Nearly 1 in 4 Texas school districts opted to introduce a new, state-sponsored curriculum to kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms this fall, despite critics saying the lesson plans overly focus on the teachings of Christianity while reducing the importance of other world religions.
Around 30 of those districts are in North Texas, with Fort Worth ISD’s adoption of the curriculum marking the second-largest Texas district to opt in. The Bluebonnet curriculum was designed by state leaders who used a reading program made by the education company Amplify as a starting point. The development took place at the same time that Republican leaders mounted an aggressive campaign for more religion in schools. The result, which includes lessons on the Old Testament and the life of Jesus, certainly aligned with that goal.
Champions and critics of Bluebonnet both point out that the lesson plans center on Christianity in a way previous Texas curricula have avoided. The New York Times managed to parse through thousands of pages of teaching materials and students’ activity books, and found that, in the history lessons alone, the original Amplify curriculum mentioned Jesus 19 times. Texas’ rewrites included 87 references, a 383% increase…