2010-10-24, 05:22 PM
Cancambo Wrote:First off, I'm not quite sure how people are taking this, but I am not in any way trying to rationalize any theory as to why life exists or anything like that. My interest is not to prove or disprove anything (besides, I'd get nowhere anyway if I did). All that I believe is that people ought to be allowed to teach what they want to teach (unless it is obviously something as hurtful as, say, antisemitism, racism, etc.).
The way I'm seeing it is that the localized people should be able to choose what they want to teach. The schools are public, which means they should generally follow the guidelines the public sets for them. The basic principle in this country is that the majority rules, but it does not deny the rights of minorities in doing so. By allowing the majority to teach what they want to teach, while still providing something to the minority, you are doing what the country was sort of founded upon. Just like, atm, states are given the power to govern their schools. If Californians want to teach something that the people in NY don't, then the Californians teach what they want to teach and the New Yorkers don't. No harm no foul. Regardless of how you feel about how irrational the beliefs may be, if they don't hurt anyone then they are fine.
As for the religious school thing, I don't feel that is fair. As it stands, everyone has to pay taxes. Your taxes are going to fund your child's education if they are in public schooling. To say "if you want your kids to learn creationism/intelligent design then go to a religious school" is a bit unfair to that taxpayer. Essentially they're having to pay far more for their child's education (as most religious schools aren't free because they can't receive governmental funding). If you're paying for it, you ought to be given the chance to vote what your money goes towards. Maybe a fair solution would be to give tax cuts to people who opt to send their kids to religious schools. Then public schools continue to teach what they teach, and people who want their children can send their kids to a religious school without it being a huge cost burden. Basically these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_voucher
- To first part: That's fine but what I'm saying is that I don't necessarily think someone should be funded by the government to teach their personal beliefs or the beliefs of the students.
-To the second part: That doesn't really work well. If the entirety of the student body wants to have something taught to them (or rather their parents want something taught to them) then it could work. However if you just have 1 student with different beliefs or even one parent who doesn't want that taught to their child you arrive at a problem. What would be the propose solution: Have the child miss class or have the kid forced to learn something that may go against his beliefs? I'm not 100% sure but a student with different beliefs could sue for discrimination. As well I fell the time used for the comfort of the students could be used to teach more things, E.G. the week or so they spend on teaching and testing on intelligent design could be used on better things or at least deepening the understanding on current subjects.
-To the third part: You can't necessarily argue: "you pay taxes on it so you should ALWAYS be able to control it", their are a lot of things taxes go to that aren't used by the tax payers and if you want a customized education instead of the one already provided you should have to pay extra because you want the extra comfort and extra benefits. But I do agree that their should be some kind of "School Voucher" implemented to those who want a custom education.