Even though
I am an educator I rarely read children’s books—I rarely read them because I
generally find them boring and filled with rubbish. I had heard a lot of good
things about the Magic Tree House
series and had been recommended books from this series a number of times. What
is more, both my children and my students regularly read from this series, so I
thought I should check them out.
I only read two
titles: Night of the Ninjas and Hour of the Olympics, so my knowledge of
the series is significantly limited. Yet after reading these works I have no
intention of reading any others; to say that I found them lacking would be an
understatement.
To begin
with, Hour of the Olympics repeatedly
emphasizes the fact that women were not allowed to compete in or view the ancient
Grecian Olympics. Over and over this is stated along with a running editorial
about how unfair this fact is. The problem with this assertion is that half of it
is false and the other half is misleading. Unmarried women, while unable to
compete in the Olympics, were allowed to attend the games; the Priestess of Demeter
actually sat in a place of honor. A huge section of the plot of this book revolves
around keeping Annie hidden at the games. We are told in no uncertain terms that if she, being a girl, is discovered there will be serious consequences; in reality this fear is completely unfounded,
being based on false premises.
Hour of the Olympics likewise fails to explain that the
women of Ancient Greece did not compete in the Olympic Games because they
instead competed in the Heraean Games, a separate athletic event dedicated to
Hera.* The Greeks had separate events for men and women because women then, as
is still the case today, lacked the physical ability to compete with men in
most athletic contests. We enlightened moderns who loudly proclaim that men and
women are completely equal are no different than the Ancient Greeks in that we still
have separate events for men and women—we simply combine our athletic events in
one great contest whereas they had parallel events that took place near one
another.
There is also
no discussion about the purpose of the Olympics , which is something one would
expect to find in a book that markets itself as teaching children history. The Olympics
developed to give the warlike Greeks an opportunity to show off their prowess without
actually having to go to war. Think about the various events the Greek competed
in: the javelin throw, wrestling, boxing, sprinting, chariot racing—these are
all the skills a Hellenic warrior would need. As will be discussed later, women
in a pre-industrial, pre-contraception world did not participate in warfare, so
why would they devote themselves to preparation for warfare?
In contrast
to this, when the Magic Tree House kids go back to ancient Japan in Night of the Ninjas they meet a woman samurai,
which is of course a historical falsehood. The contrast between these two books,
judged by modern standards, paints Ancient Greece, one of the two main sources
of our civilization, in a bad light while painting ancient Japan in a positive light. I have no problem whatsoever painting Japan in a positive light, but it is
perverse to make an unduly positive judgment of another’s cultural heritage
while unreasonably disparaging one’s own.
The second ignorant
anachronism in Hour of the Olympics
deals with education in the ancient world. The author repeatedly states how unfair
it is that girls did not go to school, but fails to communicate any knowledge
of the historical context. First off, what percentage of boys went to school? A
very low percentage—most boys, as well as girls, did most of their learning in
the home as did most children in most ages. Second, we must ask: what was the
purpose of education? Was it not to prepare children for adulthood? What was the
primary thing a man needed to prepare for? War. What was the primary thing a
woman needed to prepare for? Motherhood.
But wait,
isn’t that sexist! Can’t women, some women at least, make good warriors? Yes.
But in an age without birth control nearly all women were pregnant or nursing
the majority of their lives. But isn’t this unfair? Why should women have to do
this? Given high mortality rates, this is the only way to keep a community in existence.
The ancient
Greeks, like all pre-modern men, lived in an age of scarcity. Societies therefore
did not organizes themselves around giving every individual the liberty to
pursue his or her dreams, a luxury that only a society of super-abundance like
our own can provide, but around policies and principles that would best stave
off extinction. You see, human beings have an aversion to extinction and will
put up with high degrees of misery in order to keep it at bay. Most men did not
want to incessantly march and campaign and die in an alien land, far from their hearth
and loved ones; most women did not want to perpetually devote their time,
energy, and bodies to giving birth to children that died at alarming rates. But
they did and they did this because it was what needed to be done. For those of
us that live in industrial societies of plenty it is impossible to appreciate
just how difficult life was for our ancestors. To daftly condemn them without
any reference to the differing nature of their environment is not to display
their immorality, but our own ignorance.
Still, it
could be argued, war is one thing, why were women prohibited from playing any
part in politics? How is that fair? After all, history clearly shows that women
often make fine political leaders. This begs the question: what main issue did Hellenic
politicians deal with? War. They asked whether or not to go to war, how to wage
war, on what terms would peace be acceptable, etc. When aristocrats alone
fought, poleis were aristocratic; as the middle class began to fight in the phalanx,
poleis introduced democratic reforms; when the lower classes finally became
involved, as was the case with the Athenian navy, poleis became radically democratic.
Historically speaking, it is nearly always the case that those that fight in
wars get to decide issues of war making. As shown above, women were unable to
fight and for that reason they were not involved in politics. Only in the modern
age with mass mobilization did women participate in war making in large numbers
by sewing uniforms, manufacturing munitions, etc. and it is therefore no coincidence
that women all over the Western world were given suffrage rights following the
signing of the Treaty of Versailles. All of this is by no means a justification
of any past political practice, but all history, including history for kids,
must not begin with judgment, but rather clear explanation.
To judge
from our historical point of view is not necessarily wrong (though God’s point
of view is infinitely superior), but passing judgment without clear context and
explanation is antithetical and anathema to a historian’s work. This is true
whether one is writing for academics or toddlers. Moralistic pseudo-historical works
like the Magic Tree House are so keen
to judge that they fail to contextualize. By this they do nothing more than provide
kids with the illusion of knowledge, a thing far worse than simple ignorance.
At the end
of the day readers of Hour of the Olympics
will have learned absolutely nothing about Ancient Greece but will be left with
the impression that Ancient Greece, the fountainhead of their civilization, is
somehow bad. Again, I have only a small sample size but Hour of the Olympics was unduly harsh and Night of the Ninjas simply false. As an educator devoted to passing
on historical knowledge, I was quite disappointed by these so-called historical
books.
*Though to
be fair this fact is mentioned in the companion Magic Tree House Fact Tracker.
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