My family recently vacationed in lovely Rehoboth Beach. What a delightful community!
During an afternoon stroll, my eye caught an above-the-fold headline of the Cape Gazette (July 30-August 1 edition): “Bible class fails as Cape board votes 3-3.”
The subsequent article indicates that the Cape Region of Delaware is engaging in the same vigorous - and necessary - discussion unfolding in boardrooms, classrooms and newsrooms throughout Western culture. The discussion? Namely, what do we do with our history?
The best historians - and teachers - remind us that history is not facts and dates, but a story capable of being told from many credible perspectives. But none of those perspectives would eliminate a set of facts so overwhelmingly foundational to history, and modernity, as the Judeo-Christian Bible has been, and is, to Western civilization.
And neither would they confuse - as did, perhaps, some participants in the July 25 Cape school board meeting - information with formation. In centuries of classical education, students have learned, for example, of the Bible’s towering influence on Shakespeare, without necessarily being formed by either; they have discovered the Bible’s shaping of all major European languages, without being forced to memorize a psalm in Old Saxon. And modern students have studied the Bible’s inarguable contribution to social movements from the Magna Carta to the Civil Rights Era, without a classroom instructor extending an invitation to accept, as their personal savior, Jesus Christ, Edward Coke or Martin Luther King Jr.
The great eras of education - from antiquity’s great school of Alexandria to Europe’s medieval universities to America’s New England institutions - welcomed, and scrutinized, many points of view in their attempts to educate their young. Any curriculum that neglects - and as an elective - so foundational a document to Western civilization as the Bible may be called many things: a program, a structure, an agenda, perhaps.
Some pro-Bible class voices in Cape seem to be suggesting, however, that what it cannot be called is an education.
John W. Oliver
Murfreesboro, Tenn.
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to viewpoints@capegazette.com. All letters are considered at the discretion of the newsroom and published as space allows. Due to the large volume of submissions, we cannot acknowledge receipt of each submission. Letters must include a phone number and address for verification. Keep letters to 400 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content or length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Letters should focus on local issues, not national topics or personalities. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days regarding a particular topic. Authors may submit a second letter within that time period if it pertains to a different issue. Letters may not be critical of personalities or specific businesses. Criticism of public figures is permissible. Endorsement letters for political candidates are no longer accepted. Letters must be the author’s original work, and may not be generated by artificial intelligence tools. Templates, form letters and letters containing language similar to other submissions will not be published.
