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Texas education leaders consider the Bible and other classics as part of required reading · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

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All right, let's get after it today.
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Thank you for joining me.
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This is the Dean's List.
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We are grateful for you because ultimately you're uh all of you are on board this mission to this mission to steal a phrase to make education great again, mega.
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Can we uh you know, can we make something mega?
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I think it would be fantastic if we made education great again.
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I do, and it's it's why we go to history class so much around here.
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It's getting to meet like-minded individuals who love this country as much as I do, and who wanna who want to see her do well, who want to see her prosper.
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We want to see her prosper.
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And there are some that there are like-minded people who want to see the country prosper, who are in positions of leadership, and who are doing what they what they feel like they can do, obviously, to make this thing happen.
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Um the other day we talked about.
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Yeah, I I know I've got a I do, I know I've got a history class coming up, but I want to.
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I know, I know.
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I often say we should go to history right here at the onset.
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I mean, it's just a couple little things, but I want to maybe we'll save it for the second segment.
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I don't know, maybe we'll save it for segment three.
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I don't know.
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The other day we we talked about this uh this proposal, this model legislation that is coming out of Florida that would require middle school and high school students to read four full books a year.
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We talked about this.
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Do you remember?
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Uh this came uh last month.
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Uh, this this idea was really born from a from two men, one named Stanley Kurtz.
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He's a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Mark Bauerleen, who's a trustee at New College in Florida.
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Both of these two introduced model legislation requiring students in grade six through twelve to read two books per semester or four per academic year.
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And this, of course, would be at the state level, and they are looking at proposing this model legislation to several states.
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And um look, I think it's important that students are obviously reading books, and I wasn't sure really where I stood in terms of legislating the number of books read.
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I had forgotten about this state law in Texas.
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This was a 2023 state law, and it's coming.
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Uh it's it's coming full circle right now because of uh of what the what the state law demanded.
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So let me let me get into this 2023 state law.
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It required that the Texas Education Agency, which is I guess kind of like their department of ed.
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It required that they design a list of reading materials for public students, K-12.
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Uh, and the original list that they created, uh, of course, they they they they do they they produce this list.
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The the the original list recommended nearly 300 books for consideration to be put on the list, far exceeding the the requirement.
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The require the the requirement was only at least one literary work in each grade.
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So they only really needed to produce 12, 12 a year, but they produced 300, you know, superseding this um this law.
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So the the original list uh included a lot of favorites, uh, you know, Dr.
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Seuss, the cat in the hat, uh, the outsiders, the original list also incorporated biblical material, such as the prodigal son, the road to Damascus, uh, I think David and Goliath is somewhere on that list.
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Uh, but there was a lot of pushback.
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A lot of people complained that the list, the book list lacked religious diversity, too much, too much Christian and Judaism.
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There's not enough Muslim, there's not enough, you know, Buddha where there's or whatever.
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Fill in the blank.
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Uh it lacked religious diversity.
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And then other critics raised concerns about it's it's underrepresented in terms of women, it's underrepresented in terms of Hispanic, it's underrepresented in terms of black authors.
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Ultimately, it was there's too much whiteness, too much white Christianity on this list.
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Uh so they went ahead and revised the list.
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Uh the revision was proposed by Republican member Kevin Ellis of Lufkin.
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And they trimmed, he and other Republicans trimmed about 100 texts, 100 readings, 100 books from the list.
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Um there are other states, many other states, Ellis said who have recommended reading lists.
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To my knowledge, there is not one that will have a required reading list as robust as this.
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So I said to you, I'm not really sure if if I'm on board legislating the number of books to be read.
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And then I had forgotten.
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Texas came out and said we're gonna legislate not only a number, but which books.
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We want you reading these books.
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Now, when I look at the list, and uh it took me a minute, but I did find the list, and I will um I will go through the list with you.
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But in my heart, I'm thinking, yeah, uh, these books should be read.
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Absolutely.
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We need to be reading these books.
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Uh, and of course, people are gonna complain.
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They're they're they're gonna they're gonna complain and they're gonna complain hard, especially Marxist people on the left, because these are not books that necessarily they they want their students exposed to.
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All right, I'm gonna pull it up right here.
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I did, I downloaded it the other day.
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Um, Kindergarten, you know, Chicka Chica Boom Boom, uh, The Cat in the Hat, uh, The Bald Eagle.
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Uh, Are You My Mother?
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That remember that book, Are You My Mother?
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Classic book.
