From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Reader's Digest on prayer: amusing, or scary?
Date: 16 Nov 92 14:39:41 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <Xi40TB3w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:
>gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
>> In article <1992Nov10.143105.22358@oclc.org> jay@oclc.org (Jeff Young) writes
>> >Believe it or not, there are other types of diversity than just the
>> >religious kind.
>> 
>> Yes indeed.  And that is the real reason why we need choice in education.
>> The only kind of diversity that uniformity can provide would be the
>> intellectual, pedagogical, or esthetic equivalent of Western Literature
>> 101 or "great moments in classical music".  No one approach can provide
>> both diversity and depth. 
>
>Perhaps I'm missing something here.  Can you please explain why giving people
>a choice in education will increase the diversity of subjects a single pupil
>studies?
>
>In the best possible case, choosing one school over another will be a
>straight gain; the school chosen will have a more diverse range of subjects. 
>This case is no better than getting all schools to teach that diverse range
>of subjects, and not giving people the choice.
>
>In most cases, though, choosing one school over another will NOT be a
>straight gain; in choosing one set of subjects, you will lose others.  This
>case is significantly WORSE than getting all schools to teach the same
>diverse range of subjects and not giving people a choice.
>
>So it seems to me that your idea of "choice" is guaranteed to be no better
>than having all schools teach the same range of subjects, and might very
>plausibly result in pupils being taught a narrower range of subjects.
>
>For instance, can you imagine a Fundie school teaching evolution properly? 
>And conversely, can you imagine a strong atheist/sceptic school teaching
>Eastern philosophy properly?
>
>Or are you not concerned with diversity as it applies to students?  Are you
>just concerned with some more abstract notion of diversity in the sense of
>"Well, I guess there's a school *somewhere* that teaches it..."
>
>
>mathew
>-- 
>This disclaimer does not represent the views of Mantis Consultants Ltd

Your comments are well taken.  I do not expect every school to offer a
full variety of points of view.  That is not the purpose of education.
Rather it is to prepare the growing child to be able to use his own
sound judgement so that when he or she goes out into the world they
will be able to meet the enormous diversity there with understanding,
an open and thougthful mind, and clarity of thinking.  The problem of
the smorgasboard approach at the outset is that it does not allow
for enough depth.

So by definition, each school would tend to concentrate on some things
and let other things go.  This is true of public schools as well as
private schools.  

As for whether Fundamentalist schools would teach evolution properly,
I would say, no.  Likewise, I don't think that public schools teach
it properly either.  I won't go into my own views on how evolution
really happened, but the point is that as to matters of fact, all 
knowledge is subject to error.  What the educator does is to attempt
the best he can to teach that which is good, true, and beautiful in
such a way that that the child develops out of his own being the
capacities for becoming a free human being as an adult.

I do not expect educational choice to be a panacaea, but I believe that
the state run school concept has little or no chance of becoming the vehicle
for training fo children to become healthy, openminded, and thoughtful
adults.  This is obviously a declaration, and it requires even more 
words to defend it.

Now, there is a lot more to say to your comments and to my previous
ones.  Unfortunately I am under pressure in my work and won't be
able to continue this discussion for a while.  But I find your views
thoughtful and interesting, and feel it might be worthwhile to
continue the thread offline from home.  If you feel that way, please 
drop me a note at compuserve or America Online.  

	73237.2006@cis
	gerrypalo@aol.com

Hope to hear from you.

Gerry Palo