Would you change the Religion class if it were competency-based?The woke culture was one of the topics addressed by Pope Francis in his address to the diplomatic officials accredited to the Holy See on January 10.
In the words of Peter's successor, "a single thought is being elaborated - a dangerous one - forced to deny history or, worse, to rewrite it on the basis of contemporary categories, while every historical situation must be interpreted according to the hermeneutics of the time, not according to the hermeneutics of today".
We all remember the demolition of statues of famous people in our history, such as Fray Junípero Serra or Christopher Columbus. We are witnesses of the revision of history that some social movements want to make, presumably linked to a struggle for social justice of certain groups.
The same pressure scheme is joined by other collectives (LGTBI, radical feminism, pantheist ecology, animalists, etc.) that want to promote and ultimately impose their vision of reality.
But, as the Pope points out, behind this whole movement there is an authentic cultural colonization that advocates a single, politically correct way of thinking that ends up ostracizing anyone who does not think as they do. It is the culture of cancellation. And with it the cancellation of culture.
This cultural movement is also permeating our society. It has a lot of division and social rupture, and repeats the old Adamic revolutionary scheme that everything begins today with us.
The culture of cancellation -throwing statues, persecuting historians, rewriting history- is a form of intransigence and cultural totalitarianism, clearly Marxist in nature. A new version of the class struggle.
These ideological approaches are also reaching our classrooms, through educational laws, the cultural environment and the political struggle of activists.
In the first place, because of the ideological keys that permeate the law, especially everything that refers to gender ideology, although not only. Also in the way in which other subjects are approached, for example, the same subject of History. Indeed, on the one hand, the study of the whole part of the past that has sustained our civilization is very reduced, and it seems that what matters most -the only thing?- is the most immediate History. But, in addition, this is presented with more subjective tints, marked by the current vision and problems, from a hermeneutic of today, as the Pope points out.
In reality, what is really happening is that we want to use education to shape the society of tomorrow. And the foundations are already being laid, as set out in the 2030 agenda, on what the society of the future should be like. Education as a tool for building this new world order is part of the project and one of the objectives of the 2030 agenda itself.
In the face of this culture of cancellation, the best we can offer our young people is a true study of history, with a claim to objectivity, with a healthy perspective, which will allow them to have a true critical thinking. A study that helps our young people to discover our roots as people and as a people.
Perhaps we need to reread the motto that gave birth to the woke movement, which comes from the English expression Stay woke! Stay awake! Maybe it is time for us to wake up and realize what is happening in our society and in our classrooms.
Pope Francis seems to have it clear.
