Controversy Religion and Culture in American Society During the 1970s (Essay Sample)

The Controversy Religion and Culture in American Society During the 1970s
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The Controversy Religion and Culture in American Society During the 1970s
In the 1970s, the United States government developed an elementary school curriculum, "Man: A Course of Study" (MACOS), to instill in American elementary students an understanding of what it meant to be a human. The curriculum's centerpiece was a film that chronicled a year's life of an Inuit family found in the Canadian Arctic, intending to reconstruct an ancient culture on the verge of contact with the outside world. However, the graphics displayed in this film created a clash of values that sparked conflict in a number of communities throughout the United States. As a result, politicians and academics sparked a contentious national debate. In 2004, Charles Laird produced the documentary "Through These Eyes," which examined the MACOS controversies. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the controversy surrounding the curriculum depicted in Laird's documentary in relation to the struggles for religion and culture in 1970s American society.
During the 1970s, the controversy surrounding the curriculum sparked clashes over religion and culture in American society. According to the film, MACOS appeared to be an excellent curriculum because it was based on educational psychology and involved students in inquiry through firsthand accounts, including the film about Eskimos. However, the curriculum sparked controversy because it ran counter to popular beliefs at the time. At the time, most people believed that the curriculum attempted to establish a new culture by undermining the existing one. Congressman John B. Conlan was one of those who opposed the curriculum. He contended that MACOS was a philosophical educational program "designed to create a new man and culture in America devoid of traditional values" (Laird 27:00-27:13). Thus, the primary reason people opposed the curriculum was that it exposed students to values and perceptions that contradicted their parents' beliefs and wishes. Additionally, it taught children about other cultures as if they were American. This may have led many parents and high-ranking members of society to believe that teaching other cultures as if they were equivalent to American culture risked devaluing their own.
According to one of the parents who opposed the curriculum, "whenever anything fails in the future, at whatever level of society, we the parents, not the educators, will be held accountable for their behavior" (Laird 41:49-41:58) This demonstrates that those who opposed the curriculum did so because it tended to teach students values and behaviors that conflicted with those held by parents. MACOS depicted practices that were not considered acceptable in 1970s American society, including infanticide, wife sharing, bestiality, communal living (Laird 26:24-26:30). By doing so, it depicted that it supported such practices. Also, the curriculum broke down traditional standards of values of what is right or wrong. In the 1970s, American society believed in the existence of an objective moral standard, a belief in universal morality. However, the curriculum challenged this belief and established a new belief that one's environment determines morality based on Eskimos's context of practicing infanticide and euthanasia.
MACOS educated students about the human condition as an animal. Even today, there are debates about the origins of man. Some argue that it is through evolution, while others believe that man was created by God. MACOS's emphasis on man as an animal aided in the evolution and natural selection processes. This led religious believers to argue that the curriculum attempts to assert control over children's reflective lives (Friedman). By learning about natural selection, most children would lose faith in the Biblical account of man's creation, reducing the Bible to a collection of myths. This would have swayed a large number of people against religion. As a result, the curriculum emphasized humanism, which conflicts with religion. Humanism education for children would have "weaned children away from biblical Christianity" (Friedman)
Correspondingly, the curriculum taught children about Eskimo