The committee that created the curriculum on how to teach Bible in public schools, approved by the Tennessee Board on Education late last month, leaned heavily on the program being used by the Hamilton County Department of Education.
“It was very much the Hamilton County curriculum,” said state social studies specialist Brenda Ables, one of seven members of the committee that devised the curriculum standards. “We looked at what Hamilton County and Knox County had. (The final product) was a merger of those two with some tweaks and input from other groups.”
Bible in the Schools, a Chattanooga nonprofit organization, has made the study of the Bible available at no cost to local public school students since 1922. Since a federal court decision in 1980, the group has offered Bible history courses as social studies electives in high schools and middle schools in Hamilton County.
The new guidelines set by the statewide committee are in response to 2008 legislation, which authorized the state to create a course for a “nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible.”
FAST FACTS* Bible in the Schools, a Chattanooga nonprofit organization, has made the study of the Bible available at no cost to local public school students since 1922.* The group offers Bible history courses as social studies electives in high schools and middle schools in Hamilton County.* In 2008, legislation passed authorizing the state to create a course for a “nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible.”