the most important being that they don't teach writing or critical thinking.

Part of this is obeisance to the teachers union, who have traded class size for salary, and then whine that they can't grade the papers because they have too many students.

Part is the surrender to the tyranny of standardized testing of rote knowledge, also known as Every Child Left Behind.

But the real villain here is us, and our failure to fight for our schools and elect leaders, or demand results.

Matt Harper is a useless ideologue, but the other board members don't fight for students and teaching them the critical thinking skills they need to avoid the nonsense spewed by the media, Bush, Rohrabacher, McSame, and the anti-science brigade at the pathetic local fishwraps, the Times and Register.

Dan, you're right - this isn't a partisan issue. I zeroed in on Castrey because she's been there since the dawn of time, and is prime example of staying on beyond any good accomplished.

I'm kind of an old guy, but the bible was taught to me by my socioligy H.S. teacher along with Confucious, Islam, Hinduism, Buddisim and other significant historical religions. Has this changed? None were taught as the "answer", but instead taught as to why they were the answer for some. We had a lot of great conversations, btw, Jesus was my guy. But it was interesting how much of Jesus's teachings were seemingly based on buddist and hindu teachings, or at least had great simularities.

Those behind this particular effort are the same as behind the "In God We Trust" efforts. They hurt there chances by being so intolerant of other religions. Hope that wasn't the case in HB, but it's hard to think the tried a different strategy here.

Dan, althought this may not be a "left/right" issue I can conceive of some practical problems.

Which Bible? St. Jerome's (in translation, I presume)? King James's? The language in the latter is beautiful but archaic in style and vocabulary. Or the modern "feel good" translations that so often seem hardly worth the designation literature? The Bible used by Orthodox Greeks? All of them?

The Catholic Bible contains books rejected by Protestant theology since the Reformation. What about the Apochrypha? Will those books be included?

In any case the selection of text would be very likely to create political problems.

Apart from the demoninational issues there are the pedagogic ones. The teacher of this class would (should) know all about the history and development of Hebrew Sacred Writ; understand the influence of Greek philosophy in the Alexandrian dispensation; and the process of translation over the millenia from Greek and Aramiac finally into the vernacular. And of course don't forget the ability to teach literature itself from a critical standpoint.

My high school English teachers could barely get us through The Outsiders and Raisin in the Sun. This sounds a lot like a college level course.

Red -- I took this course in high school as a junior back in New York State; I honestly don't remember which Bible we used but I do remember, the readings and lessons (and tests) were treated like any other literary device. If that is the case, then it really doesn't matter which Bible is used because only selected readings will be used, not the entire tome.

RP:

Since this is proposed as a literature and not a theology course, I think you're over-thinking the issue of various versions of the Bible.

The King James version is probably the most significant in terms of Western Literature. OK, so it doesn't include Maccabees 1 and 1, Wisdom or Judith or Tobit. It would only be a semester course, and given the abundance of material outside of those books, I don't think students would be shortchanged. They'd certainly be more educated coming out of the course than they were going in.

Your point about whether the district has a teacher qualified to teach such a course is a more salient one in my mind, and a sad commentary on the mediocrity of public education. Perhaps a retired teacher or professor could be found too teach it, or possibly even a college literature prof who'd find it refreshing change of pace to teach such a class in addition to his/her regular duties (if possible). That may run afoul of union rules, which would speak volumes over what has priority in the government school system.

I was pretty sure this board would take a pass on this. A few years back I ran for the HBUHSD because I didn't like their approach to the students when the class picture was taken. There were 13 students who lined up in t-shirts next to each other that had a religious message; if I recall correctly it was "Jesus Loves You". The Assistant Principal (again my recall may be faulty on this) told them they had to turn their shirts around or they would not be allowed in the picture. 12 of the students walked away and one turned his/her shirt around. They filed a complaint with the school board and nothing was done. I attended that school board meeting and was shocked to learn from some of the attendees supporting the 12 students that there were other students in that picture that had religious dress on such as a Yamika, and I believe there were a couple of Muslims with their head scarfs allowed in the picture. (I wondered if the kids had worn crowns of thorns if that would have been allowed.)

It was the insensitive manner in which four of the board members handled the issue that got my blood boiling. Matt Harper stood out as the guy in/on the right of this issue. I ran for office with Mark Ahrens; an 18 year old that was so incensed by this that he wanted to do something about it. So we had a campaign, but we were out gunned in the money department. These board members were union funded; one had his own $$ (being a doctor) and we just didn't have the funds to send slick flyers out and the time (we both had full time occupations) and go door to door or take out nice slick ads. We lost. But we did pull down some votes!

On top of that, Mark had referred to an "incumbent" in his ballot statement, and was sued in court by other board members to remove his comment. It cost him court costs, and he had to change his statement. In the past, other candidates had made such references to other incumbents but they weren't sued for it. So I guess the board felt a bit threatened.

If we had won, there would be a three to two vote to have that class now.

Is it time to run again?

As Jubal said we need to remove Bonnie Castry from ineffective HB school board. She thinks board is there to serve the interests of few union backed teachers but not our students.

Bonnie is clueless as to why we elect school board members in first place......without our kids, Bonnie and teachers will be in the unemployement line.

I hope to see more principle driven leaders in the public offices rather than mere bench warmers and greeters from the Walmart.

There you go CRA Republican, there's an office you can run for!! Or you can support someone else willing to run.

Yes, we need work together and become more pro active in public affairs.

Jubal has good spirit/spine to hold some meaningful public office.

The Union High School Trustees did the right thing. While Matt Harper is wasting the taxpayer's time and money on his holy crusade, the other four members of the board were earning their pay. In a school district with shrinking revenues this board is focusing upon the basics required to educate our kids.

Matt Harper is just playing political games with his constant abuse of religion as a political tool. I applaud the four trustees, who are doing the job we elected them to do.

I suggest that if you really want to see "The Bible as Literature" taught, that you vote for a tax increase so that schools can afford to offer more elective courses. For now, the emphasis has to be on the Advanced Placement electives that will qualify our kids for four-year college, not an extension of Sunday School.

Mr. Gillock:

Have you looked at the current curriculum and do you see any elective courses that are really "fluff" and could be replaced with a Bible as Literature course? Or possibly it could be fit into one of the current literature classes. I might also find it appropriate to replace or perhaps consolidate one of the four ceramics classes into three cermanics classes or consolidate the "Singles Living" into the "Personal Management" class; or possibly absorb the "Floral Arrangments" class into the "Floriculture" class to allow room to expose the younger generations to the single most influential work of literature in human history?

Mr. Harper isn't on a "Holy Crusade" - it just does seem to me that this board is not open to anything having to do with a couple of hundred years of our way of life in America, including having strong religious foundations.

DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view .. it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW?
As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall,
right above where the Supreme Court judges sit,
a display of the Ten Commandments

There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.

James Madison, the fourth president, known as 'The Father of Our Constitution' made the following statement:
'We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.'

Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said:
'It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ'.

DID YOU KNOW?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy the rule of few over many.

DID YOU KNOW?
The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:

'Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers.'

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?

And, how then do we have School Board Members making decisions to leave the Bible out of their literature?

Yes, we have budget problems in California's public schools because they don't know how to allocate funds correctly.

HB School Board is doing a good job in buttering up district administration in exchange for status quo.... unfortunately, short changing our children's education quality.
Most residents agree that Bible Lit. class can only benefit our children.