From 'The Cat in the Hat' to 'Hamlet' to 'The Lord is my shepherd ... '

Texas students will read classics, folk and fairy tales, foundational American texts, speeches, poems, biographies of famous Americans -- and some Bible readings -- if the state education board adopts the proposed K-12 reading list, reports Joe Edwards for the Dallas Express.

Parents will be able to opt their children out of works "that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs."

The K-5 list includes:

• Kindergarten: Timeless tales like The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, Cinderella, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Texas-specific L is for Lone Star. Many are read-alouds, including nursery rhymes and excerpts from Aesop’s fables.

• Grade 1: Stories such as The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola, Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, The Little Engine That Could, and selections from Fred Rogers’ works.

• Grade 2: American heroes and legends like Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, and Winnie-the-Pooh (select chapters).

• Grade 3: Classics including Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, Stone Soup, and excerpts featuring historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

• Grade 4: Works like Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (picture book edition), and poetry by Robert Frost and Langston Hughes.

• Grade 5: More advanced selections such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, A Christmas Carol (adapted), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and historical documents like the Declaration of Independence in translation.

Readings will support students' study of history. For example, sixth-graders will read Johnny Tremain, a novel about an apprentice to Paul Revere, Longfellow's Paul Revere’s Ride, Patrick Henry's Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, a book about Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and Francis Miles Finch's poem, The Blue and The Gray.

The state board will discuss the list this week. If it's adopted, no sooner than April, the full rollout is targeted for 2030 to give times for teacher training and for acquiring resources.

Until now, the state has outlined skills that should be taught, but not content, writes Edwards. Texts were selected by publishers, districts or individual teachers.

Jeremy Wayne Tate, creator of the Classical Learning Test, praises the middle and high school reading list, which includes "The Bible, Homer, Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Shelley, Poe, Tolstoy and Tocqueville."

The Bible passages are controversial, writes Mack Shaw on Fox News. All are classics from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and, I'd argue, part of the Western literary tradition. (By the way, Shaw thinks the Old Testament is "the Christian Bible," which is not the way Jews see it.)

Included are Bible stories, such as Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, The Tower of Babel and The Prodigal Son, as well as The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23), To Everything There is a Season (Ecclesiastes 3), The Definition of Love (1 Corinthians 13), the Beatitudes and others.

Requiring Bible readings violates parents' rights, editorializes the Austin American-Statesman.