What's Going On?

It's been a while since I've expressed my frustration with education.  I'm a bit more separated from it, but now that I've got a little java bean to think about, I find myself thinking about education options (public, private, religious, home education) for the (near) future.

Let me give you a little background.  Growing up, I always went to public schools.  Then, after a couple of years in a community college, I went to a small, private college loosely affiliated with the Methodist church.  (At the college, I was able to minor in Liberal Arts, which I greatly enjoyed.)  My husband also always went to public schools.  Then, for college, he went to the same small, private college as I did.

So Hubby and I don't have an elitist private school background or anything like that.  We went to public schools from kindergarten through high school graduation, and we did well all the way through college.

And yet, I was disturbed when I read this.

Here's the deal.  

I'm not trying to convert anyone to anything.  

Whether you're Christian, atheist, Muslim, humanist, or whatever, the simple fact is that history, art, music, literature, and even sociology and psychology has been shaped by Christianity.  And without some knowledge of Christianity, specifically the Bible, many of the lessons taught in English Literature, history, art, or music courses are flat, or even missed completely.

Regardless of your religious beliefs (or lack thereof), it's important to have some knowledge of religion in order to understand other things.  Just as I wouldn't read works by great scientists without first having a base understanding of their fields, you can't delve into literature without a base understanding of the mindset of the author(s).  And in many cases, this includes Christianity.  In the BBC article linked above, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says:

'I've always been concerned about the levels of not-knowing since I started teaching, but quite recently I had a very bad experience of trying to teach some of my, in other respects, extremely good students about Paradise Lost.

They knew so little about the context in which the poem was written and about the references that the poem itself makes that it was very difficult even to get beyond go in talking about it.' [sic]

If you don't even have a frame of reference for Paradise Lost, how can you get more subtle references that give you a little extra depth for getting them?

However, you shouldn't limit yourself to the Bible in order to "get" literature, history, art, and music.  There's a whole wide world out there of different religions, philosophies, and schools of thought that have greatly influenced the minds of the world.  And in order to appreciate what those minds have to offer, it's important to first appreciate what those minds took the time to learn.

Fiction is great.  But every once in a while, it might be a good idea to pick up some nonfiction, too.

Motion says about Biblical references:

'...these stories achieve archetypal status because they tell us recurring truths about human nature that is a pleasure and an important thing in and of itself.'

Even if you don't believe that the stories in the Bible are true, they have become like the ancient myths that serve as a jumping-off point for many other stories.  The characters in the stories have become standards by which other characters are measured.

Think about it.  What comes to mind when I say someone's life is Job-like?  What do you think of when I call someone "a Jezebel"?

If you have no familiarity with the Bible, these character references mean nothing, and how can you understand the image I'm trying to portray?

Sorry, folks, but there's more to literature than meets the eye.  It's not just poetry that has deeper meanings.