Homework?

Last night Abate brought home English Lit homework. He was having a difficult time making sense of the questions that pertained to the reading assignment. Needless to say after a long day at work, getting a pot of soup made and simmering on the stove before going to a Choir parents meeting that lasted an hour. I finally returned home after 8 pm ready to eat and relax. Well, helping out with homework was the last thing I really wanted to do. Did I have a choice? Not really. So I hoped to make it as painless as possible and read through the questions and just find the paragraph that would contain the answer. The questions even stated where the answers could be found in the story. There was one problem though… the questions really didn’t ask questions that were apparent anywhere in the story. Take this one for example… How did the authors beliefs influence what he wrote in chapter 5 paragraph 2? Ok so I guess we are to assume the author is a Christian and not some worshipper of ancient pagan rituals, so that when he writes that; “ after the perilous journey and landing ashore they knelt down to give thanks to the lord. “ Hmmm, so are we to gather from that statement that we are to know how the author’s beliefs influenced his writing? I was frustrated with how ridiculous this was. Who writes this crap? So then we had to come up with a “suitable” answer which took quite a bit of thought as to how to put into words something I found a bit abstract. Then to top it off Abate thought I was totally off base with the answer and that nearly led to the start of WWIII debating this. And this was only one of eight questions, and one of three that was based on Christian Religious views and teachings (which in order to answer these the authors of the textbook must think that all children have been raised in “Christian “ homes). Now while we were working on the assignment I wasn’t really giving a lot of thought to the Christian based aspect of this assignment as I was more concerned with helping Abate come up with what we thought the answers should be(seeing as there were not any clear answers to any of the questions). My blood pressure had probably reached an all-time high by the time we said enough, we are done.
I went to bed. I lay there thinking about those questions. I saw how the religious right of the Texas State Board of Education had placed their agenda in the schools. Religion was not so separate from the State.
Now I don’t want anyone thinking I’m anti-religion or agnostic, I was raised in a Christian home, and hold many deep and very personal religious beliefs and views. I have also attended churches of many denominations and have studied the beliefs of many others. I have friends and family from many different faiths and accept each and everyone. What I have learned over the years is that I have never found a religion that is perfect. God did not make man to be perfect and we all have faults, so it is okay for each of these religions to have them too. For me I have found the faith that I am most in agreement with. It is where I feel most comfortable. I am sure that you too feel this way about yours. I admire anyone that has deeply rooted beliefs that they can let lead them through life. For me it does not matter if you are Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Methodist, Muslim etc. I know that there are those out there without religious views and they are quite content with that. Believe. If you do then I am happy for you.
Texas Literature (and yes it says that right on the front of the textbook) seems to be a bit less tolerant than I am. It wants to assume that all these juniors in high school have been raised in Christian homes ( or wants them to be). Is this not a form of prejudice? I know that as I type this that many of you will disagree with me. But I am one that will speak out when I believe that someone has overstepped the boundaries. My opinions may not go further than this page, I have at least voiced what I feel and that makes me feel just a bit better for today.