GotSteel
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Joined: 2/19/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: GotSteel
Billy goes to Biology class in Redneckville Texas, his teacher explains that some people believe in evolution and some believe in creationism. "You make your own conclusions about which one is true." Little Billy doesn't need to ponder for even a second, it's not really even a decision because he already believes in creationism since his parents have been telling him it's true for years. Thus no fixed beliefs are challenged and no parental authority is undermined.
quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
Perhaps Evolution isn't something "Little Billy" is mature enough to grasp, then?
My understanding is that generally life sciences occurs in middle school and Biology is a High School level class. As such little Billy while not an adult is way past the age where he should have found out that fairy tales aren't literally real.
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ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
Wouldn't it be better to start at the earliest age of potential critical thinking and start with the easy stuff? As they mature and develop better reasoning skills, the deeper subjects can be brought to the fore, no?
Absolutely, the curriculum I was exposed to involved years of learning critical thinking through middle school and high school. While I agree that starting with highly contentious issues isn't the best strategy, it is important to get to those issues. We're not actually teaching the next generation to think critically if we teach them to only apply such reasoning to easy issues.
quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
If a person isn't at an age where critical thinking skills can truly be learned, perhaps they aren't mature enough to have religious belief systems challenged?
I've watched adults who aren't mature enough to deal with the facts about reality. It's the sort of thing where if one doesn't have their religious belief systems challenged it's hard to learn the skill of coping with it.
I think it's wrong to go around hiding or obscuring the facts about reality from High School students. Hiding facts is a huge disservice not just to Billy but to all the other children as well. We wonder why as a country our education is falling behind....but with so many people on the wrong side of teaching reality and critical thinking it shouldn't be surprising.
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RE: Bill Would Require All Idaho Kids To Read Ayn Rand�... - 
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