Should bible studies remain in Israeli public schools? Teachers' attitudes towards bible teaching as a mandatory subject

Religious Education, Spring 2003 by Idalovichi, Israel

In an evaluation of respondents' positions vis-a-vis teaching of their subject, the importance assigned biblical texts for all the teadhers was evident, as was strong support for continuing to include the Bible as a compulsory subject in each and every Jewish school. Furthermore, this research shows that there is a link between the data output and the degree of religiosity of the bible teachers.

This research shows that 72 percent of the 64 bible teachers will discuss differences and points of commonality, teach their pupils to accept that which is of value in the instruction, and how to discern that which differs from the viewpoint of their own heritage. The question, how the traditional Orthodox outlook can shed light on postmodern discussions of moral and religious relativism and pluralism, raises new challenges for teachers and educators. Religion may be an aid to democracy through the "compensation effect," say some Orthodox teachers. According to this line of reasoning, often employed by religious persons, religion puts restraints on the desires of the citizens in a manner that counteracts the greater opportunities for licentious or dangerous behavior that democracy offers them. While democratic society espouses maximum freedom, religion acts as a preventive measure for members of society from actualizing or even thinking about all of the "options."

In this research, two interrelated hypotheses, derived from the modified secularism or religiosity of the teachers, were tested:

1. Whether on a practical level, the predominant religious trends and traditional conservative behavior influences all teachers in their bible lessons, more than their academic biblical studies. In other words, are academic qualification and training of teachers less important than independent variables-the influence of the respondents' level of religiosity-a factor dependent on degrees of traditionalism or secularism in the teachers' community of origin.

2. Whether on a pragmatic level democratic ideas have a stronger influence on the pedagogy of the bible lessons than the extreme religious or extreme secular ideologies that dominate the milieu of public debate, as outlined above. This hypothesis is based on the argument that Israel is the land of the Jewish people and the Zionist ethos is interwoven in an integral way into bible lessons in that the Bible is believed to be the cultural substratum upon which Israeli society has developed.

All 64 teachers who participated in this research expressed a clear conviction that in their view bible studies should be kept as a mandatory subject of the K-12 curriculum and that it is very important to preserve them. They expressed the opinion that bible studies are very important for enriching Jewish national and cultural identity, moral values, and reinforcing historical ties with the ancient Israelites.

The questions whether the Ministry of Education should alter the scope of hours devoted to Bible in schools and kindergartens and at what age children should have bible lessons solicited responses that reflect the religious worldviews of each respondent. Most but not all the teachers who are religiously observant (i.e., practice all the mitzvoth of Jewish religious law) answered that the Ministry of Education should increase the number of bible lessons. Of the 64 Bible teachers, 18.25 percent told us that there should be more than seven hours of bible studies weekly. The vast majority, 63 percent of the 64 teachers, told us that they favor a slight increase in the scope of bible studies-to six hours a week. Only 18.75 percent of the teachers thought that the number of hours devoted to bible studies, four to five hours per week, should be reduced by one or two hours per week. To sum up: