Re: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers?


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Posted by Another View on September 08, 2002 at 15:36:02:

In Reply to: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers? posted by Joe Hadenuf on September 07, 2002 at 22:31:56:

Your perspective on public schooling appears to be just as distorted as you claim public school teaching is. You claim "Any aspect of moral education has been wiped out and replaced with an "if it feels good, do it" mentality." This is just plain inaccurate. Of course schools teach that the best approach to "safe sex" is abstinance, but they don't assume that teaching that is sufficient. Teenagers are going to be interested in sex no matter what we as parents teach them, and it's better for them to understand the consequences and how to deal with them than to be told, don't do it. Whether any of this should be taught in the schools is another question, but if they are going to teach it, it's only responsible to include a complete perspective. They also teach that alchohol, cigarettes, and drugs are wrong and shouldn't be used. That doesn't sound like a "if it feels good, do it" mentality."

As for the matter of evolution vs. so called "creationism" of course the schools shouldn't teach about creation. Creationism is 100% based on religious faith and to teach it in a public school would be the same as proselytizing. I think that we can all agree that to use public schools to try to convince children of the truth of one religious perspective vs. another, or none for that matter, is just wrong. Evolution is taught as a scientific theory to try to explain scientific facts, which can be empirically observed. You can argue for other explanations for those facts, and in schools other possibilities are discussed, but they shouldn't include religious arguments.

You also claim "...was nurtured by my mother, the one person who had no ulterior motive other than providing a quality education." Of course your Mother had an ulterior motive, no matter how loving or sincere a person she may have been. She wanted you to believe in the same religion as she and to a certain extent in the same political perspective as she and your Father held. This in no less biased than what is being done in a public school. The difference is that the perspective is your parent's, and not that of some other group. We all as parents try to indoctrinate our children to a certain extent.

I have a son who was home schooled for High School (public school through 8th grade), his choice not ours, and a daughter who attended the public high school. I think that they both got a similar academic education, but our son missed out on many of the social interactions that would have prepared him better for living in the real world, not to mention band, although he did take private guitar and piano lessons. I have seen both and I believe that home schooled children lose a good deal more than they gain, although I will stongly defend a person's right to home school their children for whatever reason.


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