Heroes and rebels

M, a Catholic friend, wrote concerning my A history of Bible translation post:

The authors of Hero Tales are (perhaps unconsciouly) biased against Catholics. This bias shows in their writings. [You know] this, which is why [your Sonlight Curriculum] notes for Hero Tales indicate some of the inaccuracies. (Thank you for this.)

If the book were part of a higher Core, I could understand its inclusion, because Sonlight wants to teach people how to detect this sort of thing for themselves. However, Core K, by its very name, indicates 5 year-olds as its main audience. I don't think 5 year-olds can weigh boring notes (which the parents may or may not read, and if they do read it themselves, may or may not pass on to their kids) vs. an exciting, dramatic story.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood claims "Until the age of about 8, children do not understand advertising's persuasive intent" and cites Kunkel, D (2001). Children and television advertising. In: D. G. Singler & J. L. Singer (Eds.) The handbook of children and media (pp. 375-393). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage which I don't have time to track down and read myself right now.

But if kindergarten age children can't understand persuasive intent in advertising, they probably can't understand bias in writing either. Our brains continue to mature and develop until the 20s, and with the physical changes come more ability to reason abstractly. Your own testimonials show that children are remembering inaccurate [historically, not necessarily textually] and anti-Catholic summaries of the stories in the book.

Its anti-Catholic bias and its inaccuracy make Hero Tales an inappropriate book for this age group and it should be replaced.

I replied:

Whoa, M___! You just made the most powerful "argument" I have heard yet against inclusion of Hero Tales in the K curriculum: "I don't think 5 year-olds can weigh boring notes (which the parents may or may not read, and if they do read it themselves, may or may not pass on to their kids) vs. an exciting, dramatic story" and, "Your own testimonials show that children are remembering inaccurate [historically, not necessarily textually] and anti-Catholic summaries of the stories in the book."

When M referred to "[y]our own testimonials," she was referencing the comments of a young man quoted in our company's ezine, A Beam of Sonlight. The editor the the Beam chose a few weeks ago to include the following letter from a mom. Indeed, this is the letter, I believe, that inspired my original correspondent to object to Hero Tales' retelling of the Tyndale story:

[My son] Samuel said, "Somebody said that war is always bad.”

I told him that, "yes, war is always bad, but sometimes it is necessary. We can't let bad people get away with doing bad things; the good people need to stand up for what is right, even when it's hard."

Samuel said, "Ya, just like that guy in Germany who knew that the church was doing things that weren't right and he stood up for what the Bible says even though they could have killed him for it. And that other guy in England who said that everyone should have a Bible that they could read and he had to escape to Germany so he could put the Bible in English!"

Despite what I have written so far, I see where M and my original correspondent are coming from. Samuel's comments are not quite accurate historically. Or, should I say, they don't indicate any nuanced sense of the arguments and battles that surrounded what the "guy in Germany" and the "other guy in England" were trying to do.

As I wrote to M:

I see the problems. I'm not sure how far I'm going to get in overcoming them.

I can just hear Sarita now: "So what book(s) am I supposed to use instead of Hero Tales?!? . . . We want our kids to hold godly men and women before them as heroes they can emulate."

*****

What I am seeing not only here, but in other cases as well, is how rampant are the attitudes or
behaviors of (I think the best word to use is) rebellion among those who are commonly viewed as heroes. You can't become a hero unless you step out from the crowd, do something significantly against your culture or against societal norms. And whenever you do that . . . well . . . you immediately mark yourself as "enemy" (and note that I said you mark yourself as "enemy"!) and you engender animosity among the leaders among the party/ies most motivated to oppose you.

[I make this latter comment as I do because while, obviously, the "hero" has (by my definition) placed him- or herself in opposition to the culture or to societal norms, and, therefore, the press of the culture or society as a whole will be against the hero, that doesn't mean the majority of people will actively and strenuously oppose him or her. In fact, most people will gladly stay out of the line of fire from both sides. Kind of like Martin Luther King and the marches for racial justice. There were hotheads on both sides. But most people just wanted to "go along to get
along."]

I wrote to M:

You have convinced me, M___, that, if at all possible, we need to replace the book. What I am sorely missing right now is a decent book with which to replace it--or, as you put it so well: an age-appropriate, well-written book filled with "exciting, dramatic stor[ies]" of heroes against which no one will object. I'm afraid that is a very tall order!

Any suggestions?

I will be glad for any suggestions from my readers here on my blog as well. . . .