Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Understanding Beginnings


One of the first homework assignments my students get is to ask their parents three questions: “How did everything (the universe) begin?”; “Where did humans come from?” and “Is there meaning to human life?”. For those who answered yes to the last question, there was a follow-up: “If so, can you explain that meaning in one sentence?”

Answers vary. Most are classic like “the big bang” and “God created it,” to explain how the universe began. Also classic were understandings of where humans come from such as the Darwinian: “They evolved from lower forms of life,” to the Judeo/Christian/Muslim: “God created them.”

Answers to the third question about whether life has meaning included a simple “No” for several parents. Each of these had answered the first two questions with big bang and evolution, though others who had answered thusly did believe there was meaning to human life. Some of their answers included: “Become the best person you can be”; “Live life to the fullest“; Do as much good as you can,” and “Help others.” All who believed God created the universe and humans also believed there was meaning to human life. Answers were predictable and tended to be variations on: “To do God’s will”; “To make it to heaven”; “Love one another”; etc. Afterward, I ask students to answer the questions for themselves. As expected, students’ answers reflected parental’ beliefs, but not in every case.

Ideas have consequences. How people of any culture understand the beginnings of everything affects their outlook on other things, and American thinking was constantly changing throughout the twentieth century. Darwin’s theory of evolution, Nietzsche's “superman” (Ubermensch), “will to power,” and declaration that “god is dead”; Marx’s about communism, revolution, and atheism as well as Sigmund Freud’s concepts of human psychology, all had profound influence on 20th century US History. Debate over policy between groups of Americans with differing beliefs about the above ideas follows often-predictable patterns right into the 21st century, especially about the role of government and the influence of religion upon it.

Ideas also have histories. Many thoughts in the minds of my students originated in other minds centuries and millennia before they were born. Conflict between ideas often results in conflict between individuals, between groups, and between nations. World War II, the Cold War, and today’s war with Radical Islam cannot be fully understood if not in light of such ideological conflicts.

The textbook we use: Prentice Hall’s “American Nation” was the most widely-used in America when I chose it ten years ago. It’s boring and it has has a liberal bias, but the others I had to choose from were worse. The flip side is that my lessons can seem interesting by contrast and my bias is opposite that of the book. The text contains several paragraphs about the then much-publicized Scopes Trial in 1926, during which Tennessee biology teacher John Scopes was charged and convicted of teaching evolution instead of creation. Eighty-four years later, the issue is still contentious in American public schools.

Mine are not science classes. I’m not teaching evolution or creation. My lessons are that ideas in human minds lead to behaviors which are beneficial or destructive at different times and in different ways. Ideas bring out the best and the worst in people when they’re propagated and when they’re repressed or resisted.

There was a time when I considered my thirteen and fourteen-year-old students too young to understand any of this, but I underestimated their capabilities. Not only can they comprehend classic ideological movements and conflicts, but that comprehension enhances their understanding of other aspects of history, economics and civics by providing an intellectual framework upon which to organize their understanding of disparate events in 20th-century US history. And, most like learning about them. I return to these ideas at various points in my 20th century US History curriculum.

It’s satisfying when my students offer me fresh perspectives on classic arguments. Many have been smarter than I am over the years as they grasp these concepts for the first time in their young lives. Their minds are less cluttered with bias and political correctness than those of adults and they ask very interesting questions. It’s exciting to be reminded of when I first chewed on these ideas and learned the nomenclature necessary to converse in them. The old becomes new again as I observe students jousting with one another in the arena of abstract thought.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of your best columns ever, Tom.

Merry Christmas and a Happier, Healthier and Thinking New Year!

Anonymous said...

As someone who usually bashes your columns let me say that I enjoyed this one. The line about young minds being uncluttered with bias is something to think about.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a small seacoast town in Massachusetts just north of Boston. I probably never ventured more than 50 or so miles from home until I graduated from High School in 1957. It was "Happy Days" and Grandfather Ike was in the White House and all was well. I enlisted in the Military right after graduation and I was amazed at how different things and people were when I got out in the real world. Keep up the good work Tom, help them learn what the world is really like, not what they read in history books.

Anonymous said...

Mr. McLaughlin, thank you for another interesting and insightful commentary. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rhonda said...

Wonderful column, thanks!

DAWN said...

Every worldview has to answer five fundamental questions:

1) Where did life come from? (origins)

2) What does it mean to be human? (identity)

3) What is the purpose of life? (meaning)

4) How should I live? (morality)

5) What happens after I die? (mortality).

Evolution is part of a worldview that attempts to answer these questions through a purely naturalistic point of view.

Evolution and creationism as hypotheses are either equally scientific or equally unscientific.

From my Christian POV life can be like a merry-go-round. Many go around and around without going anywhere. Aimless. Many are drawing breaths and salary with no purpose. Aimlessly going thru life. 1 Peter 1:18

I believe without God there is no purpose in life but with God we have life with a purpose.

Anonymous said...

i love you personally.........

Anonymous said...

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