Political Correctism Run Amok Files: BC Is No Longer PC

From our political correctism run amok files we offer yet another entry:

In a growing number of schools, educators are changing B.C. -- which stands for Before Christ -- to B.C.E. for Before Common Era. A.D. (anno Domini, Latin for year of the Lord) is becoming C.E., for Common Era. Some historians and college instructors started using the new forms in the 1980s and now it's found in some school texts.

"I think it's pretty common now," said Professor Gary B. Nash of the University of California and Los Angeles and director of the National Center for History in Schools. "Once you take a global approach, it makes sense not to make a dating system applicable only to a relative few."

Nash said in recent years most major textbook companies have adopted the new terms, which were first used by academics in the early 1990s. He said the new terms are part of the national world history standards.

Who would have thought that even the way we write our dates would be subject to scrutiny and revision by the PC Police? Or maybe this is simply another case of an insistence to change the traditional because it is the traditional.

Perhaps we should put a stop to all the bickering and simply give the PC folks what they really want. We could use some other earth-shattering historically significant event as a reference point. Many of the PC crowd would probably be delighted to use this event as the start-point for the reckoning of time. Years could be written as BWS and AWS. -------------------------An Invitation: All writers and readers of education-related posts are invited to contribute to the eighth edition of The Carnival of Education. Please send your submissions to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net. We should receive your contributions no later than 10:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, March 29, 2005. The Carnival midway will open here at the 'Wonks Wednesday morning. Get additional details about The Carnival here.

For the latest edition of The Carnival Of Education, (published 3/23, at Jenny D's) please click here.

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