The debate goes on! Since I know this is an ongoing controversy, I sat quietly while two history Ph.D.s discussed homeschooling. One was a "conservative Protestant" who had even taught what he called a "home schooling co-op" for home schoolers. It was made even more interesting because the other discussant was a very conscientious Roman Catholic. While each made separate points, I could see commonalities in their perspectives.
One issue that came up was home schooling parents. Both of them recognized that there are "nutty" people in the home schooling movement who are basically anti-intellectual or anti-educational. It seems to happen with both religiously conservative Catholics and Protestants. There is the propensity of home school parents to believe in historical conspiracies and reject commonly accepted factual knowledge when it goes against what some spiritual authority says. If a home schooling authority figure states that slaves loved being on the plantation or that the Holocaust did not happen, they are more likely to believe the authority figure than the factual historical data that exists. This is troubling because people like this are susceptible to cultic leadership.
There is also a deep distrust of recent historical analysis, which some would label "revisionist." Truth becomes less important than maintaining myths, especially about the founding of America. My personal view is that Christians, above all people, should be committed to the truth. God doesn't need to be defended by lies and myths.
3 comments:
It seems extremely odd to me that any attempt to correct a flawed historical misunderstanding gets labeled "revisionist," "postmodern," and "relativist" by many evangelicals.
That just doesn't make sense to me. If you actually believe in absolute truth, you ought to believe that all human-made history should be subject to revision; otherwise, you are claiming infallibility and omniscience for your preferred historians.
And if you truly believe that humanity is universally sinful, you have no business claiming a special status for one nation. (Isaiah Berlin actually calls nationalism a relativistic ideology, because it asserts that one's own nation should be judged by different standards from other nations.)
I think most people who throw around terms like "revisionism" actually have no idea what they mean.
"There is the propensity of home school parents to believe in historical conspiracies and reject commonly accepted factual knowledge when it goes against what some spiritual authority says. If a home schooling authority figure states that slaves loved being on the plantation or that the Holocaust did not happen, they are more likely to believe the authority figure than the factual historical data that exists. This is troubling because people like this are susceptible to cultic leadership."
I suppose people like this are susceptible to cultic leadership....I've just never met any of them.
Not certain if the above quote was just to describe the discussion, or included your analysis, but I'll assume you were not attempting to paint all "conservative" Christian home schooling parents with the same brush....
"...Christians, above all people, should be committed to the truth."
Absolutely. That's why I'm just as leery of some things that come from, say....Bob Jones University, as I am from those who claim evolutionary theory as a fact.
Home schooling parents have to choose SOME-thing to use as curriculum tools for their children. Unfortunately, we don't always have years to think and muddle through the different approaches.
One of my main endeavors is to teach the children methods of discipline that lead to self-learning, with a dose of healthy skepticism thrown in.
If they get to college and discover Mom had a less than perfect history book....so be it.
Hopefully, they won't automatically swallow anything they hear, whether it be from some "spiritual authority" or possibly, even a college professor.
The entry summarizes my observation of the discussion. The bottom line in my thinking is that two highly-qualified historians (from different faith perspectives)seemed to both face criticism, suspicion, rejection, etc. by a number of fellow home schooling parents because they did not agree with some parents, who were just not arguing interpretation, but were rejecting historical evidence in favor of a mythic view of America.
Certainly college professors are not without prejudices and biases, but a student needs to be able to face them arguing from a reasonably accurate factual foundation.
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