Louisiana and Oklahoma are bringing the Bible back to the public education system in two very important ways: Louisiana, by requiring every classroom to display the Ten Commandments, and Oklahoma, by requiring a Bible to be placed in every classroom. These historical documents are a necessary part of a well-rounded education that focuses on the true history of this nation and our legal system.
Last month, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to require all schools that receive public funding to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, thanks to Republican Governor Jeff Landry.
“Given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it is imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position,” Louisiana State Representative Dodie Horton, the sponsor of the bill, said. The measure allows “our children to look up and see what God says is right and what he says is wrong. It doesn’t preach a certain religion, but it definitely shows what a moral code we all should live by is.”
Just two weeks after Louisiana’s announcement, Oklahoma became the second state to reinforce the Bible in the public education system, with a slightly different approach.
“The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system — and is frankly, we’re talking about the Bible, one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country,” Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a press conference.
“Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom,” Walters announced.
Although no curriculum change has been proposed, Walters suggested the Bible and Ten Commandments could be used “as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion or the like,” as well as studied “for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.”
It is time for our public education system to provide students with well-rounded educations that include the full history of this nation’s founding and the world that came before it. That history cannot be adequately taught without the inclusion of the Bible as a historical document and the basis for many of this nation’s core principles.
“The simple fact of the matter is that the Bible is the most consequential piece of literature in the history of Western civilization. Whether or not one chooses to accept it as the inspired word of God, there is simply no way to fully understand the history of this country, the world in which it was founded, or the millennia of human events that led up to the making of America without being at least somewhat conversant in what it contains,” Walters wrote in an opinion piece for Fox news.
We hope to see more states follow this same path and reintroduce the Bible as a necessary historical document that children deserve to learn about in the classroom.
