No, the US did not start another foolish armed conflict in the Middle East for oil, I just finished reading Katie's blog post about how teachers affect our view points, and I think that she made some good points. First of all, I think that many students are heavily influenced by teachers. How many times have you blindly accepted something that seemed wrong because, "that's what the teacher said"? This happens to me alot in math, and I find myself changing my answers much more often then questioning if the book's answer is right. We have essentially been trained to accept whatever the teacher says as absolute fact. Granted, most of the time, the teacher actually knows what they're talking about, but some times you can walk away with totally wrong information because you didn't ask any questions. However, I did not agree with Katie's suggestion that teachers should not give their opinions. For those of you who don't know, I tend to lean to the left on most political issues. Some of my teachers, (Mr. Walther, Mr. Voight) disagree with my views. Now we have the makings for an interesting discussion! If they weren't allowed to share their opinion, school would be pretty dull, and I would never have the chance to argue my case. By having a respectful debate with someone else, I think that you gain many things.
1) exposure to new ideas
2) You see any flaws in your argument. (kind like having someone edit your paper)
3) you are doing something other than mindlessly accepting the status quo
4) you learn what "the other side" is saying so you can better refute it in future debates
So, basically, debate is a very good thing, it just requires a little self confidence. (I use the term debate, because I want to distinguish between respectfully disagreeing and screaming that the other side is wrong while covering your ears. The former is good, the latter makes you look incredibly stupid.) If you meet a person who thinks you are dead wrong, listen to what they have to say, evaluate it, and decide if you believe it or not. This applies to me, teachers, your parents, everybody! You decide your opinion.
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8 comments:
What You're NOT a republican??? Psh I feel like my whole life has been a lie now... Just Kidding.
Now on to serious junk... I definitely think that teachers sharing their opinions is a good idea in school as long as it doesn't stray too far into religion. Without being exposed to different view points kids would just grow up mindlessly mimicking their parents views.
Why can't we talk about religion? This whole keep religion out of school, out of public life thing really bugs me. While I'm not one to spew my religious beliefs all over the place, I think it is okay for me to share them if I am asked by a student? What do you all think? After all, the constitution does not say that we are prohibited from talking about religion in school or from putting up nativity scenes at city hall, or putting a monument of the ten commandments at the courthouse.
I do admire you for bringing this up, I really do...
Think about it though, if students don't learn to think for themselves, by themselves, at this point in their life, they never will.
Hypothetically, let's say all teachers are always objectional, all the time.
Kids will learn how they truly think about issues in the world, but they would have absolutely no integrity once they're in the real world.
What would happen, is a kid would spend his whole life thinking one way, get to the workforce, try to state their opinion, and get completely argued into the ground to the point where they just constantly change their mind, which is not a good thing.
The teenage years are the best years to learn to find reasons to back up your side, rather than just switching sides... and a teacher's biasing pull is what will hopefully teach them that.
Overall, you pretty much put this whole "mr. voight is blinding us with his opinion" thing as automatically bad. You're assuming that conforming to the status quo is the wrong thing to happen, when in reality, it's just getting kids warmed up for what is REALLY out there.
As for what Marcus said, conforming to the status quo isn't always a bad thing, but you should be sure that that is what you want. You shouldn't mindlessly conform, but if how you act is the status quo, then that's fine. My point is that you should make the final decision on how you act. I don't understand what you mean by losing integrity. Do you mean that you are not credible if you change your mind? what you seem to be saying (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that it is bad to be opiniated because some people may not agree with you, they will yell at you, you will lose self confidence, and so you should just try to go with the flow and make life easier on yourself. As for the religion thing, I see nothing wrong with religion in public schools as long as all parties involved are freely dicussing it and no one is touting one religion as "right".
you pretty much nailed on the nose what i meant. Just FYI.
responding to Mr.Voight's comment, i think it's fine that teachers share their religious beliefs, the key word here being "share". Now, if they were to appose them onto us or imply that their beliefs were better, then we'd have a problem.
Ok Marcus and Madelyn I totally understand what you guys are saying. First off, I really don't mind teachers stating their religious beliefs, in school as long as they aren't shoving it down are throats.
Also, I believe that teenagers now a days should start forming their opinions now about issues in the world, but also have facts to back up their opinions. I can find that staying in the mold in certain situations can be to your advantage, but when someone states their view on a subject and you have a different one I find it totally understandable that you share yours as long as you have the facts to back it up.
I find it any situation that people need to stay above the status quo, because what if it's raised?
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