Recent objections to school textbook content aren’t exclusive to Northwest Florida.
That’s perhaps not surprising, since our schools’ reference materials typically don’t come from local publishing houses. But it’s worth mentioning as complaints crop up.
Earlier this month, a Walker Elementary School parent’s concern about the phrase “Muslims pray to Allah” in a fifth-grade vocabulary workbook led to the text’s removal.
In January, a vocabulary worksheet with references to Mohammed and Islam raised a Laurel Hill School couple’s concern, which led to this week’s announcement of its removal.
The trend extends throughout the country.
Last year, world history students at Lyman High School in Longwood, Fla., had to recite Islamic prayers and make an Islamic prayer rug, and a seventh-grade history book in California was discovered to have 55 pages on Islam, 16 pages on Christianity and one page on Judaism, according to Newsmax; and Tennessee parents questioned a supposedly Islam-centric seventh-grade social studies book, according to Breitbart.com.
Why this is happening goes deeper than local school districts — and, you know what they say: follow the money.
For instance, the Tennessee parents’ complaints centered on “myWorld History and Geography: The Middle Ages to Exploration of the Americas,” published by Pearson Education. The London-based company is partially owned by the Libyan Investment Authority, which has financial ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, according to the Washington Times.
Draw your own conclusions.
In the meantime, Meg Dorsey said something in today’s cover story that struck me: “I think a lot of teachers take what that curriculum is and they use it blindly,” she said.
With the LHS worksheet, why was there a need to use any faith-based example — Islam, Christianity, Judaism or otherwise — to learn new words? Could a teacher, in good faith, consider the bias and simply use a different work sheet?
These are the questions we can ask locally, but the Okaloosa School District seems to have a grasp on things. Religion neutrality training in public schools is a step in the right direction.
Particularly since concerns about matters of faith aren’t going away anytime soon.
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BONI: Religion neutrality training in Okaloosa schools: a hopeful step