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In reply to the discussion: Texas GOP passes bill that bans teachers from speaking on 'white supremacy' [View all]Bucky
(53,993 posts)About a decade ago the Lege wrote another bone-headed mandate for Texas social studies teachers. When we taught the development of legal systems that led up to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, we were supposed to add Moses and the Ten Commandments to our curriculum alongside Hammurabi, Justinian, the Magna Carta, and Blackstone. Critics called this "trying to make Moses one of the Founding Fathers." It wasn't quite doing that--among other reasons, because Moses isn't purportedly the author of the 10-C's. (You might as well tell me that the mailman is selling me my car insurance cause that's who's delivering the insurance papers to me. )
Still, it was the law, so I complied. I assigned my students to do a detailed compare and contrast essay of the 10 Commandments with the Bill of Rights, followed by a class discussion. Oddly enough, almost all my kids ended up concluding that the two were diametrically opposed and incompatible. One says "follow authority blindly" and the other says "question and defy authorities." One says "Thou shalt not" and the other says "government shalt not." One says you're here to obey; the other says you have intrinsic rights as a human being.
It's one of the lessons I'm proudest of coming up with.