On Monday, we learned that Tuesday would be the last day for two students in the afternoon English program at my kids' school. Their paperwork is ready and their Dominican mom is taking them to live in the U.S., where their stepfather is from. I asked where in the U.S. they were headed and they told me Texas. Another student says he'll be moving to Queens this summer and not returning for the next school year.
My kids felt a bit sad at this news and pondered about how so many want to move to the U.S., unlike us. Yenilove said, "Sure, there's lots of pollution here and lots of things are better there, but there's also lots of po po po over there." She held her hand like a gun when she said po po po. I told her that was a good point.
On Tuesday, after English, we sat waiting for our van's tire to be fixed before we could go home from school. My friend Crystal sent me a whatsapp message, asking if I had seen the news of the shooting in Texas. I had not. I quickly did a search and learned that 14 students and a teacher had been killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. We were shocked to see that so quickly following Yenilove's comment, there was such an event in the very state the boys are moving to. As I read up, unable to sleep in the middle of the night, I see news sources now report 19 children and two adults have passed.
I realize that sleep won't be possible for me tonight until I pour my thoughts out here. I've written about this topic many times in different posts and shared that I was on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007 when it made history in that horrible way. There's an idea I've been pondering quite a bit over the past year or year and a half that I'd like to share.
Observing U.S. politics from afar, it's obvious how polarized things are. As a Christian, I strongly believe that there are issues that the right supports that best align with the Christian faith and there are issues that the left supports that best align with the Christian faith. I feel the same is true in many ways for those who don't identify as Christian, but simply hold the Christian value that we should love one another.
And therefore, I think it's way past time that everyone gives in a little. I think it's time to make a political compromise. My suggestion is that the right submits to tighter gun laws, whereas the left submits to some public school curriculum changes concerning God. I truly believe that U.S. public schools currently represent an atheistic worldview and to truly comply with the First Amendment, should take an agnostic worldview.
I truly believe that executing such a compromise would be an active attempt to change the climate that breeds these tragedies. As far as gun laws are concerned, I don't know what to say about it, other than it's just flat out sick that people would be so unwilling to give in. Many good people defend this stubborrness and excuse it because it's coming from the political party they identify with. I think it's a prime example of groupthink and everyone who has ever found themselves justifying the unwillingness to make changes in gun laws in any way should do some deep reflection. We should take an honest and thorough look at policies in other countries around the world and take serious action, for Pete sake.
About God in schools, I'll try to be concise as I've written some long-winded posts on this topic already. However, I think it demands more attention than gun laws as it's a more complicated topic.
I believe if you really, objectively examine the theory of macroevolution as an explanation for the origin of man, you will see that it does not have enough value to justify the controversy it causes. We teach kids the scientific method, which requires observation, altering variables, and running an experiment several times before the experimenter's eyes before drawing conclusions. Yet in the same class we call science, we find it necessary to teach about a theory that can only rely on observations such as fossil records and radiocarbon dating, that are undubitably unreliable and unconclusive, to explain something as important as the origin of man, which no one can actually observe. I didn't used to feel so strongly about it, but the more I look into it, the more I am convincted that it's flat out wrong.
If you really ponder the actual scientific benefits that the theory of macroevolution has brought us, you have to ask why it is deemed necessary to teach in K-12 science class. Has it saved any lives? Weren't people breeding animals for select traits long before Darwin observed those bird beaks and started making racist theories that black people were creatures evolving between apes and white people? Yes, if you read his original work, it's quite racist. Such issues should not be brushed under the rug when you look at ongoing white supremacy as portrayed in the Buffalo, NY shooting that was just 10 days before this one.
Now look at the risks of teaching the theory of macroevolution in K-12. It flat out negates the existence of God, opposes the religious texts of the world's two largest religions, which make up over half of the world's population, and untruthfully claims to have scientific proof to do so. Maybe that would be something necessary for people to reckon with if it had more scientific basis itself, but the truth is, it doesn't. Do you see anyone arguing about gravity? About how reproduction works? About photosythesis? Cell structures? No. Why can't we stick to such certain and non-controversial things in science class?