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Um Classic Nursery Rhymes, uh, Baba Black Sheep, Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Doc, Humpty Dumpty.
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I mean, Little Miss Muffet, you can go through the list.
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All the classics are here.
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George Washington and the Cherry Tree from the Children's Book of Virtues, classic, William J.
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Bennett.
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Excellent.
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He's one of our favorites.
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Uh, the Golden Rule.
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Uh, but perfect.
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Uh, the great.
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Grasshopper and the Ant, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
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L is for a Lone Star.
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You know, this is this is Texas, so that's that's good.
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The little red hen.
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Uh, The Lion and the Mouse.
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Uh, a picture book of George Washington, a picture book of Thomas Edison.
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I mean, these are great.
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Three Billy Goats Gruff.
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I love these books growing up.
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The three little pigs, uh, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
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Um, all right.
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So the tortoise and the hair, this is fantastic.
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This is a list of readings, and then they're all read aloud.
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So this is what's being read to the kids.
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This is what's being read to the kidney gardeners.
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This is important.
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There's nothing in here that is political.
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Uh, I mean, you could throw in George Washington, the picture book and George Washington and the cherry tree.
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That's not political.
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That's that's very much a political.
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It's about the founder, the father, as it were, the father of our country.
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That's what he's referred to as.
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And if we aren't gonna tell kindergartners stories about the father of our country, George Washington, then we shouldn't be telling them stories at all.
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We should just pack it in.
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There isn't anything political here.
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There isn't any uh Marxist ideology here.
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There isn't uh any story about someone's shadow being pink.
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Uh, there isn't any playground romance going on.
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Yeah, it doesn't matter what what gender the romance is happening through.
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There doesn't need to be any readings about playground romance in kindergarten.
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Things of virtue, things of of honor, things of morality, things of value.
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That's what kindergarteners need to be hearing.
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I don't see anything wrong with this list.
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Okay, I what do we have?
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Do we have issues with this list?
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Anyone in the room?
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I didn't think so.
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Uh the first grade list.
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I'm not going to go through all of these.
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Uh, but it's it's obviously very similar.
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Uh, first grade they get into Abe Lincoln, the boy who loved books, which is true.
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Abe Lincoln loved books.
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It's a matter of fact, Abe Lincoln borrowed a book about about George Washington.
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Washington was his favorite.
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And honest ape, as he was called, tucked the book into the and in between the logs of his old log cabin house as a boy.
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And a storm came and it and it ruined the book, got it all wet.
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And the book was borrowed, devastated, mortified.
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He went to the farmer from whom he borrowed the book, and he owned it.
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He said, Sir, I was reading this book.
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I love the book.
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I tucked it in in between the logs, the storm and it and wet, and then it's ruined.
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And he he said, I'll I'll pay for it.
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And so the farmer said, okay, uh, I appreciate that.
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You can work three days here on the farm, and that'll that'll pay for the book, or however many days, I don't remember.
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Maybe it was three hours.
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I I don't know.
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But Abraham Lincoln went to work and he and he paid for the book, but he understands the value of books.
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What lesson are we teaching the kids when in first grade they are being read aloud?
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Abe Lincoln, the boy who loved books.
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They're they are learning to understand the value of honesty.
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They are learning then to love books themselves.
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They're learning to love to read.
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Why did Lincoln love to read so much?
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What is this thing behind reading?
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And then look what look what Lincoln accomplished.
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Uh the boy who cried wolf, fantastic.
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Uh Daniel Boone.
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Oh, come on, this is great.
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Davy Crockett, of course, they're gonna get uh, you know, these guys, the Alamo and all that.
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Uh Jack and the Beanstalk, uh, the legend of Paul Review, the little engine that could come on.
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All right, this uh this list is the Pocahontas, Rapunzel, all right, the list from first grade, ugly duckling, it's looking good.
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Wolf and Sheep's clothing, let's go.
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This is uh an excerpt from Aesop's Fables.
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Uh second grade, again, pretty much the same.
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Clara Barton, good stuff, beauty and the beast.
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Um, America is dot dot dot.
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I bet I bet it's full of good things, what America is.
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I bet it's not America's racist, America's full of bigots.
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I bet it's not that.
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Ah, so good coming out of Texas.
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The Donkey and the Lion Skin, classic.
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Very classic.
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John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan.
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Let's go.
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Second grade reading list from Texas.
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Uh, let's see, let's let's let's scroll ahead.
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Third grade.
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Ooh, Archimedes in the door of science.
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I oh, another excerpt from a book of America about Abraham Lincoln.
