[The Non-Euclidean Blog] For the Children

[NEB]

Hemant the Friendly Atheist—not to be confused with Dawkins the Unfriendly Atheist—is taking some heat for dinging the Illinois Family Institute. Last week, the IFI posted an online article warning parents to keep their kids away from Chicago's Millenium Park on August 15, since it would be full of kissing homosexuals. Hemant blogged about how ridiculous he found the warning.

Both parties clearly expressed their viewpoints as well as disdain for the other's morality. So far, so good. All very American.

Then the IFI upped the ante by e-mailing Hemant's employer (the Neuqua Valley High School) and warning it to reign in its wayward teacher. The school backed the First Amendment right of its employee to say whatever he wants on his own time. Hemant, though, was not pleased. And that's understandable—I daresay the Christian teachers I know would be displeased by atheists trying to get 'em in trouble for passing out tracts on Sunday afternoon.

I don't follow either Hemant or the IFI, so I don't really have a dog in this fight. (I read about the kerfluffle on another blog.) But, this snippet from the IFI leaped out at me because I like history, and because the IFI is attempting an historical case against those liberal zombie teachers who want to eat your kids's brains:

A generation or two ago, a teacher's personal beliefs on philosophical, theological, political, and moral issues would have been irrelevant because students wouldn't know what they were. But many teachers today, particularly our emboldened, hubristic liberal activists, make sure that their students are familiar with their beliefs.

And that's so very, very, true. Can you imagine the shambles in which we'd be living had teachers of a prior generation—say, the 1940s and '50s—indoctrinated a particular philosophy of life into their students?

Hapless Female Student: "If I'm gonna be a homemaker the rest of my life, I want to know what I'm doing."
Cynical Female Classmate: "What can they teach you in Home Ec classes you can't...pick up after you get married?"
Kind Matronly Counselor: "You'll find your home economic training has given you an understanding of how to be a better homemaker, both for yourself and for others who depend upon you."

Okay, sure, there's that. I mean, duh. But there were no hints of theological indoctrination in those golden days of yore.

Warm Comforting Narrator: "Often in school, we talk about the Golden Rule. You know the words..."
Upright Lady Teacher: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Warm Comforting Narrator: "You have also heard the golden rule at home, where you may have heard the words from the Bible this way: 'As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.'"

Oh, come now, aren't you just picking at nits? There certainly wasn't any political indoctrination worth mentioning.

Vaguely Menacing Narrator: "Here in Russia, you see the reason why we are spending billions of dollars in defense production, why your family is paying the highest taxes in our history."
Determined All-American Narrator: "We believe in freedom. Freedom: born of the conviction that every person is a child of God and is therefore of supreme worth. For these people, for ourselves, for everyone, we want freedom, not tyranny."

Um. Fine. At least we can be absolutely certain there was no MORAL indoctrinatin'...right?

Shaken Confused Daughter: "Mother, is it wrong to feel warm and affectionate when you're with a boy you really like?"
Wise Understanding Mother: "No, dear, it is not wrong....But Mary, if these strong feelings lead you into behaving unwisely...well, the outcome can be guilt and frustration, and these are the things that can spoil the chance of your finding the very love that you're looking for."

Hm. Well. Y'know, maybe the IFI doesn't have YouTube access; kinda seems like there's always been indoctrination in the classroom. Just because some of the propaganda now trends left instead of right doesn't mean previous ages were propaganda-free.

The IFI claims to lament a long-gone era when a "teacher's personal beliefs on philosophical, theological, political, and moral issues would have been irrelevant because students wouldn't know what they were." That's an historically absurd and flat-out dishonest claim. Near as I can tell, what IFI really mourns is the failure of its message to dominate the classroom. And—direct assault through the school administration having failed—trying to sucker-punch Heman through the parents won't fix the problem.

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Posted By NEB to The Non-Euclidean Blog at 8/20/2009 06:22:00 AM