The UK’s current Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, a self-described atheist is calling for a change in school curriculum. Motion wants study of the Bible and religious stories included in lessons indicating that a lack of familiarity with the Bible is hindering understanding of significant literary works such as those by Milton, Shakespeare and TS Eliot.
“If people say this is about ramming religion down people’s throats, they aren’t thinking about it hard enough,” says Motion. “It is more about the power of these words to connect with deep, recurring human truths, and also the story of the influence of that language and those stories.”
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More importantly, it encourages kids to read these texts critically as literary and sociological works, not blindly as religious ones.
I agree. And perhaps to learn to gain deeper understanding by researching how words and terms were used in the original language or the time the work was written. To fully understand old written works we can’t always take certain things as we interpret them today.