Chris Putnam wrote:Please comment on devout religious people teaching other topics such as mathematics,language,and social studies.
What's your view on this?
Moderators: Blip, The_Metatron
Chris Putnam wrote:Please comment on devout religious people teaching other topics such as mathematics,language,and social studies.
Chris Putnam wrote:What's your view on this?
These don't seem like topics that would be better off taught by a religious or non religious person. The laws of Geometry and rules of grammar don't change because of the religious or non-religious mind set of the teacher. We are of course assuming that the teacher is trained and competent in the field. In my view the various topics covered in Social Studies course work are quite frequently subject to interpretation. A student challenged to think critically about such matters could sort out the teacher what ever his or her religious persuasion. We are also assuming the teacher is teaching the students to think critically about matters of history, government, etc. I suppose this is the good teacher verses bad teacher situation.
Thank you for your comments. I find this website forum interesting but I don't have a enough time to write very many of my own thoughts in detail. I discovered about 4 months ago that I could devote hours and hours that I don't have to these discussions. I am limiting my posts primarily to brief statements and inquiry.
Also, please endure my use of the mechanics of this forum as I am not a very computer literate old man. I hope I am using the quote function properly so that it makes sense to the rest of you. If there is an instruction page on this forum please let me know.
Thank you
Jerome Da Gnome wrote:The state should not be imposing philosophical beliefs first off. And if a teacher's opinion of a particular belief is a danger, then we now know it is not science, but a belief.
I had teachers that were full blown communists, so what.
Chris Putnam wrote:Interesting. I knew of a high school science teacher who gave evidence for and against the theory of evolution in class but never mentioned God, the Bible, or anything religious at all. He claims that he just took the theory itself to task purely on scientific grounds and called the whole idea into question. Would you call that giving multiple perspective? I know that a meeting with that teacher,a disgruntled parent and school administrators was called and the teacher was asked to account for his actions. He still kept his postion as a science teacher even though some argued that the theory itself was not to challenged in the classroom.
Two years latter at the same school a senior boy wrote his graduation thesis and presented it to a panel of teachers and others from the community. Such a project and presentation on an approved topic of the students choice was a graduation requirement at that time time. The thesis was a full rebuttle of the theory of evolution on scientific grounds, and the boy concluded that "The theory of evolution was nothing more than philosophical dogma and utterly unscientific". I read the paper and the boy gave absolutely nothing religious at all. The teachers and panel approved the thesis and the boy graduated in the top 10% of his class. This was followed by a huge fallout by faculty and administration, the involvement of the teachers union, school board and a verbal threat of legal action that was never acted upon. Two years after that the school stopped requiring a senior thesis for graduation.
It seems that this topic sparks great controversy no mater what, how or who presents it in a school setting.
Chris Putnam wrote:Thank you THWOTH. You response was noteworthy. If a PH D creationist presents a compelling case, and there are PH Ds out there with such religious view, laymen such as myself, and possilbly the young man in question, have to work out who they believe is presenting the best case. I have seen debates on this topic. Unfortunately emotions can take over leading the debate into degrading coments from one side to the other. It has happened on this forum. I bow out of participation at that point because it is impossible make progress. And this hard empirical evidence is not easy for some people to grasp. Espescially when "Scholars" disagree. I'll bet that if someone went to the school the young boy in my account above attended you would find teachers unwilling to discuss the topic for fear of "offending others". People are not persuaded by the "facts" because they don't understand the "facts". These "facts" are complicated for interested laymen.
This discussion has been interesting. Thank you.
Return to Parenting & Education
Users viewing this topic: No registered users and 1 guest