Kentucky Education Officials Blasted for Modernizing Historical Dating System
by Jim Brown
April 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Kentucky Board of Education is under fire for approving a new, more contemporary system of describing historical dates in its public school curriculum. One critic feels modernizing the system is an effort to conceal from students their culture's Judeo-Christian heritage. The State Board of Education in Kentucky recently voted to continue using the acronyms B.C. for "Before Christ" and A.D. for "Anno Domini" -- which is Latin for "in the Year of the Lord." However, the board members decided to supplement the traditional dating method with C.E. or "common era" and B.C.E., which stands for "before the common era."
The Board's vote means the new dating system will appear throughout Kentucky's curriculum and other materials used by educators across the state. This method of describing historical eras is already being included in textbooks across the United States, in what some opponents see as an effort to replace the birth of Christ as the dividing point in history.
The Board's move is being criticized by the Family Foundation of Kentucky, a pro-family organization, whose senior policy analyst, Martin Cothran, says the new dating system comes out of a secularist mindset. The Family Foundation is also concerned that the measure may open the door for the American Civil Liberties Union "types" to find some liberal activist judge who will rule schools' use of BC and AD unconstitutional, based on the ACLU's argument that the old system violates the First Amendment.
"We put this on the same level with the whole war on Christmas and the idea that we can't call it Christmas anymore [but] have to call it the winter holiday or the winter solstice holiday," Cothran explains. This kind of substitution of terms associated with or derived from Christianity is simply a means of "hiding our cultural heritage from ourselves," he contends.
Likewise, the Family Foundation spokesman asserts, this move from the traditional usage of B.C. and A.D. to the eventual substitutions, B.C.E. and C.E., keeps the same years for a historical date but changes the term used to describe it. "So it sort of religiously sanitizes it, and it takes out any reference to Christ," he says.
"Of course, it's not fooling anybody," Cothran adds, "because we still say it's 2006, whether it's A.D. or C.E., but we're just hiding the origin of that from our students." And that is unfortunate, he says, because educators "shouldn't be in the business of hiding things from our students. We should be in the business of revealing things to them."
According to the pro-family advocate, nearly everybody in Kentucky, with the exception of the education establishment, is against adding the new dating system. Even Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher is among those opposing the move.
Cothran is concerned that the new, modernized system of identifying dates will confuse children even as it obscures the truth about western society's Christian heritage. But he believes this will not be the case for long, as he predicts conservative parents and public officials will lead a successful effort to rescind the use of C.E. and B.C.E. in Kentucky's public schools.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
