On 10/8/09 6:43 PM, Tim wrote:
On Oct 8, 4:56 pm, John H wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

Just curious.

If the purpose of the assignment was to promote religion, then it
would be promoting religion. If the purpose was to have the students
read decent writing and practice writing, then it would not be
promoting religion.

Of course, the ACLU and other atheists would probably disagree with
that. But then again, they would probably applaud the idea of
assigning a book report on Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, like I said, I would have probably done a report on Hitlers Mein
Kampf if it was on the list, the "little red book?" That would have
been interesting too.

But today anything biblical or any book that might have a reference to
biblical scriptures probably wouldn't be available.

Some where down the line they've probably been replaced with the works
of Kate Chopin.


You know, I can't recall one class in public school where there was a
reading list of books from which reports had to be made. I recall lots
of reports in my classes based upon Dickens' novels and Austen's novels
in the 7th grade. Fine reads, but after that the reports came mostly on
more esoteric books, some good, some not so good. My 8th grade reports
were on several of Dreiser's novels. In the 10th grade, after two years
of high school Russian, I *dared* to read Dr. Zhivago in Russian, and
then deliver an oral book report on it in Russian in my Russian class.
But I was outdone by a gal who did the same with War and Peace.

--
Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All