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I'm happy about that.
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Hercules and the Wagner.
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Uh George Washington, uh, okay, good, real good.
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The shepherd boy and the wolf, another of Aesop's Fables.
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You know, the other day I did say to you that if you were interested in if let's say you didn't have a classical education, and you just wanted to uh a good place to start.
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One of the best places to start is Aesop's Fables.
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Just go through the fables.
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That is a beautiful sublime foundational point to read through and to obtain a classical education.
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I mean, you can advance from there, obviously.
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You you can and will.
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You will uh be propelled beyond Aesop.
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But what enjoyment to read those fables.
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The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Thomas Jefferson, the story of Benjamin Franklin, an inspiring biography for young readers.
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We need this.
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We absolutely need it.
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Oh, the boy who harnessed the wind.
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Excellent.
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All right, let's go to the fourth grade.
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Uh, the story of King Arthur and his knights.
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Let's go.
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Come on, fourth graders.
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And oh, St.
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Francis of Assisi.
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They're learning about St.
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Francis in fourth grade in Texas.
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Come on.
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Uh, Treasure Island.
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Who is Leonardo da Vinci?
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I love it.
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Uh, okay, fifth grade, adventures of Don Quixote.
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Okay, that's that's good stuff.
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Uh Christmas Carol, excellent.
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The colonization of Texas, missions and settlers.
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The colonization of Texas.
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I bet they're not uh gonna be given some drivel in this book about how uh white colonialism is horrible.
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Bet not.
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Uh Mark Twain, oh, the lion, the witch in the wardrobe.
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They're getting C.S.
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Lewis in fifth grade in Texas.
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I love it.
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The Mayflower Compact.
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Okay, let's let's go to let's let's go to sixth grade.
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Paul Revier's Ride.
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Um let's see.
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Phineas Gage, a gruesome but true story about brain science.
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Uh, this is this is fantastic.
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The story of Phineas Gage.
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If you don't know who Phineas Gage is, uh, you need to look it up.
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And you need to read the story of Phineas Gage.
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It's it's something else.
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Uh Rudyard Kipling, uh, oh, the Gettysburg Address.
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That's good stuff.
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Ah, here we go.
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Here we go.
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Here comes our first excerpt from the Bible.
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This would be from the New Testament, the book of Matthew, chapter six, verses 25 to 34.
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Do not be anxious.
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That's what it's called.
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This is the section where Jesus says, be anxious for nothing.
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Uh and he talks about the lily of the of the field and how they're they're clothed in glorious raiment.
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They don't worry about about tomorrow.
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And um, you know, he talks about the the birds and how they uh that they're not concerned about but but what they're gonna eat because their heavenly father provides for them.
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Do you think this would be a good lesson for for middle schoolers to take upon to not be anxious to learn to not be anxious?
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And um maybe put their trust in a in a higher power.
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How dare you teach middle schoolers deaned to trust in God?
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Well, you they have to be anxious because they've got to trust in themselves and they know that they're not gonna come through in the clutch when they need it.
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So, yes, they've got to be anxious, and and also they've got to be confused.
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They've got to be deeply confused.
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If they're not confused and anxious, we're we're doing something wrong.
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I think this is I personally, I think this is great.
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This isn't this isn't religion.
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You're you're not hammering Christianity down their throats.
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You're teaching them a moral lesson.
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Now, in 1962, 63, when the Bible in prayer was ushered out of public schools, these types of lessons left the building.
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These uh these types of lessons that are are morally founded that have this beautiful moral foundation.
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Uh, yes, they're from the
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Bible.
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But this isn't you have to be a Christian or else, or you're going to go to hell.
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No, this is don't be anxious for anything.
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Get up and start your day and go after it.
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Just go after the day and tackle it.
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Set goals.
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Pursue those goals.
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But yeah, you don't have to be anxious about anything.
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I don't know.
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I think this is I do.
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I think this is good stuff.
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When they get to the seventh grade, here is their New Testament excerpt.
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They're going to read about Jonah and the whale.
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There's a good lesson there and Jonah running from obligation, running from work, running from the voice of God, as it were.
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They're also going to read.
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Ah, look at this book of First Corinthians, chapter 13.
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Now, all of you probably that are listening to me, uh, are familiar with 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
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You know it as the love chapter.
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And this uh the the title of this reading is called The Definition of Love.
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Love is patient, love is kind, love us, and they go through the list.
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What is wrong with this plan?
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Somebody, please tell me what's wrong with seventh graders learning the the definition of love.
