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Not about the bunny
I first suspected something might be wrong when, in the course of doing another story earlier this winter, I encountered an older high school student and the subject somehow came around to religion. Like many young people these days, this particular student didn’t give much thought to religion on a day-to-day basis. He (let’s call him Robert) wasn’t aggressively atheistic or anything, he just had no particular views on the subject. It didn’t seem to impact his world, so he didn’t care about it.
I probed a little, because I just happened to know Robert’s grandparents, and I knew they were stalwarts of one of the local churches. I figured Robert had to have at least some knowledge of Christianity through blood alone. So I asked him, out of the blue, what Easter was all about. He seemed a bit taken aback by the question; why would I ask something with such an obvious answer? Then he paused as if it must be a trick question. But finally he shrugged a little and replied, “The bunny, I guess. Right?”
Didn’t he know that Easter had a religious significance? No, he didn’t. Upon further discussion, he said he’d heard something, many years before, about the death and resurrection of Jesus, but he didn’t know it had anything to do with Easter. Easter was just a holiday, and it was all involved with a rabbit.
Now, I would not by any stretch consider Robert an un-intelligent lad. He got good marks in school, he was a good writer, outgoing, bright. So how did he miss the reason for Easter during his 17 years?
To find out if he was typical, I asked one of our Tiger Talk columnists, Maggie Anderson, who coincidentally is a Christian preacher’s daughter, to ask 20 Uxbridge Secondary students the same question I’d asked Robert. Her story is on page 7.
Of the 20, only 12 were really confident they knew what Easter was about - 60%. In other words, Robert wasn’t an oddball at all. He might have been in the minority, but it was a fairly sizeable minority.
In our view, it makes no sense at all that 100% of our students get two days holiday because of Good Friday and Easter, but a large number of them have no idea why. And we’re not interested in hearing any mumbo jumbo about how teaching such information in the classroom is culturally insensitive; if a child of Muslim or Hindu heritage takes a Christian holiday, it can’t hurt for them to understand the background.
Besides, a basic knowledge of world religions is fundamental to the understanding of history. Divergent views of religion have caused a bit of strife from time to time. And if you’re going to talk about Christianity in the classroom, it won’t be very long before you get around to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. As Vince Winder points out, also on page 7, they’re kind of the whole point of Christianity. And if you discuss those matters, then you’ll learn what Easter is all about. And you’ll remember.
Obviously, then, the kids who don’t know what Easter means (and we suspect most, if not all, come from supposedly “Christian” households - Uxbridge isn’t exactly a model of religious diversity) haven’t learned anything about religion from either their parents or their school system. That’s sad, and it’s wrong.
July 14, 2011
