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The importance of reading permeates every level of education. To encourage reading is paramount. To restrict what is read is beyond comprehension.

The importance of what we read is necessary to define. In particular, a broad knowledge base of all genres is crucial to a well-developed mind. Unfortunately, religion and religious factions have a tendency to influence what is taught in reading classes.

I have been asked more than once why I would bring non-Christian material into my classes.

Many answers cross my mind when asked why I would dare to teach non-Christian literature like mythology and astrology.

My most cynical answer never reaches my lips: If you want utter control over the material to which you expose your children, then homeschool them!

However, that's a cop-out. The real answer follows below:

The mind and the heart are two separate organs. The spiritual influence on either one is different, and therefore, does not necessarily affect both in the same fashion.

What is exposed to the mind does not have to affect the heart. It can, and that creates fear among those who would have you believe that certain kinds of stories and forms of entertainment for the mind will most definitely change hearts.

Reading a book, either for study or for entertainment, affects the mind in countless ways. For some, reading a book affects the heart as well.

If a heart is unguarded, then it is very likely that what the mind receives, the heart will receive as well.

Faith-filled hearts are supposed to be guarded. So, if a heart is guarded, then what enters the mind cannot affect the heart.

As a public school teacher, I am obligated to teach the curriculum to the children. If the curriculum allows certain texts of different faiths to be taught for the enrichment of the mind, then I am justified in exposing the children's minds to approved literature.

In the past, I have been attacked for and accused of teaching Satanism because a particular set of parents did not believe I should be teaching concepts and stories from such areas of literature as mythology and astrology.

These parents felt that simple exposure to these areas of knowledge would change the hearts of their children and cause the children to lose faith in their family beliefs and values.

If we as parents do not teach our children how to guard their hearts against beliefs that differ from our faith in such a manner as to pose a threat to that faith, then we have failed as parents. Our children will suffer for it here and thereafter,

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