Oklahoma has now made it mandatory for the Bible to be read in schools (incorporated in lessons)…do you think Jamaica should embrace this, too?
Anneka Salmon-Crossley
For me, Jamaica is the most religious country ever. I have had a friend who left Trinidad; she used to live in America and can now live in England, and she said, “I want my children to be raised in Jamaica. Nowhere have I seen this form of spirituality, and this is how I want my children to be raised, just like how Jamaicans raise their children.
This level of spirituality is nowhere to be found. I am not expecting Jamaica to follow; I am expecting Jamaica to lead. Just the other day, I was asking for some Bibles that I wanted to put in some backpacks to give away at school, and I said, “I need Bibles in all of these. Anything I am giving away, I need Bibles in them,” I was saying to the people.
I remember when I was going to school, we had to have our Bibles, and whenever we were in devotions, we had to take out our Bibles to read. Then what was happening?
It needs to be made mandatory. It is a must; our national anthem is a prayer, our pledge. Come on. Jamaica needs to wake up; we need to put Christ back in the schools, and this is why so much madness is happening because we take Jesus out of the schools. We too need to follow [Oklahoma], and we need to lead by example.
Rosemarie Langoth
Back in the 1960s, I remember it being part of our school curriculum. We had to learn the Proverbs, and there were things from them that told you how to behave and be better humans, and the stories in the Bible we enjoyed as children.
I did not know at what point it slowly diminished because I am not hearing children coming home and saying what they learned from the Bible at school as a story or a proverb. These days, it’s coming straight from the church from Sunday or Sabbath schools. Maybe that could be something that is contributing to violence in schools because these proverbs would be a guide regarding how we treat each other. We would have discussed them at school. The teachers would have discussions around it, regarding the key points and the takeaways from it.
I would really like to see it return to the curriculum. I would love to see it made mandatory. I think it would be one of the initiatives to cut down on violence in schools. It is now a part of the culture of schools to disrespect students and teachers.
Valrie Campbell James
It is unfortunate that a country with a prayer for its anthem is not pushing the Bible more in schools. I shouldn’t have to be answering a question such as this. Jamaica should be the trendsetter in this regard. There was a time when every book list for school had the Bible and school hymnal on it. Maybe some schools are still adhering to featuring the Bible, but I am sure it is not being featured enough. In that regard, I am all for making it mandatory to be a part of the school curriculum. We have strayed from the old landmark, and herein lie some of our country’s ills.