Culture Shaper in a New Year

by Kelly Knowlden

The calendar has turned a new page and now the 2012 year is underway.  At Immanuel Christian School, our tradition for January has been to engage in a book week that allows children the delights of telling about the stories they have been reading and enjoyed.  Of course, our desire is for students to love to read over a lifetime.  Here is why:

A culture transmits its beliefs through a number of methods that are continually changing. Historically that has been through the literature, music, art, and architecture that are dominant at any given moment.  Today we need to include the electronic media forms that are ways people communicate and express what is important.  These beliefs come from the prevailing philosophy and the religious orientation of the people of the culture.  Education and books help define what is important. 

The influence of education and books on American culture has left us believing that man has evolved and is not any different essentially from the animals that co-inhabit the earth.  (Animal rights activists want people to have the right to allow their pets to receive an inher- itance.)  It has also caused us to think that all cultures are equal in their contribution to the flow of history.  (Celebrating Kwanzaa is as important to the African cultures as celebrating Christmas is to us.)

The literature program we have chosen tells another story.  The book list in our library extols a different sort of story that maintains the values of a Judeo-Christian heritage.  Books matter.  The Bible, as a book, informs us of how to think about the world, ourselves and God.  We need to invest in understanding it and in reading good literature to transmit a common core of values based on truth.