Monday, March 10, 2008
3/10/08
I've been a little behind in posting, due to health issues, but I would like to touch on the Scopes and Dover trials. Since I would like to become a high school teacher these trials made me think about some restrictions I might face in the classroom. The constitution states that no kind of religion can be taught at public schools, including evolution/creationism/intelligent design. I very much agree that it is not a good idea to bring religion or evolution to a classroom in high school. It would cause more problems than it is worth. The problem with this is that student only learn what their families beliefs are, though church, conversation and so on. I feel that most students who come to college have a very tunneled view of the world. I know that I thought the way my parents do before I came to college, then I realized how many different ways of thinking there are. Maybe this (college) is the time to learn these things, but I can't help but think how much better off young adults would be if they had a broader knowledge of different perspectives.
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3 comments:
I agree with the last part of your post a lot. Being more aware and understanding of different perspectives is very beneficial. There is a lot a person can miss out on if they aren't open to learning about different things in life. I also feel like evolution could still be taught in class, because it's a science theory, not a religious theory.
Well, hope some of you're health issues are resolved. Being sick is no fun. :( So, since no religion is allowed to be taught in public schools, how are you going to not teach evolution either? You mentioned that teaching both evolution & religion publically is a bad idea. I don't know what field you'll be teaching in, but how would you be able to avoid teaching evolution at one point or another? I
I guess the best you can hope for is to really instill in your high school students the need for them to do research on topics that are controversial on their own. There is so much out there for them to discover that as teachers, we'll need to encourage them to be life long learners and to always seek both sides of any issue in order to form their own opinions. Like you said, many of us based our early opinions and political views on what we learned from our parents. For those who don't go on to college, they should at least have some background information about being open to diverse perspectives and not believing everything they hear. I would like to teach critical thinking because that is one class that really can help them realize how easily manipulated we can be by media and people around us. You can teach that in high school without bringing religion into it.
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