Should witch craft, faith healing, crop circles, chakra, crystal healing, and fortune telling be taught in science classes?

[Ben Kenobi]

Stop threadjacking Zevico. This thread is about teaching history.

[Zevico]

It's my post and I'll threadjack if I want to, threadjack if I want to, threadjack if I want to...

[Elok]

Uh, sorry... I'm going to have to with Ben here. Hell, I think a good portion of 20 year olds would answer the same

Doubtful. Don't get me wrong, I've met a lot of shamefully ignorant students--my favorite being the high-schooler who thought the Netherlands were in the Arctic Circle. But that particular error is unlikely, because of our whole settlers-and-indians mythology. There will be students who have no idea that white people haven't been living here forever, but they will be in the extremely low-performing section, at least by the standards of my district (i.e., the kids who couldn't be taught to know better anyway). An average student, I would wager, would assume "not English," though s/he would know little more. A below-average student would be unsure whether a thousand years ago was before or after Columbus, but might make a fifty-fifty guess on the right side of that line.

[giblets]

They just want to make up a bunch of crap about what the proles believe based on no evidence whatsoever.

[Ben Kenobi]

Doubtful. Don't get me wrong, I've met a lot of shamefully ignorant students--my favorite being the high-schooler who thought the Netherlands were in the Arctic Circle. But that particular error is unlikely, because of our whole settlers-and-indians mythology. There will be students who have no idea that white people haven't been living here forever, but they will be in the extremely low-performing section, at least by the standards of my district (i.e., the kids who couldn't be taught to know better anyway). An average student, I would wager, would assume "not English," though s/he would know little more. A below-average student would be unsure whether a thousand years ago was before or after Columbus, but might make a fifty-fifty guess on the right side of that line.

Elok, does the fact that I teach at a parochial school in Texas change any of your assumptions?

Half the students I have in my classes are minorities, mostly Mexican and some Vietnamese kids. There isn't a 'settler/indian' mentality because they are neither settler nor indian. It has no meaning to them or relevance to their lives. Heck, it's a stretch to get them to name a tribe. I was a bit surprised by that, but there are quite a few Vietnamese folks here and they usually tend to be Catholic.

[Elok]

Yes, I can envision that, BK, but you didn't say "the average kid at my school." You said,

Go up to the first 12, 13 year old you see and ask them what language people spoke in America a thousand years ago.

"IDK, English?" will be the most likely response.

The first 12 or 13yo I see will likely be an average student at one of my district's public middle schools, and the average student certainly knows better. Now, what they diplomatically call "very low-performing" kids, that's another story. But such kids are not the norm in my district, and probably not in Gribbler's or nationwide either.

[Ben Kenobi]

The first 12 or 13yo I see will likely be an average student at one of my district's public middle schools, and the average student certainly knows better.

So ask them! I'd be interested to see what they say.

It's one thing to assert, "well of course they wouldn't say that!"

I believed that until I started teaching, and realized that no, they did not.

[C0ckney]

i always found saints lives interesting. my particular favourite was the one about the saint in anglo-saxon england (i forget the name sadly), who only lived for 3 days but during his short life, managed to find time to preach a sermon on the trinity.

of course if i were teaching history, i would use such stories as example of how sources containing obvious falsehoods, could at the same time contain interesting information about real historical figures, events or social relations.

[MrFun]

Well, leftists teach that scientific proof exists for a proposition if enough people agree on it. Lots of people believe in quack medicine so why not? It is perfectly consistent with leftist thinking. Who are you to doubt the experts? Witches and faith healers have been doing their work for years and you haven't studied them enough. 99.5% of witches and faith healers agree that they really do work miracles. You don't have a degree in witchcraftology do you? You're not qualified to ask for evidence that witchcraft is real. Your doubts are simple denialism!

You're an idiot. You have no clue how science works.

[Ben Kenobi]

i always found saints lives interesting. my particular favourite was the one about the saint in anglo-saxon england (i forget the name sadly), who only lived for 3 days but during his short life, managed to find time to preach a sermon on the trinity.

of course if i were teaching history, i would use such stories as example of how sources containing obvious falsehoods, could at the same time contain interesting information about real historical figures, events or social relations.

Can't be much of a saint then if you can't remember him.

[Zevico]

You're an idiot. You have no clue how science works.

So apart from accusing me of heresy, would you care to explain why you believe I have "no clue how science works"? I have discussed leftism, not science, so given that I have not discussed science, it cannot be because of what I wrote as such. Exact science is the set of knowledge composed of empirically tested hypotheses. It does not consist of any person's beliefs. That is the point I make.

[Thorn]

If considering this thread was "serious" i'd have to say that would be a bad idea. We barely can trust our secondary education to properly instruct in basic history let alone partake in stuff that if is done wrong can have VERY BAD results. Christianity is easy its a faith based protection system, you go to a system that is active and misexplain that and all hell breaks lose.

[Evan Madrigal]

Why not. Sounds like a good way to gain new followers/ either way.