Quote:
Originally posted by Joe Sixpack@Feb 5 2004, 06:29 PM
So who decides on the standards? Surely any decent education system must have common standards and curriculum for students across the country. Without real national standards you end up getting situations where individual schools or school districts can decide what can and cannot be taught to students. The end result of this is that you get schools in hillbilly areas that decide that their students don't need to learn about evolution and natural selection in school because the Bible says something different.
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It's a good question, Joe. I think higher national standards are good. I think higher standards from teachers is good. I think higher standards by parents is good. It was my experience that students were being treated as uninterested and dull - when in reality most kids were just a small push away from showing an interest in any subject.
The bureaucracy that arises from attempted homogeneity of educational experience in nations of hundreds or tens of millions is a daunting challenge. National education has only been tried for a few centuries and the real mother of all modern education systems, the Prussian system was created in the 19th century. Consider that there wasn't even a printing press until the 15th century. Imagine the limitations on education imposed by having to copy text by hand. There were political restrictions too. From a westerners point of view, until the Treaty of Westphalia the first half of the phrase "national education" was ambiguous.
Do we wish for every school district to have the same standards with an increasingly homogeneous population? Everyone knows the same things and has increasingly similar beliefs?
Should a school district in Kansas be able to teach creation instead of evolution because that is what the people in that community believe or should we properly indoctrinate them? Why shouldn't we have bible study classes in school? What if a school district is 100% Jewish? Should they be able to hold temple in school? If a Detroit suburb is 100% Muslim, should they be able to have a class on the Koran? What if a democratic nation is 85% Christian? Should they be able to stop the teaching of evolution in the schools or should their education be controlled by the minority group known as "the educators"? There's no way to answer all those "shoulds" satisfactorily. I don't think you can resolve all issues of public education, freedom, liberty and democracy and remain consistent.
As you asked above, who should decide such things?
Last edited by Colin at Feb 6 2004, 06:00 AM