In December 27, 2020, an article was published concerning a push to remove the classics from education. Entitled Even Homer Gets Mobbed, the article goes on to explain why some teachers feel that many classics are sexist and racist. And, it is often true that they do contain gender norms that are considered outdated. They contain racist and anti-Semitic themes. They hold to ideas that have been denounced.
But... this is why they should be read.
A couple weeks ago I read a five year old opinion piece that talked about Why Public Schools Don’t Teach Critical Thinking. Children and young adults need to read things that hold differing views, written by people that were raised in a time or with different views. They need to learn to question what they read. They need to debate the merits of what they are exposed to and learn to think through what they are exposed to with a critical eye. Everything they read can’t be easy and agreeable. History was messy and often offensive. So is current day. We can’t simply read what pushes an agenda, is comfortable, and never pushes us to see the world through a different perspective.
There is a lot of talk of confirmation bias, how many people will only read articles that they agree with, only watch news stations that back up their political beliefs, and only “friend” people on social media that support their opinions. There is talk about how to counter this trend, but it is not given serious consideration. Instead most are fine with censorship, and that is a big problem.
Over the last year, censorship has showed up in many areas of life. It seems we are “fact-checked” on a ridiculous level, until any opinion that varies from what is acceptable is silenced. We have judges that refuse to hear cases because they don’t agree politically with the person that filed the case, even with evidence. We have had doctors and scientists silenced because their “experience” and “training” doesn’t correlate with a narrative being pushed. We have anyone that shares a post that questions major issues happening being “jailed” on social media or their accounts deleted. Who decides what is acceptable? Politicians? Social media companies? Professors? Lobbyists? School administrators?
I began homeschooling all those years ago because I wanted an education for my children grounded in our faith. Over the years, as I went about educating my children, I had to make a thousand decisions. I had to decide curriculum and methods. I had to decide which books to require because, no matter how much I want my children to be well-read, we can’t read everything. A thousand conversations occurred around our table with my children as we shared books and studied the Bible and examined world-views. I wanted my children to know how to look at the world through the lens of Scripture. That meant we didn’t shy away from the tough topics. We tackled them. And perhaps my children formed opinions that didn’t agree with mine, but they did so by thinking about them, not mindlessly agreeing with whatever I believed.
Our children have to know how to think, and that won’t happen as long as we cancel culture, erase history, and feed them a steady diet of fluffy modern ideology. The meat of critical thinking comes in examining history and looking at both sides of arguments, not simply demanding obedience to modern political correctness, calling names to anyone that feels differently, and censoring information and history.
My job, as a parent and an educator, is to teach my children how to learn and how to think. My job is to teach them to research for themselves. Yes, they will acquire knowledge. I set out to give them the foundation to develop a Biblical worldview. But I also know they will make their own choices in life. They are human and will make mistakes. If I have taught them to think for themselves and to not blindly accept what they are told or what they see on their news feed, I feel I have succeeded.
Before World War II, Hitler didn’t just take power and begin killing the Jewish people and their sympathizers. He was voted in by the people in his country. He slowly and methodically took over different aspects and organizations in Germany. He fed the people a steady diet of propaganda, stirred up division, and made sure the blame for the ills of society was firmly placed on one group.
Those that have endured socialism have discussed how they see a repeating of patterns occurring here in America. David Tuck discussed how Trump being compared to Hitler is “sickening.” Jennifer Zheng and Darion Diachok discuss the torture they received in China under the “Socialist” regime. Cuban-born Maximo Alvarez stated that “free health care, and calls to defund the police are “false promises” that “sound familiar” based on his experiences in Cuba.” And Elizabeth Rogliani stated the following about Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez:
“He defined capitalism as the "kingdom of the egoism of inequality" and socialism as the "kingdom of love, equality, solidarity, peace and true democracy."”
Holocaust survivor Kitty Werthman stated: “Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”
Removing the classics from the classroom means that the stories of the past die. The stories of the fight for freedom all throughout history disappear. The stories of oppression and hate might be offensive and tough to read, but for a person trained to think critically, they can read the material and determine that today will be different... that they will be different.
A couple years ago there was an uproar about the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series. It was pulled from shelves in schools and stripped of an award because of the anti-Native American sentiments. And yet, I devoured every book as a girl. Yes, Ma (Caroline) was very afraid of the “Indians.” She believed what she had been told by the government at the time. But if you read the stories, Laura was a tad afraid, but also very intrigued. She collected the beads the “Indians” left behind at their campsite,. She wanted to see them. She wanted to connect in some way to what was strange to her and a bit frightening.
I look at the current push to remove the classics in the same way. Yes, there is negative. But there is also an understanding that comes of the times. There are the Lauras, the characters that are intimidated but curious and want to know more about what they don’t understand. There is also the beautiful and horrible history interwoven through each page and character in each classic. Yes, the characterization of Native Americans in the Little House series is offensive to them. But mixed in is the fighting spirit of the pioneers to etch out farms in the hard earth, living in sod houses and rough cabins. History always contains a mix of the offensive and the beautiful.
Reading about slavery is offensive. Reading about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, the Underground Railroad, and Abraham Lincoln is inspiring. Reading about confederate soldiers and their views is educational.
We want a world of black and white, where we can take the black and toss it away and end up with a utopia. But that isn’t reality. The reality is that life’s stories are full of good and bad. We tend to classify people as good or bad based on what they believed at a certain time in history, which we were not a part of, or by poor choices they made. Reading these classics is how we stop with baseless generalizations and really find out that most people, with the exception of a few psychopaths, are not all bad or all good. Some were wrong in a view they held, especially compared to today’s standards, but they still worked hard and loved their families.
Ask yourself how history might see you? Will you be ripped up and tossed aside like those discarded classics because your views and opinions you hold today will one day be derided and mocked? Will the stance you hold on a hot button issue today one day change? Wouldn’t you want to be understood even if others disagree?
I don’t expect that my children will read Tom Sawyer and believe slavery is acceptable. Reading Little House on the Prairie didn’t give me a fear or Native Americans. In fact, I love reading about Native Americans.
There are books I don’t let my children read. There are books I find horrific and offensive. A book that educates and challenges is quite different than a book that poisons the soul. As a parent, that is my right to be selective. If I don’t want my thirteen year old to read books full of sexual situations or glorified violence, I don’t choose those books. Age appropriate matters, as does the point of the book.
The classics aren’t going anywhere. It is discouraging to read of a new push to take out more history and more chances to teach
students to think critically. Our education system has already cheated a generation from being able to compete on the world stage because of dumbed down curriculum and an overemphasis on standardized tests. Are we going to further cripple them by removing the rich literary legacy available to them?
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