XenonEmeritus
New member
- Feb 22, 2010
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school neglect of social studies? OPTIONAL EXAMPLES:
Hardly a day goes by here on R&S when someone whose cocky self-confidence far exceeds their knowledge complains about "Christian hypocrisy" or alleged "cherry-picking of scriptures" because they discovered that some Christian eats pork despite its prohibition in the Law of Moses, or because some Christian ate shellfish, mixed fabrics, or worked on the Sabbath Day. Of course, knowledge of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 -- or even a basic understanding of the relationship between the Old Testament/Covenant and the New Covenant in Christian theology -- is far beyond their intellectual capacity as they cut-and-paste the same old tired arguments from some homosexual activist whine-about-the-Bible website. And then they wonder why the simpleton argument which so impressed them and their equally gullible friends failed to impress anybody else -- when all that their question conveyed was their embarrassing need for a remedial "Introduction to World Religions" course at the local community college.
So does all of this go back to the neglect of basic SOCIAL STUDIES INSTRUCTION in the public schools in recent decades? (When I was in American grade schools in the 1950's I doubt that even a fifth grader would have been fooled by such attempts to apply Kosher laws and Leviticus regulations to one's Baptist classmates!) While teaching undergrad religious studies courses at Oxford, very few of the students were as gullible about such topics as I found upon my return to the U.S. So I assume that this is a reflection of the American public schools. (???) Has social studies disappeared from the American elementary school curricula? Or have all references to basic religious topics been extricated?
Hardly a day goes by here on R&S when someone whose cocky self-confidence far exceeds their knowledge complains about "Christian hypocrisy" or alleged "cherry-picking of scriptures" because they discovered that some Christian eats pork despite its prohibition in the Law of Moses, or because some Christian ate shellfish, mixed fabrics, or worked on the Sabbath Day. Of course, knowledge of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 -- or even a basic understanding of the relationship between the Old Testament/Covenant and the New Covenant in Christian theology -- is far beyond their intellectual capacity as they cut-and-paste the same old tired arguments from some homosexual activist whine-about-the-Bible website. And then they wonder why the simpleton argument which so impressed them and their equally gullible friends failed to impress anybody else -- when all that their question conveyed was their embarrassing need for a remedial "Introduction to World Religions" course at the local community college.
So does all of this go back to the neglect of basic SOCIAL STUDIES INSTRUCTION in the public schools in recent decades? (When I was in American grade schools in the 1950's I doubt that even a fifth grader would have been fooled by such attempts to apply Kosher laws and Leviticus regulations to one's Baptist classmates!) While teaching undergrad religious studies courses at Oxford, very few of the students were as gullible about such topics as I found upon my return to the U.S. So I assume that this is a reflection of the American public schools. (???) Has social studies disappeared from the American elementary school curricula? Or have all references to basic religious topics been extricated?