Craig Daily Press

In light of the recent controversy surrounding the Moffat County School District’s consideration of a new “Bible in Literature and History” curriculum and its subsequent decision to review and consider it in the normal process of their curriculum consideration, I thought it would be beneficial to elaborate on areas of agreement shared by the school district and the Craig Chaplains Association.

These thoughts are a result of a meeting School District Superintendent Pete Bergmann hosted recently.

Responsibility for education ultimately belongs to the parents.

Public education, private, parochial or home schooling needs to be a complement of and supplement to education in the context of family and life. With all that is available today, especially with the internet, we can “teach” our children much in every discipline of education before, during and after their involvement in formal education settings.

We are free in our homes to pray and study scripture, and the lack thereof is of greater concern than the move away from both in the public education arena.

We are free to join a church of our choice and instill in our children the spiritual values we hold through our involvement in our church.

Options exist to provide venues for using the Bible in education outside of the home and church settings.

MCSD is open to considering, at the high school level, for-credit classes taken at CNCC in comparative religions, Bible in literature and any other course using the Bible.

Mr. Bergmann also suggested it is possible the district will consider the curriculum in question be taught (next year) by local ministers for credit to any interested student as an elective while the course is under consideration for general course offering at the high school.

We do not want to create a process whereby large groups of concerned citizens determine what should be taught in our school.

Such a system would be fraught with serious, unintended consequences and result in a disaster. Imagine the “Flat Earth Society” (an actual organization) gathering 300 signatures and expecting MCSD to teach its science curriculum.

The citizenry has a responsibility to and opportunity for participation in the direction of our school by electing quality school board members, serving on teams and committees and volunteering in any number of available capacities.

The Bible is pertinent to education in literature and American history, especially as it relates to our founding. MCSD has identified a “gap” in its curriculum in this area and wants to address it. The best solution to addressing this “gap” is to let the existing curriculum review process work, with a commitment to considering the curriculum presented by Deborah Powell.

Mr. Bergmann has made a commitment to the Chaplains to continue to meet and work towards the best solution for this important issue.