So Father Mario was right. Some of what I found through Google made for some very interesting reading. Here are some of the highlights of the "fake decade":
Fake Celebrities
Two words on this subject: Paris Hilton.
Fake Religion
Ah... Scientology. The religion of the Hollywood stars! Its dogma reads like the script of a really bad Sci-Fi movie. It is fuelled by celebrity membership, such as the likes of Tom Cruise, the Travoltas and Will Smith. To profess that psychology and psychiatry are "evil" is ludacris. This whole cult, and it can be reduced to nothing more than that, is simply ludacris.
Fake Prosperity
I have to say that I am so relieved that the Ontario Ministry of Education is doing a lot work to include Financial Literacy as part of the work that we do in our classroom. I can't ever remember in all my studies in History, ever coming across a decade where the stock market crashed three times. It's unheard of! The reality of the free market is that we are trusting that those who run companies and corporations are being truthful and upfront about the financial health of the enterprise. We have to trust that they are not keeping two sets of books - one for the profits and one for the lossess, but only reporting on the profits so as to generate excitement for the purposes of selling shares and stock. Can everybody say ENRON? I can't even wrap my head around how many people fell victim to Ponzi schemes. We need to teach our kids how the market works and how banking systems work. It can't be reserved for senior-level business and economic courses anymore. Kids need to know this stuff to simply BE in the world and save themselves from being victimized by people who know perhaps a little too much and would exploit those less astute than themselves.
Fake Jobs
Many of my friends loved this book, but The Secret gave people licence to think and believe that they have complete control of their lives and that we can do it on our own. This kind of attitude gave rise to the Life Coach. I still can't believe that this is an actual job that people make a living at! What education would you need? What makes someone qualified? Why do people take the word of Tony Robbins over the word of their own priest? There is something seriously wrong here.
Fake Faces
Plastic surgery has been around for a long time, but it seems that the last decade allowed more people to access it. You can get Botox injections right at your family physician's office these days! It's all about looking as young as possible. Have you SEEN Wayne Newton? Joan Rivers? Can you pull a face much tighter than that? I fear for the irreparable damage done to the self-esteem of our kids, especially our girls. So much pressure to be beautiful in an age when most beauty is created with an airbrush.
Fake Athletes
I think it is safe to say that our kids would be hard-pressed to find any heroes in the world of sports who AREN'T abusing performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. The baseball world was especially hit hard when it came to light that the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez weren't what they appeared to be. At the very end of the decade, even a Toronto-born doctor who is said to have treated Donovon Bailey and Tiger Woods was arrested for distributing performance enhancing substances.
Fake Politics
Where to start... The Florida election? The entire Bush administration? Weapons of mass destruction? Need I say more?
Fake Nobel Prize
I almost gagged when I heard that this prize, which I once held in such high regard, was given to the leader of a nation with troops engaged in active warfare. I make no apologies when I say that appointing the Nobel PEACE Prize to Barrack Obama, after having bestowed it upon the likes of Mother Teresa, Kofi Ananan, Martin Luther King Jr., Yitzhak Rabin, Nelson Mandela, Elie Weisel, the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Canada's own Lester B. Pearson, that this prestige of this prize has been officially tarnished. Obama has no business be heralded in the presence of such company and quite frankly, the integrity of this honour has been officially ruined.
What this all comes down to is a single question: what is truth? As Catholics, we know that there is but one Truth and that's Christ, who said himself that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". It's so important that in all that we teach we keep this message at the forefront. I'm disaapointed to say that it doesn't happen too regularly which is why Catholic education is in a bit of trouble. We don't seem to be brave enough to teach our kids to speak the Truth. We're too busy teaching them about political correctness, which isn't synonomous with Truth. This is where critical literacy comes in. This view of the world, this way of thinking and being is complementary with Catholicism and yet so few teachers are fluent in it. Very few can tell you what it actually means. Most think it's the same thing as critical thinking, which is going to get them into a bit of trouble. Our kids need to be able to render their view and reading of the world in an intelligent and Truthful manner. We simply have to facilitate this educational experience by being careful of the primary and supplementary material that we choose to teach with. Catholic educators need to be more than fluent in the social teachings of the Church so that they can make connections as often as possible, and no, this isn't the job solely of the Religion teachers just like OSSLT preparations isn't solely the job of English teachers.
We have an opportunity to shape the next 10 years in Catholic education around this notion of Truth. Our kids need to be proud of their faith and come to a full understanding of what we are called to believe about the world, our neighbours and ourselves.
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