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All right.
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I'm looking at the clock.
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I've gone way long.
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We're gonna dive into the rest of this uh what this beautiful thing that's happening in Texas.
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I do, I think it's beautiful.
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Uh I I know the other day I said, I'm not sure that you can legislate the number of books to read, but I don't know.
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When I look at this list and I see the state saying um, hey, uh we want you reading these books.
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Again, this legislation is at the state level, it's not at the federal level.
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Uh so uh I am starting to to come around, my friends, starting to come around.
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All right, uh, I'll come around more on the other side of this break.
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All right.
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Let's get back to this list here.
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I I want to, I'm kind of enjoying the going through this list that Texas has given us.
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And again, this is at the state level.
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So the state has come along and they've said, we want students reading these books.
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This is what uh this is what we believe is going to make a beautiful education.
25:41
And in the seventh grade, they're getting this excerpt from the New Testament, uh, the the definition of love from Corinthians chapter 13.
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I love that.
25:53
Uh they're getting uh Helen Keller, they're getting Anne Frank.
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They're um they're getting beyond courage, the untold story of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.
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And these are things that they need.
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They're getting the letter to the Hebrew congregation from from George Washington, the Hebrew congregation at Newport.
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And this letter, George Washington says, hey, look, we're we are about uh religious expression, we're about religious freedom.
26:23
Uh the seventh grade is getting the outsiders from S.
26:26
C.
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Hinton.
26:27
That's good stuff.
26:30
Uh all right, Douglas MacArthur, duty, honor, and country.
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This is his farewell speech.
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That he gave as general to the cadets at West Point.
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Uh Ulysses S.
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Grant, uh his general order 108 to the soldiers of the army of the United States.
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Uh the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23.
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They're getting that in the seventh grade.
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Uh, that is that that is good stuff.
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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
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He makes me to lie down in green.
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What is wrong with this?
27:10
No, no, you can't give them the Bible.
27:13
Um, oh, and the eighth grade, they're getting the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, one of my absolute, absolute favorites.
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Uh Teddy Roosevelt.
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All right, let's go to the let's go to the ninth grade here.
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Oh, they're getting to kill a mocking bird in eighth grade.
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Okay, that's that's where we're at.
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That's good stuff.
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Uh, what to the slave is of the fourth of July, Frederick Douglass.
27:38
Uh, okay.
27:40
Let's go to the ninth grade here.
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English one, ninth grade.
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Oh, they're getting uh uh Sophocles, that's um, and and Antigone, that's important.
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Uh, they should be getting that in uh in ninth grade.
27:59
Uh great expectations.
28:03
They seem to be really all over the place.
28:05
I pencil the Federalist Papers 10 and 51, Animal Farm.
28:09
All right.
28:10
So the the Odyssey, okay.
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These are all they're getting David and Goliath here in ninth grade.
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Uh Livisel, they're getting night, they're getting Odessius.
28:20
Okay, the these are all good things.
28:23
Uh Lamentations, the Book of Lamentations, chapter three, good stuff.
28:28
All right, these are all good things.
28:31
It seems to be, I don't know, somewhat sporadic.
28:37
So let me just be I just for the point of comparison here.
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And in the ninth grade, so how we how we function things here is in our ninth grade.
28:52
The students in history are learning about ancient world history.
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So they are uh learning about the the Greeks, they're learning about the Romans, they're uh you know, ancient world history.
29:06
And so in literature, the reading kind of goes along with that.
29:14
So we're we're reading Homer, we're reading the Iliad and the Odyssey.
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We're reading Sophocles, so we've got the uh the Oedipus plays.
29:22
Um we are reading, what else are we reading?
29:29
Um the Aeneid.
29:32
Uh, I mean, so these things that are that that take place in this time period.
29:36
We're also gonna get into some Shakespeare.
29:38
I think every grade reads some some Shakespeare.
29:42
Of course, you know, we do have the Bible as well.
29:47
Uh, I'm just wondering what this what this breakdown is, because they're going from in their reading, uh, they're going from Antigone to uh great expectations.
30:00
To um Federalist Papers 10 and 51, they're reading iPencil, and then they're reading Animal Farm.
30:09
I mean, this is all very good stuff.
30:10
Don't get me wrong.
30:12
I just wonder what the um what the objective is here.
30:17
You know, what's the it just seems more sporadic?
30:21
Uh in 10th grade, they're getting Beowulf, which is our 10th grade.
30:25
Our 10th grade is a focus on uh European history, and it's a focus then on um British lit.
