On teaching both sides

[Lily]

....

[wolf560]

Awesome cartoon...!!!

[Explorer]

That already happens.

I went to a public non-religious school, but once a week we had a priest over who talked about really strange stuff. Christian Magic. Like this girl becoming pregnant from a beam of light, and her son transmuting water into wine and do lots of other magic. Stories about talking brambles, parting seas, folks living in whales, tardis-like boats that held all the animal species in the world at once, and lots of other fantastic stuff.
It even inspired me, as a child, to join a group to enact those stories (much to the surprise of my atheist parents). It was a bit ackward to discover that many grown-ups actually believed what I considered fairy tales, but I don't mind that I had some education in the matter. It also broadens the perspective a bit.

And we have Sinterklaas, Saint Nicolas (the Real Santa, a remnant of Wodan and his Wild Hunt, not the fluffy american one) visiting every 5 december bringing presents to the good kids, riding his white horse through the sky with his black helpers who would whip the naughty kids and take them back with them in a big sack.
In fact, and don't tell anybody, but even as grown-ups we still honour that tradition in our house. My boots are also in front of the chimney on dec 5, and the next morning they are filled with goodies. Hail Wodan! We actually dechristened him, and told the kids that this is Wodan, and not some Saint. And strangely enough, the kids think that that is just a fairy tale .

[wolf560]

On a serious note.....

I prefer to have what can be proven empirically to be taught in school and what can be felt spiritually to be taught either in the home or in some form of religious atmosphere. So while it might seem OK to teach a little religious philosophy in High school the door it opens cannot be shut easily.

Three things actually occur to me;
1. What religious philosophy is "OK" to teach in High School
2. Would the local church mind teaching any non-religious philosophy in Sunday School.
3. Who would be responsible for keeping everything on a level playing field?

I have several degrees and have studied History all my life, I am a trained educator and have taught classes as complex and involved as they come. I have had classes as small as five and as large as 500 and have always been told that my classes are worth sitting in on every time. I have taught curriculum from Metaphysics to Marksmanship, Simple Shamanism to Complex Explosives to people ranging in age from 18 to 55.

Other than working with unstable explosives..... one thing terrifies me the most...

A classroom full of teenage students...... (LOL)

I'd rather leave those students to the experts.....regardless of spiritual content or not...

[Explorer]

On a serious note.....

I prefer to have what can be proven empirically to be taught in school and what can be felt spiritually to be taught either in the home or in some form of religious atmosphere. So while it might seem OK to teach a little religious philosophy in High school the door it opens cannot be shut easily.

Three things actually occur to me;
1. What religious philosophy is "OK" to teach in High School
2. Would the local church mind teaching any non-religious philosophy in Sunday School.
3. Who would be responsible for keeping everything on a level playing field?

I have several degrees and have studied History all my life, I am a trained educator and have taught classes as complex and involved as they come. I have had classes as small as five and as large as 500 and have always been told that my classes are worth sitting in on every time. I have taught curriculum from Metaphysics to Marksmanship, Simple Shamanism to Complex Explosives to people ranging in age from 18 to 55.

Other than working with unstable explosives..... one thing terrifies me the most...

A classroom full of teenage students...... (LOL)

I'd rather leave those students to the experts.....regardless of spiritual content or not...

hahaha, yes, teenagers are a bit like unstable explosives huh?

My aim would be to broaden the mind a bit, not to teach a particular religion or spirituality.
I don't think I would want christianity taught too much, because that is already too dominant in many places. But an insight in the principles and experiences of religion would make people more understanding of what happens in the world, ranging from althruism and compassion to suicide bombings.

Perhaps you could even invent some sort of generic religion, to prevent some problems with existing religions. Just for the sake of showing what it is. Heh, wait a minute, they already did that in the US didn't they? Isn't that how one of those american druid orders started? As a sort of protest-religion at a university?
Mmm, perhaps they should teach druidry in school.

[DJ Droood]

My aim would be to broaden the mind a bit, not to teach a particular religion or spirituality.

It isn't up to you or parents or the schools or the government, Nico...it is the job of 4chan to educate and indoctrinate our children.

(and if you are unaware of the power and scope of 4chan, you have never spent time with a teenage boy. moms and dads may be more familiar with its cousin, wikileaks.)

[wolf560]

My aim would be to broaden the mind a bit, not to teach a particular religion or spirituality. Perhaps you could even invent some sort of generic religion, to prevent some problems with existing religions.

LOL..!!! Awesome thought..!! When I was in High school (many millenia ago in a galaxy far far away) we had a current events teacher that taught "outside the box". Nothing was off-limits and I thought that we approached learning in a much deeper way. Everyone drew a slip of paper from a hat and was expected to research the name on that paper one week before class so they could play the part correctly. My favorite class was the Nurnburg Trials where I drew GeneralField Marshal von Rundstedt.

I spent every waking moment in the library getting as much information as I could on the life of this man before we "went to trial". The trial itself lasted the entire semester as we re-enacted the trials themselves. In the end, the entire school was invited into the auditorium to watch the final three hours as we got to make our last speeches and the tribunal deliberated our sentences.

I was one of the few to walk away without a sentence and most people said it was because I made the rest of the people "think too much of everyone else's atrocities" Many of the sentences were lighter for the military prisoners but were just as heavy (or even more so) for those that had exterminated, tortured, or experimented on prisoners.

Some of the faculty approached me afterward to ask me about everything since I had gotten so into the part that I had even adopted a halting Deutche accent. We had a discussion that lasted until nightfall (several of them had been teenagers when the actual Nurnburg Trials had occurred....)

Learning can be so much more fun if you involve the students in what they are doing instead of dropping a book in their face or making them repeat verbatim what the end-of-school tests require.....

[wolf560]

...it is the job of 4chan to educate and indoctrinate our children.

Heh heh heh
Anime ROCKS..!!!
(Yes, my son was sucked in years ago)