And ancient myths and historical stories.

No one with any sense takes offense at the teaching of Greek and Roman mythology. After all, the stories are fundamental to so much of Western culture over the last three millennia. But out of concern for secular values and sensitivity to members of other faiths, the literature of the Bible is often overlooked in our educational system today, despite its centrality to so many of the literary, artistic, and musical works of Western civilization.

Fortunately, one Brit gets it – and is getting a lot of attention for saying so in public.

Children are being robbed of their heritage because schools are failing to cover classic Bible and history stories, the Poet Laureate warned yesterday.

Andrew Motion called for all children to study the Bible at school for its 'great' educational stories such as the temptation of Adam and Eve, the siege of Jericho and battle between David and Goliath.

He warned that traditional stories were in danger of disappearing from public knowledge because they are no longer being properly imparted to children at school.

Too many students arriving at university to study literature or history have merely a 'sketchy' knowledge of Bible stories, history stories and Greek and Roman myths, and would struggle on their courses as a result, he said.

And please remember – Motion is not a believer. He considers the bible to be nothing more than a book of myths and legends, but he recognizes the fundamental power of what it contains. So, too, the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, which too many of our children know only from video games and animated films. And as for the history – I often despair when I find that stories I took for granted as a kid are unknown to too many of my students. In our push for modernity, we are losing so much of our cultural heritage.

But then again, we have too many young people who have been saturated with a modern media culture that does not really value knowledge or deep thought – or even basic skills. In recent years I’ve been told that “books today are called movies” and “since history is in the past it doesn’t matter because I’m going to live in the future.” And just yesterday, I had a 9th grader tell me that she wasn’t sure what time it was because “I don’t understand what the pointy things on that kind of clock mean.” Will they know where we are headed in the future if they do not understand the past?

Posted by: Greg at 12:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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