30:35
So we do get Beowulf in the 10th grade, charge of the light brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson, that's good.
30:42
Uh, but then they're also reading Fahrenheit 451.
30:46
Okay.
30:48
Um they're reading Frankenstein.
30:52
Okay, that's that's good.
30:54
Uh they're reading the Tower of Babel here from the Old Testament.
30:59
Um, the necklace.
31:02
Guy the Mapasat.
31:04
Okay, that's that's that's all good stuff.
31:07
Uh 11th grade, uh, the Raven.
31:11
Again, for us, that's a that's American history.
31:15
So they're they're getting American literature, Jack London.
31:19
Uh we choose to go to the moon, JFK of Mice and Men, Steinbeck.
31:26
Uh, okay.
31:28
That's good.
31:30
Um 12th grade, what's their 12th grade here?
31:33
All right, 12th grade, they're getting Hamlet.
31:36
Uh Hamlet and his poems, they're getting uh Tolstoy, the death of Ivan Illich.
31:43
Uh they're getting Pride and Prejudice, Hope is the thing with feathers, so there's some poetry in there.
31:50
Um I've been to the mountaintop, Martin Luther King, which which by the way, to today is the anniversary of his letter from Birmingham jail, and I haven't seen that in here yet.
32:04
We do get to that.
32:06
Uh up from slavery, there it is.
32:08
Okay.
32:09
More Frederick Douglass, uh, the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, that's good.
32:14
Walden.
32:15
Uh, okay.
32:16
So, all right, uh, this is a sampling of the list.
32:20
I didn't go through and read you every single, every single offering.
32:24
Are you happy I didn't do that?
32:26
All 300.
32:28
Uh, I wanted to, though, because there is some really good stuff in here.
32:31
There is some really, really good stuff.
32:35
But there are some people in Texas that are very unhappy about it.
32:39
That the Texas Education Agency uh created the original proposal after reviewing books used by other states and organizations.
32:50
Um, the the agency said that they also factored in survey responses from about 5700 teachers, noting that the list contained fewer books than what educators said they currently use.
33:05
But during hours of public testimony last week, when this thing was kind of going through, educators said they considered the survey insufficient because teachers didn't review or revise the reading list before the education agency submitted it to the state board of education.
33:27
Uh, you know, these people that are testifying pointed to a different survey of more than 2600 educators conducted by the Texas Council of Teachers of English language arts.
33:40
That survey concluded that in all but one grade, it would be mathematically impossible to read and teach the full list during the typical uh school year.
33:50
That's true.
33:51
It's going to be mathematically impossible.
33:54
But isn't it better to have more books at your disposal that you know you're not going to be able to get to?
34:03
Yes, it is.
34:04
It's better because then my friends, you could offer a suggested summer reading list.
34:13
Bump bum bum.
34:15
Well, why not?
34:16
Why not encourage our students with a suggested summer reading list?
34:20
Hey, kids, here's some things you could be reading over the summer.
34:24
Uh, keep a log, write a summary about what you're reading.
34:27
I don't know, some way to hold them accountable.
34:29
And then even, you know, you could even offer them some type of extra credit or something, some type of something when they come back to the school year in the fall, some type of incentive.
34:39
Or just throw it out there and say, hey, here's your incentive.
34:42
You're you're going to be smarter for it.
34:45
I don't know.
34:47
Uh, Marquisha Tisby is the president of Texas Council of Teachers of English language arts.
34:55
Marquisha said, I believe that an acceptable list would be one that's created with teacher expertise, leaning on the strengths of everyone involved in this work.
35:07
There's still time.
35:08
There's no prize for making this decision quickly.
35:11
We have time to build something great for our Texas students, and they deserve it.
35:15
Uh, which, by the way, yeah, they're not making the final decision on this thing.
35:20
I think until June.
35:22
I think I read that somewhere.
35:24
That, you know, so there is still time for them to revise this list.
35:30
Uh Marquisha Tisby's not wrong.
35:35
Uh Julie Pickern is a member of the school board.
35:40
She's a Republican from Purland.
35:42
This is the state school board.
35:45
She said she was shocked to see writings from Douglas M.
35:48
Booker T.
35:49
Washington scratched off of the original 1300 list.
35:56
Um, yes, that's unfortunate.
35:59
Those guys need to go back on.
36:01
Oh, here it is.
36:02
Members will have opportunities to suggest changes and offer feedback before the final vote happens in June.
36:10
Meanwhile, supporters of the list said they believe the biblical material will help students better grasp the influence of Christianity in U.S.
