The republicans used to want to change the calendar to do away with counting the years from the birth of Jesus. They wanted to count them from the birth of the republic.
I am not referring to our Australian republicans. I assume they are far too busy still trying to work out what precisely they want to change in our constitution. After all, they have only had 11 years to do this since the referendum.
During the French Revolution the republicans changed the calendar to have the years begin with the declaration of the republic. They even did away with the seven day week. Instead they imposed a week of 10 days. That way, the religious found it difficult to work out when the Sabbath fell.
There were twelve months, each divided into three ten-day weeks called décades. The tenth day, décadi, replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity. The five or six extra days needed to approximate the solar or tropical year were placed after the months at the end of each year.
The republican calendar lasted for twelve years but was finally abolished by the Emperor Napoleon with the Gregorian calendar restored on 1 January 1806, the day after 10 Nivôse an XIV in the Republican Calendar.it was revived again during the brief left wing uprising under the Paris Commune, 6–23 May 1871, 16 Floréal–3 Prairial An LXXIX.
….unelected Canberra quango condemns birth of Christ…
We've just seen the beginning of all this in the decision by the unelected and constitutionally suspect Canberra quango, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority to do away with the historical terms BC (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini). BCE (Before Common Era), BP (Before Present) and CE (Common Era) are the new neutral terms.
The underlying objection is that we count years from the birth of Christ. They don't dare change the calendar; so this fact has to be hidden from our children. It is as simple as that.
This is nothing other than a frontal assault on one of the pillars of this country, our Judeo-Christian values. This does not mean that anyone, the Australian born or the new, must belong to a Judeo-Christian religion. Rather it is an incontrovertible fact that this nation is built on those values.
Removing the reference to Christ is a gesture towards relativism, that all cultures must have equal value in Australia and therefore must have no value. This is what our children are to be taught according to the decision of an unelected body which is not accountable to the people of any and all states and which has no status under our constitutional system.
If the reference to the birth of Christ is so objectionable then so is the practice of numbering years from that date. At least the French republicans had the courage of their convictions, unlike this unelected Camberra quango.
….historical curriculum disaster….
( Continued below) This follows the history curriculum disaster by the quango which we reported on here last year. One of those matters which the Founding Fathers believed would be best determined locally was education.
Once again they have been shown to be right. It is facile to say the nation would be better off with a national curriculum. The evidence is to the contrary.
As we asked here (“Why is our history banned? " 25 march 2011) if young Australians are to be taught nothing or almost nothing about their heritage, how will they be able to appreciate it? Education is far too important to be left in the hands of politically correct elites.
….world attention…
This politically correct decision by the Canberra quango has been reported around the world. “Australia goes PC and drops BC from curriculum,” the Ottawa Citizen (3/9) announced, using a report from Bonnie Malkin in the London Daily Telegraph.
…Australian reaction…
According to Miranda Devine in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph “The PC brigade kills off Jesus Christ,” 3 September 2011, the Reverend Fred Nile said the deletion was "an absolute disgrace … the direction of the national curriculum is towards almost a Christian cleansing to remove from our history any references to the role Christianity had in the formation of Australia and still has today."
"This is the final insult to remove BC and AD which are still recognised around the world," he said.Removing BC and AD from the curriculum was an "intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history", Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen told Ms. Devine.
"It is absurd because the coming of Christ remains the centre point of dating and because the phrase 'common era' is meaningless and misleading," he said. It was akin to calling Christmas the festive season, Archbishop Jensen said.
…quando's dictat defended…
A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, responsible for developing the national curriculum from kindergarten to Year 12, told Ms. Devine that BCE and CE were to be introduced because this was an increasingly common standard for the representation of dates.
The little known term BP (Before Present) will be used when dealing with "very ancient history and archaeology, and allows for the teaching of more sophisticated understandings of representations of time".
In anticipation of the curriculum change, textbooks for student teachers such as Teaching And Learning In Aboriginal Education, by Neil Harrison, were already using the term BP.A spokesman for NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said yesterday the minister was not concerned about the changes, adding that BCE and CE were commonly used terms.
Federal Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said:
"Australia is what it is today because of the foundations of our nation in the Judeo-Christian heritage that we inherited from Western civilisation. Kowtowing to political correctness by the embarrassing removal of AD and BC in our national curriculum is of a piece with the fundamental flaw of trying to deny who we are as a people."
Ms. Devine reported that the curriculum was to have been introduced next year but has been delayed.