CORRECTIONS MARKED BY *** BELOW [Khaled] > So if a student says to his teacher, I know you are telling that the > sun is the center of our solar system, and that's what I am going to > put as an answer on the test because i don't want to fail, but deep > down, i know you are wrong. > Is is the teacher's job to try to convince him or her otherwise.
[Arlo] > I say "yes". Fish would say "no". This distorts Fish's position, which can be summarized as follows: 1) Academic values, but not moral or political values, can be promoted in the classroom (anti-politicalization of education). 2) Academic freedom does ***NOT*** excuse violation of 1). 3) College professors are generally not qualified to engage in "character building" (other than as in 1)). 4) Students can be given (or asked to come to) conclusions based on 1). So the answer to Khaled's question is: Yes, the teacher can teach & test for conclusions, if based solely on academic values. [Arlo] > what about the student who turns in a anthropology > assignment saying "I'm pretending to agree that dinosaurs once > existed, but I believe their bones to be the deception of Satan whose > purpose is to make us question God's Divine Plan". Does he pass? If > so, then what's the point of schools anyways. I think Fish (& any other good professor) would consider such a statement irrelevent. The motives, beliefs, sincerity, etc. of students should be irrelevent. What is relevent is what the student identifies as good evidence & conclusions supported by that evidence. Once the student is able to so identify good evidence & conclusions, the school has done its job ***in regard to Paleontology. A school should, however, also teach "Critical Thinking" such as the connection between recognizing good evidence & belief formation.*** Craig Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