36:19
Hence history.
36:20
And this is where the linchpin is.
36:22
Because if you if you you know, Google Texas reading list, you know, what's going to come up is articles from CBS, articles from MSN, articles from New York Times, articles, and commentary from the left wing Marxist rags.
36:42
And they're all out there saying, the Bible, the Bible.
36:46
How dare they?
36:48
Texas has gotta teach the Bible.
36:52
Texas isn't supposed to teach religion.
36:55
However, you know, supporters say, look, the influence of Christianity in American history cannot be overstated.
37:05
It just can't.
37:07
Um critic here called the original list and its biblical material a lawsuit waiting to happen.
37:15
Well, many stress the importance of students needing to see themselves reflected in the books they read.
37:22
I don't know.
37:24
You what do you mean you need to see yourself reflected in the book you read?
37:29
Okay, here it is.
37:31
You read a book about I don't know Odessius, and he's making this journey home.
37:40
And if you see yourself in the character of Odysseus, not based upon what he looks like, but based upon the virtue he possesses.
37:53
That's how we see ourselves.
37:56
We see ourselves cloaked in courage.
37:59
We see ourselves robed in um manliness, or you know, well, but I'm not a man, I'm a woman.
38:09
Well, then see yourself robed in the courage nonetheless, the courage of the man.
38:14
Yes, he's a man, but you're a woman.
38:16
Can't you have courage?
38:18
This is how we need to be seeing ourselves.
38:22
You know, the fact that I don't know, you know, there's not enough women represented, or there's not enough black authors or brown authors or Indian authors, or uh, you know, we could go down the list.
38:34
There this there's not enough religions represented.
38:38
You know, you could start throwing out, I don't know, the the temple of the of the Jedi Knights.
38:45
I mean, it's a you know, it's probably a thing.
38:47
It's probably a religion.
38:49
Probably.
38:50
You know, how come they're not represented?
38:53
Uh Christianity is represented because it's our history.
38:58
It's it's foundational to our history.
39:03
And to this comment that somebody made, uh, this person isn't cited here.
39:08
It just says one critic called the original list, and it's biblical material, a lawsuit waiting to happen.
39:15
I mean, great.
39:16
Really?
39:17
That's fantastic.
39:18
Let's get a lawsuit here.
39:20
Let's take this thing up to the Supreme Court.
39:24
And let's let's codify this, that Christianity is a part of American history.
39:31
And our students should be learning about it from that context.
39:35
Look, if you don't want to be a Christian, don't be a Christian.
39:38
But it's important to understand that the founding fathers were Christian.
39:42
A majority of them were.
39:43
They were not deists.
39:46
They just simply weren't deists.
39:48
And we've been told that for decades, for generations, that the founding fathers are deist.
39:55
I've repeated this story that I'm about to repeat again from time.
40:00
To time.
40:01
My cousin in upstate New York was filling a long-term substitution at a Christian school, a private Christian school.
40:12
And she was teaching government to the to the seniors, long-term sub.
40:18
And one day the head of the school pulled her aside and said, you know, you know that, you know, George Washington was a deist, right?
40:28
Because he had heard some things that she was teaching the kids at a Christian school that the founding fathers were Christian.
40:35
And the principal, the principal says to her, you know, you know, they were deists.
40:42
You get that, right?
40:45
And the only reason he said that, obviously, he believed it, but the only reason he believed it is because it's what he was told.
40:52
And he didn't bother to go to original sources and primary material and learn the truth for himself.
41:00
He didn't bother.
41:01
He just went along with whatever the Marxists were telling him to go along with.
41:06
And that's that's a problem.
41:09
Primary sources and original sources are things that we have to get into.
41:13
And uh it's part of our history.
41:17
And for people to say this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, it might be.
41:21
And that's great if it is, because maybe we'll finally get somewhere.
41:25
Maybe, maybe, maybe we will finally bring Brad, like can I say it, bring back foundational roots.
41:35
All right.
41:36
Um students needing to see themselves reflected in the books they read, which again, okay.
41:45
Uh Summa Paruceri.
41:49
I hope I'm saying her name right.
41:50
She's a freshman at the University of North Texas.
41:53
She said, as a recent graduate of the Texas public school system, I care deeply about the curriculum my friends and family will be taught.
42:01
The best taught English classes that I had were when the teachers were passionate about the text they were teaching.
42:07
Whether they were fans of the work or understood the educational opportunities they presented for students, the required reading lists attempt to standardize reading is unhelpful and counterproductive to the real needs of students and educators.
