Now I get pretty skeptical whenever someone tells me they can feel spirits in the room, etc. I know a number of people who are “in touch” with the spirit world. When they tell me stuff, I just go, “Oh really?” And think to myself, “Yeah, ok. Whatever.”

Maybe I’m skeptical because I can’t feel any of these things. Maybe I don’t feel any of these things because I’m skeptical? (Some people believe that being skeptical closes your mind to being able to experience these things).

Personally, I don’t see the harm in discussing such topics in school, but I think teachers, regardless of what their stance is on such topics, should present it factually. E.g. The evidence is inconclusive but this is what some people believe, etc.

In the case of the girl’s experience, I tend to agree that it was a classical case of bullying. The girl was probably being traumatised by specific individuals in the class and she was just responding to her “bulliers”. Looks like it worked pretty well, too, since some of those kids didn’t return to school.

Of course you are right but I must admit hearing someone justify something based of nothing more significant that superstition still makes me flinch.

Also, why would someone respond “‘really, what a “. Unless you dealing with the purposely dishonest isn’t this just blaming the victim? I tend to respond “really…what, could you repeat that, I think I misheard you”. But then I’m still sometimes surprised by what some people come up with .

I do give ideas short shrift but still try to respect the person.

meh, this is academic. As I said I’d still follow your advice purely on pragmatic grounds (even if I would tell them what I think of their “reasons” at times).

Ta for the chat, and the advise.

Thor’Ungal.

To explain the prophecies, you tell the kids that there are fewer secrets about them than they might prefer to believe, and that it’s fairly easy to make guesses about people even if you don’t know the facts. They shouldn’t lend much credence to the things she said.

- Firstly that real witchcraft (as in the one that cannot be done as opposed to the one that really is done, with trickery and such ) does not exist. Also that proposing an opposition to it reflects a misunderstanding of reality that is in itself telling.

- Secondly that celebrating a persons culture need never rely on capitulating to it’s irrational beliefs. Celebrate it as history, mythology, imagination of generations past, even our best attempts at the time to understand what we observe. Note the beneficial ways in which it’s structure promotes cohesion, learn from it’s mistakes, etc. This kind of anthropology would be (an I suspect is) a great source of insight into human psychology and community. Just not necessarily into facts about the universe.

Having said all this, I’ve never managed to make friends this way and I’d probably adopt your methods (if I had the presence of mind to think of them). I just sometimes wish we could call a spade a spade and to hell with sensitivity to their irrational ideas on the subject.

Incident;y I think the expression “call a spade a spade” is misused here. I think the expression suggests that instead of calling a shovel a shovel, we should call it a spade (along with an actual spade). This of course is wrong since they are two different things. The usage here though is not one of subtle difference as much as regretting having to pussyfoot around issues. Perhaps the better expression would be that I regret having to ignore the elephant in the room in polite society.

I might also be the kind of fool that would get chased by pitchfork wielding types. One can only wonder how my Genes got this far, especially though pre-Renaissance Europe. Must be cultural .

^_^

Thor’Ungal

My response would not to be to agree – but if the student wanted to include that as an additional item on their test, along with the answer, then that’s up to them. But it’s not the correct answer as we know it and you can’t give marks to something not in the answer key. Sure, be inclusive, but you can’t ignore the fact that students are being taught the Geology course and that’s what they’re meant to be tested upon.

I’m all for pragmatism and there are ways we can be sensitive and inclusive – and choose a different kind of project to demonstrate the same point. I could easily talk about Ideomotor effect using lots of different things. We don’t have to use an Ouija board. I had students, rather than doing actual voodoo (!!) on campus, simply do a survey on how many knew what it was and whether they believed in it. The rest was simple book and internet research.

Yes, I choose my battles – but I do like people to be well-rounded in ‘this is why’ as well. That includes me being well-rounded in ‘how could I teach the same lesson with less hassle and more inclusiveness’.

For instance a colleague of mine commented on how progressive it was to allow aboriginal kids to answer that land formations were created by mythological entities (in this case a giant snake) in a geography class. Now my impulse at first (being a raging liberal, or green as the case may be) was to agree with him. Yet in spite of this clear sensitivity towards this person’s culture, the answer is never the less wrong. Nothing changes this, the teacher was being dishonest not to disavow this piece of mythology for what it was.

Is it really so wrong to stand up for reality even in the face of multiculturalism (and I use this word loosely to encapsulate religion, ethnic beliefs, personal philosophy, etc) . Can we not simply say that an individual’s cultural beliefs are simply factually wrong. That their views really don’t marry up with reality.

I wonder if Douglas Adams had it right (if I’m horribly misrepresenting him I throw myself on the mercy of his fans, please don’t kill me). That while people often do deserve respect, ideas never do.

I’m happy to be told I’m wrong, I’d just like to know why?

Or is this simply a point on pragmatism, so that we don’t get run out of town by people with pitch forks

HA!

Thor’Ungal

btw, is it possible to subscribe to the comments on these articles? I know I can on my church blog.