Study: Bible readers get academic edge

By RICHARD KOE

PORTLAND — A professor at a local Christian college had a role recently in confirming yet another benefit of Bible reading.

Marie Wachlin, a supervisor in the College of Education at Concordia University in Portland, has been a principal investigator for a Bible literacy report on “What American teens need to know and what do you know about the Bible.”

Results of the study on Bible literacy and academic performance, released in early May, suggest that most high school English teachers believe students who are familiar with the Bible have a “distinct educational advantage” over those who are not.

Wachlin, with funding from the John Templeton Foundation, teamed up with the nonprofit Bible Literacy Project of Fairfax, Va., and the Gallup Organization to interview 41 of the nation’s leading high school English teachers about what students need to know about the Bible.

The pollsters also interview 1,002 youths to discover what they actually know about the Bible and other sacred texts. Edu-cators from 30 public and private schools in 10 states agreed that Western literature was full of references to the Bible and that students need to be biblically literate.

Wachlin told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that a Chicago public school teacher went so far as to say that the biggest gap in education today is the lack of Bible knowledge. “Amer-ican students have the inability to understand literature and to figure out the author’s message by the way they use Biblical or non-Biblical allusions."

Another teacher from Illinois said when students don’t have Biblical knowledge, they’re really missing part of what the author has to say. Wachlin was surprised by the overwhelming agreement about the importance of Bible literacy among teachers.

The Concordia supervisor said the Bible is obviously an important ingredient in a successful student's education. “Besides its influence on literature, Bible literacy is also key to appreciating works of art and music and understanding certain political and social issues.”

A majority of the English teachers estimated that less than a fourth of their students were knowledgeable about the Bible, which often created “obstacles to learning” in their classrooms.

In the survey, teachers from private and public schools said their schools either did not teach or only taught “a little” Bible literature. The study suggests that one of the biggest obstacles to teaching the Bible is fear of a lawsuit. Several teachers interviewed by Wachlin admitted political and legal considerations — valid or not — often made discussions of the Bible either impossible or uncomfortable.

Wachlin believes it is important to increase public awareness of what is legal and what is actually recommended to teach about the Bible. She said school administrators, parents, and teachers need to know what the U.S. Constitution says about religion in the public square, how it’s interpreted by the courts, and to listen to what educators say that students should be taught.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that public schools cannot require devotional use of the Bible, but academic study of the Bible is allowed.
At Concordia, Wachlin teaches a graduate course for high school teachers who want to learn how to integrate the Bible into their classes.

She believes teachers need to get more involved in emphasizing the importance of Bible literacy among students.

Two of the 30 students enrolled in the class have “gone to bat” to receive permission from school administrators in Wilsonville and Molalla to develop “Bible as Literature” elective classes.

In the Bible literacy project, the 41 high school English teachers said teens should be familiar with the major stories and popular characters of the Bible, be able to recognize common Biblical phrases, and be able to connect that knowledge to Biblical references in literature.

Ninety-five percent of the teachers chose the Ten Commandments and 72 other Biblical phrases, names, stories, and terms that students should know. But most teens, according to a Gallup poll accompanying the literacy study, fall far short of their teachers’ expectations.

The poll showed that at least three-quarters of the students knew about Moses, Adam and Eve, and the Good Samaritan as well as defining the Golden Rule. But significant minorities of American students have not yet achieved even a rudimentary level of Bible knowledge.

Pollsters were somewhat surprised to find that born-again and evangelical teens were only slightly better in answering Bible questions. In the whole sample, 44 percent of the born-again students chose the correct Sermon on the Mount quote compared to 37 percent of all teens.