42:25
So we're now taking the advice of college freshmen who just came through the public system and said that the ultimately the book should be chosen based upon the teacher's passions, whether than uh a required reading list, which this student says is unhelpful and counterproductive to the real needs of students and educators, that the real needs.
42:51
What pray tell are the real needs of students in an English class?
42:57
Well, I uh I'm gonna answer the question for her.
43:00
The real need of students in any class is that their soul is formed and shaped, is that they are imbued with life lessons that they are given foundational principles that are going to help them lead a prosperous life.
43:22
And what are those principles?
43:24
Were they their virtue?
43:27
It's what they are.
43:28
Principles of virtue and morality and of pursuing things that are true and things that are good and things that are beautiful.
43:37
That's the whole that's the whole point of all this.
43:39
That's what we're going after.
43:42
We are pursuing an education for kids that's going to bring value to their lives.
43:51
That's going to bring value to their to their future.
43:54
And I'm sorry.
43:56
Uh learning uh about your shadow being pink is not going to bring you any any value to your life.
44:03
It's only going to add to the confusion.
44:07
Now, again, this book isn't.
44:09
That book title is not, you know, being thrown around, but it's a book title that's that's been used and and kindergarten on up.
44:19
And it's despicable, it's horrible.
44:22
There's no value there.
44:25
There's nothing of worth there.
44:28
Um it just CBS.
44:33
The CBS article, they just they go through the roof.
44:36
I mean, their whole thing is the proposed biblical text.
44:40
This is about the Bible.
44:42
It's the proposed biblical text.
44:45
Uh they just um, you know, she the CBSP says that about a hundred people testified before the board, with many arguing that, including biblical text in public school violates the separation of church and state.
45:01
Um, the book list is not diverse enough.
45:05
If these are the same classical literature pieces, which has ranked us 44th in the nation for third grade reading, we failed our students.
45:13
One one teacher said, or a critic or whatever.
45:18
The book list is not diverse enough.
45:21
If these are the same classical literature pieces, which have ranked us 44th in the nation, I just about to tell you, it's not the classical literature pieces that have ranked us 44th in the nation in third grade and over there in Texas.
45:37
And so this person says it's time to create a robust list which adequately meets and serves the diverse needs of our students in Texas.
45:45
Texas is not one religion or one race, so the authors on this book list need to resemble the makeup of our students across the state.
45:52
This is an argument that doesn't make sense to me.
45:58
It doesn't make sense.
45:59
I I don't based upon this argument, I should not enjoy reading Frederick Douglass, because he was a black man.
46:10
Uh based upon this argument, I should not enjoy reading Booker T.
46:14
Washington because he was a black man, or or George Washington Carver because he was a black man, or uh, I don't know.
46:21
Uh I shouldn't enjoy reading uh Uncle Tom's Cabin because it was written by a woman.
46:27
This is ridiculous.
46:29
It is the values that I gain from the reading.
46:34
That's where I see myself.
46:36
I could repeat this over and over and over and over.
46:38
And I'm not going to.
46:40
I'm up against it.
46:41
I'm out of time, as a matter of fact.
46:42
Okay, let's pause here.
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We'll pick up more on the other side of this break.
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49:03
So here in Texas, the makeup of the Board of Education that has voted for this list.
49:20
I feel like it was uh maybe a 14-person board.
49:24
I feel like the the makeup was nine to five.
49:28
I feel like there were nine Republicans voting in favor and five Democrats opposed.
49:34
I could be wrong on that number.
49:37
Ultimately, I I do recall reading somewhere that every Democrat voted against this book list.
49:45
Now, I read to you some things from the list.
49:51
They all seem excellent to me.
49:53
Probably I would think what the Democrats are opposed to would be the biblical text.
49:59
Because most of
50:00
Mostly the Democrats don't want our kids learning about the Bible.
50:04
Again, I don't know how you can be a Christian and vote for Democrat leaders.
50:10
I mean, I don't know.
50:12
Some board members, of course, voiced their support for the proposal publicly.
50:20
The Republicans, obviously, they argue that changes could improve literacy and reflect the historical significance of the biblical texts.
50:31
And this is this is important.
50:38
This is from one of the members named Brandon Hall.
50:42
This quote here, Brandon Hall said, it's impossible to have a complete education as a young Texas student without understanding texts that were very foundational to our culture.
50:54
The 23rd Psalm is known as one of the greatest poems ever in history.
