21st Century Education & Values 10 Dec 2006 09:32 pm
Brett, I’ve been thinking about this post for a while and trying to pinpoint what it is that bothers me about some of the ideas you are putting out. Firstly, I am not a Christian so my worldview is not the one you refer to personally, although my childhood and school life centred around my parents’ denominational education choices. I personally think it is essential that church and state are kept separate, because as soon as religion starts imposing its worldview in education, there is no room for any other.
This is always an interesting point Graham, as it begins to point out the very often held view that there is such thing as no religion. Like it or not there will always be a predominant worldview imposed in our society. If it is not Christianity or any other main stream religion it will more than likely be humanism – Which in itself is a religion. My argument would be that it is impossible for us to separate religion and state as there is always going to be a set of values or beliefs held by those who make decisions in our society.
Look at the “intelligent design” movement in the US as a classic example of how “truth” can be presented as legitimate education.
I am not sure how this is an argument for your prior point. The intelligent design movement is based on scientific fact that is being taught in schools. You can not tell me that evolution is the only science of our existence that should be taught? Evolution is still a theory and if I am to teach children with an unbiased worldview or set of values I owe it to them to present all the scientific facts and theories. Your argument is set on not being bias to any one world view that I find it intriguing that you would suggest that the “intelligent design” movement somehow not be a legitimate scientific theory or fact that could be taught to students? The internet and other technologies allow children to search and learn more about others opinions and beliefs – which I actually believe is a wonderful thing. Our separation of church and state ideals would say cut children off from studying intelligent design as another theory of our existence – in fact the science of intelligent design Verse the science of evolution is a marvellous exercise that will get children thinking as long as both cases are presented fairly.
Look at the schools featured in Taliban ruled Afghanistan (the movie Kandahar featured some scenes showing their worldview teaching). When I was at school, this form of truth, referred to as doctrine, could not be countered by alternative points of view via a medium such as the internet – so my own skills of determining what beliefs or values I would hold in life were very slow to develop.
I agree with you here (mind you a comparison between Taliban school and Christian school would be extreme) – a Christian school or any educational institution that has a particular religion at its foundation is not doing any favours to students by censoring them from other philosophies in the world. Our students need to learn what else is out there. My argument in the earlier post was simply that if there is no absolutes in life then we have no way of coming back to a solid foundation to test all other philosophies on. You will test philosophies that come across in your world based on the set of values you hold in your life. However, if a student is not taught some set of values what have they got to base their opinions on?
Your absolute truth may or may not be mine – so as soon as that happens, it can’t be absolute for everyone else.
True but it is still absolute truth to me… I hold certain values as absolutes which form my basis for judging other philosophies. These absolutes have been developed over time as I have learnt and observed particular parts of life. Once again, my argument here is more along the lines of having some form of absolutes as a foundation.
My parents sought to impose their values based on their church worldview onto me, and through their choices tried to ensure that no other alternatives were discussed or acknowledged.
This to me is nothing more than religion for the sake of tradition – something that bugs me about many church groups – An idea that we must mask our children from all other forms of thinking and philosophies of the world. This creates nothing more than narrow minded young people that don’t know how to cope in the real world. They grow up either becoming bitter toward the church or having no basis to express their views and opinions. I personally believe that we need to give children a firm foundation of truth and then teach them about what other people and cultures believe and their reasons for their beliefs. Having done this myself during my tertiary studies I believe it helped me understand my faith much more clearly and gain a much broader perspective on the world. It also helped me have an understanding of absolutes and the values I have for my life.
So I worry when I see words like “they have no set of values ” because my thought is that it comes off sounding like that those of us who have declined religion have no values or cannot recognise truth.
I am sorry if my original post gave you this idea…. However, I find it very interesting to think that we can create a perception that truth can be something that can be manipulated to be wha ever it is we as humans want it to be. I am sure you have a set of values for life and core values that you bring into your educational world, however, those values will always be based upon a worldview or philosophy of some sort. It may be post-modernism or humanism or new age beliefs, either way your perception of truth and values are based on some foundation you have set in life through your own experiences.
To conclude – I am concerned that we don’t give children the opportunity to create a firm foundation of what they believe. Once we have done that we create opportunity for them to be real learners who are able to discern information and interact within an age of information that seems so overwhelming to many of us. Our schools need to make our students independent learners who have the ability to think for themselves and realise that all judgments of truth in their world will ultimately fall on their personal foundation of beliefs or worldview. I can not base my opinions of what is right and wrong or true on negative past experiences and I certainly hope that students will be educated enough to learn how to understand the world through critical thinking and thought processes rather than simple experience.