Soldier4Christ
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« on: March 07, 2009, 06:04:41 PM » |
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'Sectarian' curriculum must go, says N. Mex. official
A public-funded home school in New Mexico is being forced to drop its curriculum because the education secretary says it is filled with "sectarian doctrine."
Family School is located in the Bloomfield, New Mexico, school district on the campus of Naabi Ani Elementary. Kathy Harper, a teacher at the school, says Family School was designed by the district to bridge the gap between home-school families and public schools. The school is publicly funded and parents are required to help in the classroom at least one day per week.
Harper says the school has been embraced by the community. But now New Mexico's education secretary, Dr. Veronica Garcia, says the school must drop its curriculum after it was discovered that Family School uses the Christian home school curriculum of A Beka Book. "A Beka Books -- they provide the best home-school curriculum out there," Harper states. The curriculum is well thought out and well laid out, she adds -- and according to Associated Press, Harper has been in using the curriculum for 11+ years without opposition. But the education secretary says the curriculum must be dropped because of so-called "sectarian doctrine."
"Are there references to the Bible, to God in the materials? Yes, there are," Harper explains. "You know, there might be a story about Jonah that the kids have to write. But as far as in the classroom, is it a place where we expound and preach and have worship or any of that? That does not go on in the classroom." Harper says the parents have no complaints either, but still the school is being forced to drop the curriculum. Garcia wanted Family School to drop the curriculum now with nine weeks left in the school year, but Harper is hoping that the state will at least let them finish the school year out. A Beka Book, based in Pensacola, Florida, has stated that the issue is a local one and must be resolved by local school officials. They declined to comment further.
But there is no problem with public schools having text books promoting islamic material.
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