His teacher taught the kids that BC means Before Christ and AD means After Death.. and she went on with this nonsense. I'm so annoyed about this. She didn't say anything at all about Caesar or the Roman Empire. Ugh!

I printed this out for him..

http://www.holysmoke.org/hs00/bc-ad.htm

He wants to bring it to school, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I'm not quite sure how to handle this.

Well, in dictionaries B.C is "Before Christ" and A.D. is "anno Domini" (not "after death")

People get way too touchy with religion. It wouldn't surprise me if he got 1-2 letter grades knocked off his stuff for it if he brought it in (no offense meant to teachers!, but not all are good).

That's the same thing my teachers taught me in school. I expected it in Sunday school, but public schools should be more specific.

I am worried that it might hurt his grades. I'll probably end up telling him to keep quiet about it.

That doesn't even make any sense. If "AD" meant "After Death", that would mean that Christ's life would have taken place outside of recorded history. Does she really think that the year 1 AD began 33 years after BC 1? I don't think so.

To be really annoying about it... that calendar system isn't the one we even use now. in 1540 (1520?) it was redesigned. So it's not even 2003 years after death anyway.

Yeah, the calendar system is one of many, and has had days added and subtracted (one time they cut out half of October, maybe in the 1500s).

Also, wasn't Jesus born in the year 7 B.C.?

I like the Mayan calendar. I wrote but lost an app that showed the Mayan date and time in real time. *makes note to rewrite it*

Were it not for the fact that a teacher said this, it'd be absolutely funny :p.

There might be a problem with the article you referenced. I cannot, however, adequately put it into words.

Wether or not he should bring it to school mainly depends on the teacher's personality in my view. I know some of my teachers in the past enjoyed critical pupils.

The Gregorian calender reform was actually an attempt to make the calender accurate again :D.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03168a.htm

I like BCE (before current era) and CE (current era), but I've seen it only rarely.

I was taught Before Christ and After Death too and it alway bothered me for the logical flaws...

BCE and CE are becoming more used, especially among Jewish families who live on two calendars, as I understand it. Though I understood it to stand for “before the common era rather then current.

I knew the Latin meaning of AD and that it means in the year of our Lord but as a child I often said "after death" because it made more sense to me.

There are a few inaccuracies in the paper you presented so I would look at some other sourced if you are really interested.

I hate that students and teachers too are more concerned with a better grade then we are with truth. How dare anyone penalize someone for seeking truth. She/he was just plain wrong assuming your child translated the facts accurately to you.

Never stop learning.

I like BCE (before current era) and CE (current era), but I've seen it only rarely.

That's what I always use. And yeah, that's what I was told about AD and BC.

As something kind of ironic... I first saw the BC/BCE & CE in a Lutheran school, and Catholic University.


Marie, it is a history class that this is taught in right (the AD/BC)?

There are a few inaccuracies in the paper you presented so I would look at some other sourced if you are really interested.

Quite correct. I very nearly ranted at it just now (call it professional deformation :D).

A link or three will suffice:

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_Exiguus

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05010b.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03738a.htm

I was taught before christ and Anno domini...

How old is your son? Perhaps you could bring the print out to his teacher and discuss your concerns with her, which might go over better than a student 'correcting' his teacher. my teachers always hated when i did this ;)

I have to disagree here. I am a practicing buddhist and as against religion in schools as they come. I also work in a public school in Texas. So I'm well aware of all the religious b.s. kids get taught.

However, the fact is many things are written as BC and AD. and they did stand for that at one time. (not the after death part...that lady is dumb for that). but I don't see anything wrong with teaching that it stood for "Before Christ."

History is history. Just like the rule of thumb comes from not beating your wife with a reed thicker than your thumb. We can explain that to kids, but also recognize that most wives (hopefully) are not beaten with reeds nowadays.

We can't rewrite history to take all that stuff out. Its in many texts that way.

XOXO
Beth

Like other's have said before me, I like B.C.E and C.E. In my mind it's a sign of community and peace- seeing as how most countries now are considering it the year 2003 for simplicities sake and it's considered the "Common Era". My english teacher taught it to us, and at the time I was already getting a little irritable over the whole christian connations of B.C and A.D, seeing as how I'm adamently Agnostic (is there such a thing? Lol) and find the whole thing pointless and silly. That bothers me that your son's teacher would say such a thing, though, especially since Church and State are supposed to be seperate (though it's never stopped some teachers), and that's a little out of bounds in my ever-humble opinion. :/

I was never taught after death. This issue has nothing to do with religion and everything with the teacher not knowing what the hell she is talking about. I don't see the harm in letting your son correct her. I used to argue with teachers all the time and it didn't hurt my grade. But perhaps do it in a polite way. he could say he was looking through the dictionary and found AD and it said this.. so I looked it up elsewhere and found that ad does not mean after death. This could be a good lesson for him on how to deal with people diplomatically. I don't see how it could effect his grade. Don't they use a point system to determine grades?

Anyway, I agree, teaching kids the correct meaning is most important.

Quite correct. I very nearly ranted at it just now (call it professional deformation :D).

A link or three will suffice:

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysius_Exiguus

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05010b.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03738a.htm

I'll look at those links tomorrow. :)

Just like the rule of thumb comes from not beating your wife with a reed thicker than your thumb.

That is a myth.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa030226a.htm

http://www.canlaw.com/rights/thumbrul.htm

http://lawlibrary.ucdavis.edu/LAWLIB/Oct97/0639.html

That bothers me that your son's teacher would say such a thing, though, especially since Church and State are supposed to be seperate (though it's never stopped some teachers), and that's a little out of bounds in my ever-humble opinion. :/

But the BC and AD do have a relationship to Christianity. "Separation of church and state" does not prohibit the mention of anything related to religion in a classroom, contrary to popular belief.

My only issue here is that teacher was wrong about the AD.

As something kind of ironic... I first saw the BC/BCE & CE in a Lutheran school, and Catholic University.


Heh...a lot of my teachers haven't known what I meant when using BCE/CE :rolleyes: I learned it from my big brother, one of my favoritest people in the world :)

He's only 10. Maybe if he was in high school he could discuss it with his teacher.. but for now I think he should drop it.

Heh...my school's so pathetic a lot of my teachers haven't known what I meant when using BCE/CE :rolleyes:

It's not exactly standard. I have seen it used, but I still see BC and AD much more often.