[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

"In YOUR OPINION, is this right...".

Another story (happened to my friend):
In math class, she was taking a test, one with an extra credit question. When she got to the question, it said something about the famous satan/apple/adam/eve incident.

One last story (also happened to my friend):
In her computer class, she had to do this worksheet for her daily assignment. One part of the worksheet said "Who were the first couple on Earth?"

Please do keep in mind that I'm not asking what your religion is, I'm just asking if you think that brining religion into material in discussion is a justified thing to do.

As you say, Adam/Eve is a "famous...incident." There is a concept called "cultural literacy," which suggests that there is a body of cultural knowledge that "everyone" in a given culture knows. Adam & Eve, Noah & The Flood, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ("And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise") are all widely known portions of the Bible. They are NOT obscure, but appear frequently in art, literature, folk art, drama, and music, throughout centuries of Western culture.

Culture literacy also includes many of the popular sayings, such as "God helps those who help themselves" and "A penny saved is a penny earned" from Poor Richard's Almanac, numerous quotes from Shakespeare, Mother Goose nursery rhymes, fairy tales, songs, legends (George Washington and the cherry tree), etc.

All of these kinds of things used to permeate our society, and forever influenced the English language, but the persistent efforts of various radical people to expunge them from public schools and from TV shows have caused many people to be completely ignorant of them, or at least of the origin of many traditional sayings. Or else the sayings are parodied to such an extent that many people only know the wrong version (Bumper sticker: "Do unto others, then split"). In place of the old wisdom, our modern culture has substituted a fragmented collection of movie trivia, sports stats, and other junk that has nothing to do with shaping a person into someone who can make valuable, lasting contributions to society.

As a reaction, other people have published works such as "The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy" (not sure of exact title), and the "Wee Sing" children's tapes. The problem here is, who can say for certain what should be included in a list of what "culturally literate" people know? It's hardly an exact science!

Now, a teacher has to assume that the students know SOMETHING about the culture. And it's a common technique for textbooks to throw in all kinds of references to other fields, because the textbook writers are trying to make the subject interesting to students with varying interests. A math textbook will have problems about sports, music, animals, cars, etc. An English textbook may have examples from literature and articles relating to history, science, and art.

Why, then, is there so much pressure from a few people to completely eliminate religion as a topic fit for inclusion in the public schools? Why not ban references to art because some people are ignorant about it, or hate it? Why not ban math, because some students are no good at it, and hate it, and feel like their teacher has elevated it to the level of a religion? (Math was Mark Leon's "mantra" at the Sacramento Regional, for those of you who weren't there to see our fabulous MC. )

On the lighter side, I have a story about the pitfalls of the "every schoolboy knows" assumption. This may shock some of you Detroit area people...

A couple years ago, one of my son's textbooks put a question which I felt was unfair. I think the subject was math. The question presumed the student knew what the Big Three automakers are. Now, with all the new models coming out of Detroit every year, how is anyone supposed to remember what the Big Three are? Ford is one, of course--every schoolboy knows that--but is Chevrolet a label of Plymouth, or its own company? Is Buick one of the Big Three? Must be, 'cause my granddad always drove a Buick. I know American Motors got eaten up by another company--was it Jeep?--and AM used to make Ramblers (I know, because my family used to own one--now there's a topic that should be banned from classrooms, the way my dad hated that car!). And where can you look up this information? I'm afraid I wasn't much help to my son in this case.

I was so annoyed by this question that I complained to the publisher.