50:59
There's a reason why it's still around, and we're still reading it all of these thousands of years later, after it was written.
51:08
And I think that would be true for a student from any state.
51:13
That the poetry aspect of the psalms would be appropriate.
51:20
Also, it's it's appropriate to us historically.
51:23
For example, my my the sixth grade history class recently.
51:29
We began to talk about the very first uh the opening day of the Continental Congress.
51:36
And so it's important that we that we understand what took place on that opening day.
51:42
So when we're talking about our historical, uh the importance of Christianity historically.
51:50
Uh, you know, because some people are complaining, well, that's it's imbalance that we're not we're elevating Christianity and Judaism, and we're we're giving limited attention to other world religions.
52:01
Well, the other world religions weren't foundational in our founding in our history.
52:06
So the the very first Continental Congress, there's a call for prayer.
52:11
And John Jay stands up.
52:13
We all know John Jay.
52:14
He stands up and says, I don't think it's appropriate that we have prayer here because there's so many different denominations represented.
52:22
I mean, each state was its own denomination, essentially.
52:26
And he didn't want to offend anybody.
52:29
And Sam Adams stands up and says, these are his exact words.
52:33
He says, I'm not a bigot.
52:34
I don't mind uh if an Anglican uh stands and gives our prayer.
52:40
We're all we're all here for the same purpose.
52:43
We all worship and serve the same God.
52:45
We're all Christians, is what he's saying.
52:48
And so Reverend Duche came in and offered the prayer.
52:51
He was an Anglican.
52:53
Uh the Church of England, essentially.
52:56
And uh and and he read from the the Book of Common Prayer for that given day, September 7th happened to be the 35th Psalm.
53:07
He read the 35th Psalm in it.
53:09
That psalm opens up with by uh by the author, the poet.
53:15
Uh, I think it was David who wrote it.
53:17
I could be wrong, but I think it was David who wrote it.
53:20
And he he's crying out to God to protect him and fight for him against those who fight against him.
53:27
And this psalm is read, and the men in the chamber felt like that was God speaking to them because this is being read from the book of common prayer, which is kind of like a devotional.
53:39
You read that particular date's entry.
53:44
And for September 7th, the entry was the 35th Psalm.
53:48
And David's calling out for God's help to be a shield and a buckler and to fight against those who fight against them.
53:54
And the British had just invaded Boston to capture their stockpiles of ammo.
54:02
And the men in the first Continental Congress that day got on their knees after that psalm was read, after they opened in prayer, got on their knees and it literally had a prayer meeting.
54:14
For for over an hour, they knelt and they prayed.
54:18
I mean, there's a famous painting called the the prayer in the first continental congress or the first prayer in Congress, something like that.
54:27
I brought it up, and we talked about it in my sixth grade history class.
54:32
This is important stuff.
54:34
And if you can't talk about Christianity in school, if you can't talk about the Bible in school, if you cannot talk about the Psalms in school, then how are you going to be able to present history accurately?
54:46
Oh, my friends, and that's the point.
54:49
That right there is the absolute point.
54:51
They don't want history presented accurately.
54:55
They are opposed, diametrically opposed to having history presented accurately.
55:02
Public school teachers should be allowed to speak the truth about the events that took place at the first Continental Congress in those first few opening days, and what the dialogue was and why they felt like it was necessary to open in prayer, and why they dropped to their knees for a prayer meeting after the 35th Psalm was read.
55:25
Because it it hit their hearts.
55:32
And if we don't have the ability to read these things and teach these things, then our ability to teach history accurately has been removed.
55:42
Well, we're not on board with that.
55:44
I'm telling you right now.
55:46
We are not on board with not uh being able to teach history accurately.
55:52
So congratulations to Texas on creating this required reading list.
55:58
I do, I like it.
55:59
Okay, I'm on board with it.
56:00
The other day I I was kind of on the fence.
56:03
I didn't know if I liked the idea of of legislation needing to force us to do something.
56:10
But if the states are doing it and the states say, look, we want our schools, our young people reading four books a year, and these are the books.
56:20
This is the required reading list, and and uh I'm on board with that.
56:24
I do like the required reading list.
56:26
I think it should be something from the classics.
56:29
I think it should be something from the Bible.
56:32
I think it should be something that is uh important to American history.
56:37
All right, it's the way I see it, it's the way I feel about it.
56:40
Uh and that, my friends, is a wrap.
56:43
Thank you for joining me.
56:44
Encourage your friends and family to get on the dean's list.
56:47
Let's unite to renovate the age.