Category: Curriculum

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I will be leaving four documents with the School Board. 

The first is a 110-page curriculum for teaching religion. It is in three parts, a survey of world religions, and surveys of Old Testament and New Testament literature. It conforms to the requirements set by the courts as having a secular purpose, creates no undue entanglement between church and state, and neither promotes nor denigrates any religious worldview.

The second document is a rationale for teaching religion in public schools.

The third is a Guideline for doing so prepared by the First Amendment Center now under the auspices of the Freedom Forum in Washington DC.

And the fourth is an endorsement by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

There is a growing consensus that removing the study of religion in public schools has had the unintended consequence of minimizing its importance to a well-rounded education and its basis for a sense of meaning and discipline among students. Litigation over how this is done has caused public school administrators to take a cautious approach and generally abandon attempts to address this difficult issue regarding the separation of church and state.

I would advise the board to take a proactive approach to this and adopt a method of handling this issue within the parameters set by the courts. Our curriculum does that and we’ve put it into the public domain and is available to anyone from our website. It deserves your careful consideration.

Our organization is available for consulting on implementation strategies and other issues.

William Bronson, MA, MTS, DMin
President, Enlighten Education Co-op, Inc.
239 940 6080

Mr. Bronson’s presentation to the Lee County School Board:

Dear Team Members and Friends, 

I am posting this Sense of Congress Resolution that I hope you will bring to the attention of your members of Congress and encourage them to sponsor and support this measure that will give encouragement to those school districts that may want to use our curriculum. Let me know of your success in this initiative. Thanks, 

William Bronson, MA, MTS, DMin
President, Enlighten Education Co-op, Inc.

Dear Friends of Enlighten Education Co-op,

I’m happy to announce that I finished a 110 page curriculum for teaching the Bible in the public schools that meets the guidelines set by the courts regarding separation of church and state issues in that it has a secular purpose and neither promotes nor denigrates any particular religious world view. It is in three parts, one: A Survey of Comparative Religions; two: A Survey of the Old Testament, and three: A Survey of the New Testament. 

I attach it here along with A Rationale for a Bible Curriculum.

Please give me feedback on this material and also my proposed strategy of putting it into the public domain. In other words, I think we should make it free to any school districts that want to use it. Our organization can promote the curriculum and charge consulting fees for helping districts implement it. I believe this is the best way to get the material before students in a timely way while leaving the door open for EEC to gain income on the consulting process.

Thanks for your continued encouragement. Please forward these two documents widely among friends and acquaintances, especially if they are connected to public education.

School superintendents can offer this material as elective courses or incorporate it into existing courses in history, literature, social studies, etc. I am available to any news organizations that may be interested in hearing more about this topic.

William Bronson MA, MTS, DMin
President, Enlighten Education Co-op, Inc. (EEC)
239 940 6080

ACLU Statement on First Amendment