Response to TOI article THEY CANNOT DECIDE ON HISTORY
Romila Thapar and Michael Witzel Times of India
March 9, 2006
By Chitra Raman

(with apologies to those who have seen some of this already)
In response to the pious admonitions of the authors that religion ought to be left to parents, pastors and priests to handle, I would like to share just A FEW sample questions from a recent social studies quiz given to my daughter Divya.

As you know, Divya has autism and therefore receives individualized instruction in a "resource room." She is, however mainstreamed in certain subjects like Science and Social Studies. She takes adapted versions of the tests given to other students.

Her social studies teacher is a very well-traveled individual with a fabulous cache of slides from all over the world. I did have some misgivings about him when I attended his presentation to parents at the beginning of the school year, because the only two visuals he showed on India were the Taj Mahal; and a slum behind the Taj Mahal.

When I met with him recently (Thursday of last week) and offered to share my slides of India, he hastily declined, saying that the annual educational standards testing process had taken up so much of his class time that he was really struggling to compress his own material. After which he cautiously inquired "What sort of slides are we talking about?" ( I could practically read his mind ..."hope she's not gonna bring those nekkid carvings into my classroom..." )

I said -- Well, I think it's really wonderful that you've traveled to all these places -- Tibet, China, Bhutan, Japan and all over Africa -- and had such incredible experiences. But India is such an ocean of culture, antiquity, diverse architectural influences, that it's hard for outsiders to grasp its range after one trip, because they tend to gravitate toward the standard tourist traps. I said I had a few slides of rarely seen monuments, temples and historical structures. "Sure, sure, I'll take a look, but I dont promise," he said.

Well -- I tried. Anyway, here are his questions for the class, after a unit on the Middle East and Africa, okay ?

Take a look:
1. Moses received the 10 commandments from God on Mt. ____________

2. God wrote the 10 commandments on the two stone slabs with what?

3 The Ark of the Covenant contained two things within it, the Spirit of God and what else?

4. According to the Bible who gave the instriuctions on how to build the Ark of the Covenant?

....(And on and on, in the same vein...now look at the way question no. 8 is phrased)

8. The one thing that all the Three Great Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have in common that regard Jerusalem as holy is the belief in one _______________

(Remember not to use the word "great" with respect to any other religion; Shintoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, or -- dare I say it? Hinduism!)

And finally, as an apparent afterthought, appears this last question concerning geography --

10. The source of the Blue Nile is Lake _____________

And so, Witzel and his foulmouthed minion Farmer notwithstanding, we parents know exactly what passes for "Separation of Church and State" in U.S. schools.

Mind you, it is not the educational content that angers me as much as the double standards. When I was Divya's age I freely explored books on all the major religions out of my own personal interest. In the convent school that I attended, I was singing hymns and psalms along with everyone and obediently rattling off the Lord's Prayer with the rest of the flock.

But the reverse would have been unthinkable -- Christians or Muslims reciting slokas -- even those that praised an abstract Divinity, or upheld universal values.

And we were so programmed to think it to BE unthinkable that as kids it didnt even strike us that there was something strange about submitting to a separate standard for our faith. To such an extent that some of my classmates would cringe from admitting that they or their families practised the Hindu faith to whatever degree. I well remember the scornful question "You're not religious, are you?" from one of my classmates to which the typical knee-jerk response would be "Of course not, yaar." This was a conditioned response from any number of subliminal cues furnished by the Indian educational system.

Regards,
Chitra