Wednesday, February 18, 2004

‘Freedom of ideas’ must guide teachers

My heart goes out to Kathy Cox. Our prayers are with her to make the most beneficial decisions for our children. It seems as if there are three issues with which she is publicly contending at the time: the “evolution” issue, the “bug” issue and the “history curriculum” issue.

I would like to address all three, not from the perspective of the facts of the issues themselves, but to review how kids are affected by the learning process surrounding these issues.

John Stuart Mill’s “freedom of ideas” theory basically holds that through open discussion of all sides of an issue, and only through this avenue, will society as a whole come to “Truth.”

Mill points out that we cannot know the truth of any idea until we have considered all alternatives. He also claims that defending our position is an essential part of knowing our position.

Whether or not evolution or creationism is true is not the issue in this case. I personally believe they are not mutually exclusive, but I came to that personal belief by knowing about both of these theories.

When I was at McIntosh High School in the 1980s, we were taught about evolution. One boy in my science class brought in a plastic monkey and a jar of algae and asked the science teacher point blank, “Are you saying these are my relatives?”

Good for him and his parents: THAT is the way to open up a valid discussion. He was a bright kid, the teacher did not mock him and the whole situation made us all think and talk about all aspects of the issue.

Kids (especially high school kids) should have true Platonic dialogs, verbal debates among minds. Hegel would call this a dialectic, whereby you have a thesis and an antithesis and then form a synthesis.

I could go on for days about the great thinkers who felt that this is the necessary ingredient in the learning process.

Our whole society, the government, the legal system, this very editorial page is based on the fundamental premises of presenting opposing ideas. Why is education not more like this?

There are fewer concrete facts in this world than we think. In college, I knew a Harvard graduate who was convinced that the Earth was the center of the universe. He claimed, very seriously, that the math was just as incomplete on both sides; who knows?

Please don’t tell a teacher not to teach something; rather give them gentle reminders that there are two sides to every story. Do you really want our kids asking a college professor about the “2,000-year-old bug”? Rather, let him intelligently point out to his professors that there are some inaccuracies in the scientific dating systems.

Insofar as the history issue is concerned, it is important to consider how and when kids learn best. Kathy Cox is claiming that a more detailed study over time is a better way to learn than a repetition of facts over several years.

Joseph Jarrell claims that high school minds are more developed and that certain key events in history should not be skipped.

It seems to me that the school board is trying to make grammar school, middle school and high school more like college. Are kids ready to learn that way? I am afraid in most cases they do not seem to be.

Here again, do we want to send kids to college with such a limited knowledge of early Rome, whereby all they remember is the Colosseum made of sugar cubes and the toga party (although this knowledge may be useful to fraternity brothers)?

As a philosophy major who concentrated mainly on Platonic thought, I cringe to think that Socrates will be skipped for high school kids. Many of the Greek concepts that are central to our western thought process are not something that middle school children are ready to grasp (I am assuming that is when kids will learn pre-1500 A.D. history). I can only hope that the school board did their research before proposing this new curriculum and that it is not only so that kids will pass some tests.

And remember, if kids are brought up with a strong foundation in the home, they will not waver. This holds true for both a religious and an intellectual foundation.

It is our job to teach our religious beliefs to our children: that is what the Bible tells us. It is our job to let them know when and how you think the world began and give them backup or strong faith to support it.

Parents, it is also our job to intellectually supplement our children. Now that you know what history may be left out of high school, take a summer to learn about ancient history with your teenager; you both might learn something!

Bridget Lambert, mother

Fayetteville, Ga.