I don’t often weigh in on the culture wars. But I was floored recently to learn from my two eldest daughters that the terms A.D. (Anno Domini) and B.C. (Before Christ) have quietly been replaced in public school classrooms – at least in Westchester County, NY – with the acronyms C. E. (Common Era) and B. C .E. (Before Common Era.)
When did that happen?
Well, apparently it’s been going on for some time, but I could not find a single friend who was aware of it, save those who hail from academia.
Apparently A.D. and B.C. are offensive to non-Christians, although I’ve never heard anyone complain about them. Never mind that the Christian Calendar – the one used by several billion people across the globe – is, well, the Christian Calendar.
One wonders if the Chinese Calendar (this is the year 4708) or the Jewish Calendar (it is 5771) also somehow offends. Or how about the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, the one that goes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Just infuriates you. Right?
What most stunned me, however, was how surprised my daughters were by my objection. They simply accept as fact that B. C. E. and C. E. are proper terminologies. And why not? Their teachers told them so, despite 2,000 years of prior history.
I thought my heart would burst when my 12-year-old, hardly a rebel, told me last weekend that she used A.D. in a paper recently. It was marked by the teacher as “old-fashioned usage, but still acceptable.”
But for how long?
If I had another lifetime I’d love to protest this to the ends of the earth. But there are so many fights and so little time.
Oy vey.
Oy vey is right. I wonder who made this decision for the rest of us?