Posted on 10/31/2005 12:04:46 PM PST by SirLinksalot
These Courses Are Condemned
"Christian Morality in American Literature" is biased. "Feminine Perspectives in Literature" is not.
Jordan Trivison holds forth in Shannon Jonker's English class, recapping several chapters of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." Then he and his fellow seniors at Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murietta, Calif., start discussing it. They take up the question of whether the monster in the novel can be blamed for his behavior, since he was abandoned shortly after his formation and no one taught him right from wrong. They also discuss "whether the monster has a soul." Jordan struggles aloud with this issue, noting that, on the one hand, the monster was created by man and not God but, on the other, that he does seem capable of love and compassion.
It is just such a class--addressing profound themes in a classic work of English literature--that has the University of California worried. Most California high-school students who apply to the university submit their grades as a part of their application. But the university must deem their high-school classwork to be sufficiently demanding for the grades to mean anything. And lately the university's officials have looked upon the classes in California's Christian schools with suspicion--even as they wave through lighter-than-air classes from public schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Read this and be alarmed :
-------------------------------
The double standard is alarming, and the effects are potentially devastating to students like Jordan, a bright young man with California blond hair and a well-worn Eagles T-shirt. He plans to apply to UC Riverside, both for its proximity and its price tag. Like many of his Calvary classmates, Jordan doesn't come from a wealthy family.
Jordan hopes to major in business and political science, maybe becoming a stockbroker one day or running for Congress. As much as he likes the evangelical atmosphere at Calvary, he doesn't think that a Christian college would challenge him enough. "I want to be in a setting where I can stand up for what I believe in and not back down."
He is already getting a lesson of what it means to stand up for a belief. A year ago, Calvary Chapel sent a description of some of its new courses to UC for review and inquired about a couple of others. Sue Wilbur, the university's director of undergraduate admissions, rejected three of them as insufficiently rigorous.
Calvary officials sat down with Ms. Wilbur and her colleagues to contest the decision--joined by representatives of the Association for Christian Schools International--but the university wouldn't budge. So Calvary took a bold step. Together with the association, it filed a discrimination suit in district court. The university is filing a motion to dismiss the case today. Whatever the outcome, the complaint makes for fascinating reading.
A proposed English class, "Christian Morality in American Literature," included readings from Mark Twain, Stephen Crane and Nathaniel Hawthorne, but it was judged unworthy because, according to the university, it "does not offer a non-biased approach to the subject matter." So what does a nonbiased class look like? The university has deemed acceptable such public-school courses as "Feminine Perspectives in Literature" and "Ethnic Experiences in Literature."
A history course, "Christianity's Influence on America," was rejected by the university because its focus was "too narrow" and because it was "not consistent with the empirical historical knowledge generally accepted in the collegiate community." But even people who don't like Christianity's effect on U.S. history don't find that it has been "narrow." And the curriculum of the course seems broad enough--covering the role of Christianity in the Founding, abolition, the civil-rights movement and the fall of communism. The course seems downright all-encompassing when compared with approved classes at other schools, like "Modern Irish History" and "Armenian History."
And of course there is a problem with Calvary's science classes. The university sends out a form letter to any school that proposes to teach biology and physics using one of the two biggest Christian textbooks now in circulation. The courses that assign such books, the letter claims, will not be "consistent with the viewpoints and knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community." Students thus "may not be well prepared for success" in the university's science courses. Chris Patti, the university's general counsel, tells me that the textbooks have many "scientific errors" and the "biggest one is [the way they describes] evolution."
------------------------------
It seems to be that unless Christian High Schools tailor their curruculum to reflect a secular/atheistic worldview, their graduates ( no matter how good they score in the SAT ) will be deemed unworthy of consideration.
I would love to support this except that so many of the Calvary Chapel leadership are blowhards that think they alone know anything, in an almost cultic way towards Chuck Smith. After too many years in their prison, I can tell you, it's pretty scary.
It certainly does appear to be a straighforward religious exclusion, having nothing to do with whether the students in question will perform adequately in college. (Their SAT stores would provide that information!)
Funny, the christians don't want to study feminism. But, in reality, Shelley was an outspoken feminist.
Ping for later reading
Mary Shelley wasn't much of a Christian either. However, at least in the case of Twain, his time and place ensured some sort of Christian understanding of natural law. Both are honest enough writers that one can look for the Christian perspective, or lack thereof, in their works.
Mr. Twain's personal beliefs are irrelevant to whether the characters in his book do, or do not, exemplify Christian morality in various ways.
It's liberals who insist that the sex, race, or political views of an author are more important than the literary work itself.
And since the course was "Christian Morality in American Literature" rather than "American Christian Moral Literature," the choice of Mark Twain makes perfect sense.
On the other hand, the choice of Mary Shelley for "American Literature" does seem a little peculiar ...
It is simply not true to lay that at the feet of liberals only. Go to any evolution / ID thread, and you will read many posts that slam evolution, for no other reason than Darwin was an atheist, or Hitler loved Darwin, or, well, I think you get the idea.
Maybe it does; it's been many years since I read it. Its inclusion suggests that those who planned the course were looking simply for interesting literature that would involve the students, rather than choosing selections to promote a single point of view. I think that's a good thing for a literature course, even if the University of California doesn't.
Food for thought.
Yes, it is. Mark Twain's works, simply as literature, are a cut above most fiction, but any writing can be analyzed for moral content.
This is an easy one. Don't apply to Christian-hating schools. Choose from any number of high-quality colleges that give Christians their full set of rights; thumb your nose at the leftist pinheads. Give them no money; give them no further consideration.
There might be examples like that. However, I suspect that most of those posters are "slamming" evolution because they believe it's a false teaching, and are denigrating Mr. Darwin's personal beliefs, or bring in Hitler, as a means of casting opprobrium on the idea of evolution, rather than the other way around.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.