Queer Theory or Else?

Published: Wed, 05/04/11

Hello, , from NHERI.
 
Take your pick. Which of the following paradigms would you molding your child's mind and heart six hours per day, five days per week, nine months per year?
  1. Critical Theory
  2. Feminist Theory
  3. Queer Theory
  4. Marxist Theory
  5. Humanistic Theory
  6. None of the above

When "death education" was getting rolling in United States public schools in the 1970s, its advocates wanted to comfort parents and the public that "religion" was not being promoted. For example, Professor Daniel Leviton of the University of Maryland said this regarding questions about death education in state-run schools:

"Is there a need for death education in the schools?" The answer is "yes", if you agree that our educational agencies have a responsibility for the health of children. "But is this not the province of the home and church?", is a legitimate question sure to be raised. Of course the influence of the family and religion is important. This influence, which tends to be concerned with morality, can be either a negative or positive force . . . The role of school death education, which is basically non-moral . . . is to disseminate the results of scientific information and philosophical thought. [Endnote 1]

Non-moral but philosophical?! I do not think this man knew the first thing about the meanings of the words he used, or else he was purposely trying to deceive someone. Moral has to do with principles of right and wrong in behavior, and a core subject of philosophy deals with ethics and values of right and wrong. How were he and others planning to teach state-school students about death and dying without teaching morality? They were not; such was impossible.

 
But that is the constant dilemma of state-run schooling. A particular morality will always be taught and promoted to children and youth. In my last message to you, I told you about the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in New Orleans, Louisiana a few weeks ago at which some colleagues and I made presentations on homeschooling. Please allow me to tell you little more.
 
Dozens of (purportedly) research presentations were made at the AERA meeting that explicitly or implicitly focused on things "queer" or of "queer theory." Queer theory is "an approach to literary and cultural study that rejects traditional categories of gender and sexuality" and "... builds both upon feminist challenges to the idea that gender is part of the essential self and upon gay/lesbian studies' close examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and identities" [Endnote 2]. Listed here are a few of the presentations:
  1. Queering Teacher Education: An Outsider Pedagogy for a Course on Homophobia in Education
  2. Choosing and Challenging Texts: Positioning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender-Themed Literature in a Queer Youth Center
  3. Inescapably Othered? Methodological and Ethical Considerations When Researching People
  4. Making Spaces for Reading Diverse Literature: Queer and Ally Youth and Adults Reading LGBTQ-Themed Literature
  5. Queer Perspectives on Mentoring Caribbean/African/Black Male Youth
  6. Reflections of a Racial Queer: Introducing a New Conceptual Framework From Which to Study Multiraciality
  7. Toward a Queer of Color Epistemology of Educational Research and Practice
  8. What Is Sexuality For? Queer Theory, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ)Youth, and Sex Education,
Are you confused yet? A bit rattled? Do you have a sense another world exists at many universities where they prepare public- and private-school teachers? Remember, these professors and doctoral students teach, train, and indoctrinate the teachers who teach, train, and indoctrinate the millions of children and  youth in the compulsory-attendance state schools of America. And in private schools. In his article on why the state needs to control homeschooling, professor Rob Reich implied that it is not philosopher-kings who are promoting the control. [Endnote 3] Dr. Reich fails to recognize, however, that it most definitely is philosopher-kings who want to vigorously control homeschooling families and proactively promote their values and worldviews to all children, hoping more and more will be within their grasp in government schools.

You can be sure there were not many (if any) presentations, tax-funded or otherwise, at the AERA meeting that focused on why scripturalism should rule in children's and teens' lives.

Scripturalism is that system of belief in which the Word of God is foundational in the entirety of one's philosophical and theological dealings2. This system of thought avers that Christians should never try to combine secular and Christian notions. Rather, all thoughts are to be brought into captivity to the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), which is (a part of) the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Our minds must be transformed "to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God," as found in Scripture (Romans 12:2), i.e., our thoughts must progressively become God's thoughts (Isaiah 55:6-9), which divine thoughts are only known by the Word of God. Scripturalism, then, teaches that all of our knowledge is to be derived from the Bible, which has a systematic monopoly on truth. [Endnote 4]

Be assured, however, there were a few of us there raising the question of why various unbiblical theories should be advanced in state-run schools, with your tax dollars, while biblical thought is treated as a disease by so many of the above-mentioned professors and as such the government schools. Also be assured of the following:

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." [Endnote 5]

We continue to move research on home education and thoughtful challenges to the status-quo of the academic world into the research community and public at-large. Thank you for your encouragement and support of NHERI.

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.

National Home Education Research Institute
http://nheri2010.org/
http://nheri.org/

P.S. Please feel free to send us your questions about homeschooling and we will try to answer them in upcoming messages.

Two ways to help us:

  1. Send a check to: NHERI, PO Box 13939, Salem OR 97309 (using a check puts the largest percent of your gift to work at NHERI)

  2. Click here http://nheri2010.org/ and then the "donate" button.

NHERI, PO Box 13939, Salem OR 97309, USA

Endnotes:

1. Quoted in: Morris, Barbara M. (1979). Change agents in the schools: Destroy your children, betray your country. Upland, CA: The Barbara M. Morris Report, p. 166.

2. Retrieved 5/4/2011 from www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queertheory and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory.

3. Reich, Rob. (2008). On regulating homeschooling: A reply to Glanzer. Educational Theory, 58(1), 17-23.

4.Crampton, W. Gary. (2011, March-May). Scripturalism: A Christian worldview. The Trinity Review, 299, retrieved 3/27/2011 from www.trinityfoundation.org.

5. Matthew 24:1-2, NKJV.