I'll share a little story that causes our students and teachers to gasp when they hear it. In this country, most public and private school days are typically opened with prayer. God is referred to in a reverent way in everyday, common language. It's not considered church language, but it's society's language.
"See you tomorrow, God willing."
"I'm fine, thanks to God."
"Go with God."
"Stay with God."
The last two are ways of saying good-bye. Of course it's a much more homogenous country than the US, and I understand why there are certain practices in the US to protect everyone's freedom of religion, but again, I think the best way to protect everyone's freedom of religion is for public schools to take an agnostic approach, rather than an atheistic one. Agnosticism says, "we don't know". Atheism says, "we can prove that God does not exist, we have done this on our own, and we can do this on our own". In reality, as everyone who has gone through a 12 step program to fight addiction knows, we can't do this on our own. I don't think it's the best mental health strategy to suggest anything otherwise.
So here is my story. When I was in first grade, my teacher was calling on each student to share a word that had to do with Christmas. She wrote each word on the board. I listened to my classmates who talked about presents and Santa Claus, surprised that no one had mentioned that it was Jesus' birthday yet. I looked forward to sharing my thought, knowing it was the correct answer!
When it was my turn, I said, "Jesus' birthday". She stopped, paused for a moment, said nothing, wrote nothing on the board, and called on the next student. I remember my heart sunk as I knew I had the right answer, but the teacher didn't seem to like it. She didn't like it so much that she didn't include it on the board with the thoughts of all my classmates.
That was my first lesson in, "We don't talk about Jesus or God at school." Again, I understand the reason behind it. My teacher was a government agent doing her job as she was instructed to. But I think it's an irrational approach and we can do better. Christmas literally is to celebrate Jesus' birthday. If we can't talk about that at all in school, then we better exclude Christmas altogether. Do you know the history behind Valentine's Day? St. Patrick's Day? They have such beautiful stories, rooted in strong faith. The most academic thing we could do is to learn about them in school when we celebrate them.
Why do we say we are in the year 2022? Why did time start 2022 years ago? Is that not an important topic to learn about? I don't think it goes much further in public school than explaining what the acronyms B.C. and A.D. stand for. We just exclude that whole topic that was important enough to mark the start of time as we know it, and find it important to put a picture of Charles Darwin and drawings of macroevolution in textbooks? That just doesn't make sense.
Perhaps I'm going on too long with this. Check out Michael Denton. He's an agnostic biochemist and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He's a proponent of intelligent design and has been writing about the topic for decades. I think his work is a great start for anyone looking for an objective, non-religious, scientific discussion on the matter, should you think that macroevolution is accepted among all scientists, only challenged by those who feel it debunks their religion.
Shouldn't we teach that in science, we admit what we don't know? I think presumptuous science is a dangerous thing.
For a little gun humor, I'll close with something that happened tonight that had our whole family rolling in laughter. Let me preface by saying that we have a neighbor who shoots his gun into the air most nights to keep away thieves, he says.
Six of us sat on one bed. It's a queen sized bed and we all were squooshed in, hanging out and talking. Gabriel, who is five, raised his hands, lifted his head slightly, and called, "Everyone! Everyone!" Somehow he got us all to be quiet and attentive. He then commanded, "Hear my fart."
We all waited to see what he would produce. No sound came from him, but a gunshot sounded in the distance. We couldn't contain ourselves. Wevli, who has special needs, came running in from the other room to join in on the fun, laughing and hooting, but he didn't actually know what had happened. This made us laugh even harder.
It'll be interesting to see what happens after this second case of elementary school children have been killed at the hands of a gunman, 10 years after the first incident. Are we ready to make sacrifices? We can all probably give in a little.
