Today, an interesting story greeted me as I opened the paper. It seems that there was a book content dust up at last night’s Manheim Township School Board Meeting. Here is the article:

Manheim Township School Board Meeting article

The issue was the content—violent and sexual—of some of the “canon” (their word not mine) of literature that they read in High School. In the article we see one of the great conundrums of secular education. The content of the books matters—of course—and parents should be concerned about the content of the literature that their children are reading—again, of course. Many school board members seemed to be scrambling away from the hot potato of parents questioning who is responsible for the choices of literature. Board members differed—we did not make the choice and we don’t think it would be appropriate for us to make the choice. The parents (of course further angered) kept questioning—if you are not responsible then who is? The underlying problems, and at first glance I see two, were not touched upon in the story.

1. The chief problem is not with the content (I can make no real comment on the content because I have not read any of the books in question), but with the underlying perspective of the education—or lack of perspective. Some of the books had content that included rape. I cannot speak about the particulars of the content, but no Christian parent should want their child to leave high school without reading Judges 21 or the stories in Genesis about Sodom and Gomorrah. There are many other passages more loaded with sexual content and connotation than these. The issue is that at a Christian school like Veritas we teach this and all other content in subjection to Christ. Skipping or omitting inappropriate content when needed, but engaging and condemning immorality when it rears in ugly head—whether in Romans 1 or in the famous Rape of the Sabine’s at the founding of Rome. We cannot understand our democracy fully without knowing that one of its main ancient models—the Roman Republic—was founded when the wicked son of a prideful king raped a virtuous Roman matron named Lucretia. Her subsequent suicide stirred the Romans to throw off their king and found their Republic. The confidence to condemn and to praise moral action and to decide whether content is helpful or hurtful to a child’s deeper understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness; comes only when we have a true, good and beautiful standard revealed to us. Without this all content is hairy. With this, almost all content can be made helpful.
2. The other problem is the content of the “canon”. I am willing to teach content that includes violence, sex, and cursing. I could not teach the Bible if I wanted to remove all of these things. I also teach the Epic of Gilgamesh, 1984, Brave New World, and, today, I start Anna Karenina with our Juniors and Seniors. In all of them, I teach them that immorality and sin leads to destruction and that covenantal faithfulness leads to blessing. I could teach these lessons from Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy, Maya Angelou’s (actually I really like her stuff) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. But why? If you are going to teach the content give the kids books that have stood the test of time. Give them the rage of Achilles. Give them pietas of Aeneas. Give them the weeping Dante conversing with the lustful Francesca. Give them the prophets speaking in most graphic term of the adultery of God’s people. The content is not as much problem as the “canon.”

I must say that I sympathize with MTSB. I know the weight of choosing curriculum. The books we read form us. I take responsibility for our curriculum here. I have found, however, that reasonable people can disagree with me. I pray that God gives them wisdom, but there is no way to really deal with the concern if the two issues above are not dealt with.