Ultimately, a school's job is made much easier if they can present one complete system of thought before embarking on others.
That is true, although I guess it slightly opens up the larger question of what schools are really supposed to be doing anyway -- just teaching 'stuff', or also training thought? Maybe if we think training thought is useful, then it would be worth investing time and effort into doing so properly before starting on the stuff-cramming.
It could be argued that parents with certain beliefs and lifestyles disadvantage their kids by passing them on. If true, this provides the basis for a very messy conflict between the parents' wish to bring up their kids as they choose and the wish of society to adopt preventative measures against problems which ultimately result in disadvantaged citizens (who may then require subsidy).
I am ruthlessly authoritarian about this (as many things) -- I think society has the duty to ride roughshod over parents' wishes and beliefs if such would disadvantage the child or the society it is to join. (Of course, deciding whether something really is disadvantageous or just unfashionable / prejudiced-against is hard.)
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Date: 2005-09-13 02:48 pm (UTC)That is true, although I guess it slightly opens up the larger question of what schools are really supposed to be doing anyway -- just teaching 'stuff', or also training thought? Maybe if we think training thought is useful, then it would be worth investing time and effort into doing so properly before starting on the stuff-cramming.
It could be argued that parents with certain beliefs and lifestyles disadvantage their kids by passing them on. If true, this provides the basis for a very messy conflict between the parents' wish to bring up their kids as they choose and the wish of society to adopt preventative measures against problems which ultimately result in disadvantaged citizens (who may then require subsidy).
I am ruthlessly authoritarian about this (as many things) -- I think society has the duty to ride roughshod over parents' wishes and beliefs if such would disadvantage the child or the society it is to join. (Of course, deciding whether something really is disadvantageous or just unfashionable / prejudiced-against is hard.)