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referenced on college entrance examinations. Petitioner
testified that as an English teacher, she spends 9 to 12 weeks
out of a 36-week school year teaching Greek mythology to ninth
graders and that she teaches a minimum of 6 weeks of Greek drama
to students in the 12th grade. Petitioner did not provide any
materials as evidence of the specific content of English courses
at Abraham Lincoln High School, nor did she explain why her ninth
grade English class includes the study of mythology.
Petitioner's testimony, however, explaining why she chose to
enroll in the Legendary Greece course, illuminates the need to
teach mythology as part of an English class. Petitioner
testified that as an undergraduate English major, she took a
course in mythology so that she could become familiar with Greek
myths and understand the mythical allusions prevalent in
literature, but she further explained that the course neglected
to relate the mythology to the culture or the civilization in
Greece. Turning to the study of Greek drama, we understand such
material to be among the great works of Western literature and a
fundamental component in the study of world literature. On these
bases and with our observations of petitioner, we find
petitioner's testimony regarding the curriculum of her English
classes credible.
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