Nicholas Smith Maussane Les Alpilles, France For copies and more information about THE FOUR GOSPELS AND OTHER TEXTS A Critical Handbook of the New Testament by Sea of Faith member Dick Butler published by the Barbican Press and reviewed in the July issue of Sofia by Kit Widdows go to www.the-four-gospels.co.uk Copies cost £10 each incl. packing & postage SoF Conference 2007 was at the cutting edge not least in offering a late-night viewing of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth before it hit the British headlines as an educational hot potato. Adult reaction this side of the pond has been, on the whole, balanced and restrained. Most people (even those who appreciated Rory Bremner’s brilliantly funny satire on the film) are willing to give Al the time of day on the major issues, while spluttering ‘Hey, wait a minute!’ when the slickness of the presentation seems to be allowing wave upon wave of ‘scientific’ data to pass unexamined. The ‘poor little rich boy’ leitmotif, though nauseating, can also be tolerated, it appears, if the goal is to alert those blinkered Americans to the enormity of practically everything about their polar-bear threatening lives.
In her article in this issue Jennifer Jeynes reminds us what happened next. Our great and good in education bought the film in bulk, prescribing it for school viewing. A British parent brought the matter to court, outraged at the risk of having his child ‘brainwashed’. The judge ruled that the film could still be shown, but only with accompanying notes to explain it was expressing one point of view. Then the ‘high-minded’ parent was discovered to have been financed by some anti-green agency with murky vested interests. So far so depressing.
Even more sinister from a SoF perspective, however, is that the flood-gates are now open to flat-earthers who want classtime for reference to creationism and ‘intelligent design’, on the basis that all our non-creationist biology, archaeology, astronomy – indeed all of our science post-Descartes and postDarwin – is based on ‘one point of view’. We can turn purple and point out that slavery and the subjection of women are similarly supported by one point of view, but that might not get us anywhere. What’s to be done? Can anything be done?
Owl, who’s eaves-dropped on quite a few class-rooms, is not sanguine, but not totally without hope either.
For one thing, newspapers always assume that school lessons are ‘delivered’ – in the same way that the newspaper itself is delivered: pushed through a slot by one person and picked up by another. But just because every social and political function (health care, policing etc, as well as education) is currently described in terms of delivery or nondelivery doesn’t mean we have to accept this model as normative. Our debate should concentrate not on what gets government imprimatur and can therefore be ‘delivered’, but once more on the education of teachers themselves, allowing them to reclaim the academic authority of ‘masters’ and, in consequence, the autonomy which was traditionally the hallmark of a profession.
Oddballs and weirdos did sometimes wander into the classrooms of the past, but a selfregulating body was in a strong position to weed them out. In terms of literacy, numeracy, and general knowledge about the world, ‘failing schools’ were unheard of.
Another happy thought: the bolshie young are naturally sceptical, good at arguing, quick to realise that all ideas and opinions are not equally tenable.
The teachers’ job is to foster logical thinking, and the critical faculty that is vital especially in dealing with (blatantly or covertly) polemical material. The current grip of loopy religion on large patches of America is certainly a cause for alarm, however. We know it’s catching. How strong will our British immunity prove to be? Though a ‘monkey trial’ here is unlikely, the fictional reference to that American incident reminds us starkly that ‘those who cause trouble in their house’ are doomed to ‘inherit the wind.’ ‘Trouble’ can be fomented actively, but may also arise from apathy, or lack of awareness of the signs of the times.
On Guy Fawkes Day Jim White in the Daily Telegraph has alerted us to Jesus Camp, a new documentary, ‘a scary movie that should frighten us all’. Somewhere in the American Midwest, a bunch of normal teenagers arriving for summer fun are ‘subjected to weeks of systematic brainwashing’, which ‘could not be more fundamentalist if it were taking place in Finsbury Park and featuring a mad mullah.’ Democracy, voting – these are useless, since only the Bible has the answers. ‘This is sharia law by another name.’ America is vast, of course, and (apart from the matter of their reverence for Old Glory) it’s hard to frame any sentence beginning ‘Americans . . .’ or even ‘Most Americans . . .’ that’ s even half-way accurate. One of Owl’s fledglings, arriving to begin an Arts course in a Florida university, faced a hefty compulsory component called ‘Western Heritage’ – the history of ideas from Plato to Marx – taught, not ‘delivered’. Embarrassing title? Wouldn’t sell here? If not, why not?
A reader enquired if Owl was the Editor. Owl is not the Editor.To wit Owl is independent.