TEXAS \u2014 A first of its kind reading list is set to be phased into Texas public schools starting in the 2030 school year. But former teacher Zeph Capo thinks the list, which includes up to two dozen texts in just one grade level, will take up too much classroom time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like having to go reinvent the wheel again, frankly,\u201d said Capo, who is also the president of Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a statewide union.<\/p>\n
The State Board of Education (SBOE) cut the originally proposed list in half. Republican member Brandon Hall says the required readings take up 25% of the instruction time allotted for English Language Arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat still gives teachers, you know, plenty of time to have some flexibility for their own classroom teaching, and then obviously districts, you know, if they have different things locally that they’d like to include,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n
Capo thinks the readings will take up more time than the state expects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that that number is probably low in comparison to the amount of time that teachers are going to have to spend between revamping their lessons, revamping the materials, adjusting those materials to their students or their particular area,\u201d Capo said.<\/p>\n
The required texts include classics like \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d by Dr. Seuss and \u201cAnimal Farm\u201d by George Orwell. Historical texts including Abraham Lincoln\u2019s \u201cGettysburg Address\u201d and The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution are also included. Still, some argue teachers\u2019 ability to choose books outside the list is limited, and a lack of Black, Hispanic and women authors makes it more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe required list could interfere or not leave the teacher enough time to put some local choices that may be important for their students or of interest to their students, or that would encourage their students to read,\u201d said Clay Robison with the Texas State Teachers Association.<\/p>\n
The religious readings included in the chosen books have drawn the most controversy as students will read passages from the Christian Bible, including \u201cThe Book of Job\u201d in high school and \u201cJonah and the Whale\u201d in first grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding key biblical passages is really important to a complete education because the Bible has had such a significant impact on our culture, our laws, and our history as Texans and as Americans,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n
Biblical passages are also a part of the state\u2019s new social studies and English curriculum, which some fear could limit instruction time even more as teachers could be faced with tough questions from students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will put teachers in the awkward position of a classroom of varying religious beliefs or no religious beliefs,\u201d said Robison. \u201cHow do they address that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The roll out of the list will be staggered with the elementary list starting in 2030, middle school in 2031 and high school in 2033.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 A first of its kind reading list is set to be phased into Texas public schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6329,836,1658,132,6328,102,163,6363,223,287,82,27,29,28,835],"class_list":["post-357777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-app-capital-tonight","tag-app-education","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-austin","tag-capital-tonight","tag-dallas","tag-education","tag-erin-davis","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}