According to the latest projections, 45.4 million K-12 students are or soon will be, back in America's public school classrooms.
Classrooms that have become infamous for social and sexual indoctrination and demanding parents stay out of the way of the State's business of "educating" the children.
Oklahoma has declared that the Ten Commandments will be displayed in every classroom and that the Bible will be taught in all classes in grades 5 through 10.
The Left is shrieking "separation", "separation of church and state"---they can't do that, can they?
They can. And they are. So is Louisiana.
Be informed, not misled.
In June, Fox News reported, "All public schools in Oklahoma are now required to incorporate the Bible and Ten Commandments into their curricula for grades 5-10, primarily for historical context."
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters issued a memo at that time, informing superintendents across the state that their districts must incorporate the Bible into lessons.
Walters said in the memo that his directive aligns with educational standards approved in May 2019.
The superintendent told Fox News there is a lack of understanding about the country’s history and the influence the Bible has had since the birth of the U.S., which he blames on the radical left.
He's right. Our Founding Fathers were very clear about the Bible's influence on our founding documents and institutions.
In fact, Founding Father Noah Webster, credited with creating our public school system, said, "Education is useless without the Bible."
Webster also said, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which our children, under a free government, ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
It's impossible to study the true history of our country and not have a clear and full understanding that this nation was founded as "One Nation Under God."
Founding Father and Second President John Adams said, "Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all combinations of human society."
Thomas Jefferson, himself not as religious as most other Founding Fathers, said of religion, "Deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be the best."
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters says, "We’ve seen the radical leftists drive God out of schools, drive the Bible out of schools, and we have to make sure that our kids have an understanding of what made America great."
"Not teaching our kids about the faith of our founders and the influence that the Bible had in our history is just academic malpractice."
He explained that, under his directive, instructors in every classroom across the state would have a copy of the Bible to teach from.
Walters said the teachers will teach the Bible from a historical context, particularly its role in American history and its influence on the country’s founders.
He said, "For example, when students learn about topics such as the Mayflower Compact, which predates the U.S., they will look at quotes from pilgrims referencing the Bible."
"Leaders during the Civil Rights Movement also made references to the Bible."
Walters said Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter referencing Bible stories while in Birmingham jail.
"So, it is essential for a historical understanding of our country’s history that the Bible is included in the curriculum, and we will be requiring it," Walters said.
Although Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill into law earlier this year, requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom by 2025, Walters says Oklahoma is the first to require the Bible be used in all classrooms, effective immediately.
"We’re the first ones, and we’re very proud of that," he said. "We believe in American values. We believe that the better our students understand American history and American exceptionalism, the better off our state will be and the country will be. So, we are very proud to teach that to our students."
For those who are not religious, Walters wanted to be clear that lessons that include the Bible are strictly for historical context.
He said it is undeniable that the Bible is a historical document.
"The left can be offended, that's fine," Walters said. "They can be offended all they want, but what they can't do is rewrite history. That is our history. That is the history of this country."
In a memo, Walters said the move to incorporate the Bible was not just an educational directive "but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country."
The new curriculum is in effect this week as the kids return to school for the 2024-25 school year. Superintendents across the state were told that instructions for monitoring and reporting on the matter would be delivered in the future.
The resistance from within.
USA Today reports, "At least 8 large Oklahoma school districts rebuke superintendent's order to teach Bible."
They continue, "The list of large Oklahoma school districts that said they will not alter their curriculum despite Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters' demand has grown."
In a letter to the Oklahoma school districts, the Center for Education Law said it believes Walters did not follow the state’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in issuing his directive. The APA governs the actions of state agencies and requires administrative rules to be authorized by law and passed by the agency’s governing board.
The law group maintains the state Supreme Court, in its decision in a previous but different lawsuit, “held unanimously that (the state Board of Education) may not exercise power unless the legislature has specifically delegated it that authority.”
USA Today says, "Walters believes he has the authority to issue such a directive and issued a veiled threat to districts that won’t obey it: “Some Oklahoma educators have indicated they won’t follow the law and Oklahoma standards, so let me be clear: they will comply, and I will use every means to make sure of it.”
Then, of course, the "news" paper adds this to its "unbiased reporting": "Walters' order is the latest effort by conservative-led states to spread religious teachings into public classrooms.
This is from the secular humanist view that the Bible is bad, but indoctrinating young children on issues ranging from gender dysphoria, normalizing homosexuality, teaching activism rather than math and history, and blocking parents from even knowing what is happening in the classroom to their child is good.
Takeaway
These people are standing against every Founding Father of our nation and against nearly every United States President.
George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
John Quincy Adams said, "So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society."
Abraham Lincoln said, "I believe the Bible is the greatest gift God has ever given man...But for this book, we could not know right from wrong."
Andrew Jackson said, "That book, sir, is the rock upon which our republic rests."
Franklin Roosevelt said, "We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."
What do the activists embedded in public education want from their activism? Proof of their secularism in not allowing children to be exposed to Truth?
Or are they simply committed to deconstructing the most powerful, free, prosperous, and generous nation in history?
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Sober. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.