I think my history teacher's promoting woo

[Lance Manion]

2) There is a guy named Sheldrake who thinks that dogs have a strong enough sense of intuition to predict what their owners will do. My teacher tells me Sheldrake's studies have been replicated.

.....it's almost as if Scrapples KNEW he I was going to serve him dog food....

 

[Unalienable]

I was taught a lot of false things in school. Maybe not "woo" but it fits into the category of "urban folklore" to say the least. A few that I remember:

1. The only man-made structure visible from space is the Great Wall of China.

2. Water will twirl down the drain counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and clockwise in the northern hemisphere. (A physics teacher actually "taught" us this tripe!)

3. And of course, "Science dictates that bumblebees cannot fly."

 

[Smiledriver]

May I also say I am excited that a high school student is so critical of what he is told. I was just cynical and distrusted everything. Nice job kiddo.

 

[Gene L]

This is a longstanding problem in the educational field. In fact, some educators openly confess to this, however, in certain areas (like the University of Oklahoma, they refer to "promoting woo" as "ptiching woo."

I refer to this outright blatent admission:

We don't make a party out of lovin'
We like holdin' hands and pitching woo
We don't let our hair get long and shaggy
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

Merle Haggard
Okie from Muscogee

 

[Foolmewunz]

I see it differently Brandon. I understand your concern but personally I wouldn't report the teacher. You're talking about just one batty teacher in one class that (I presume) you will likely have endure for only one school year. I'd keep a low profile, get good grades and fuggetaboutit. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but when you get older you'll realize that your high school years were just an infinitesimal blip in your life...

I'll respectfully disagree. "Coasting" is a bad habit to get into. Our young Brandon's got his head on straight. I don't want him to ride the guy out of town on a rail - that wouldn't happen in Hong Kong, anyway... we're quite civilized(civilised) here and addressing it to the admins or faculty is not going to get the guy fired, ... not here. But it will establish that some of the students actually have critical thinking facilities, and more importantly at this age, I think it's good to set your compass on a direction that says it's okay to call out woo when you see it.

Brandon, ignore all of us. I'd say from your comments that you are pretty mature and can decide for yourself what you want to do. This is just a forum. That's your real life.

 

[Autolite]

I'll respectfully disagree. "Coasting" is a bad habit to get into.

I agree that in principle reporting the teacher would be the right thing to do. I was just presenting a more pragmatic view. I've always thought that folks should pick their battles. Facing off with an "authority" figure over such a trivial matter may not be the ideal way to go. This teacher could be a petty, self absorbed nut job who might stoop to trashing the lad's grades in retaliation. It's not worth taking the risk in this particular case.

As adults, we've all have had to deal with people in authority over us who were either idiots, obnoxious, petty or vengeful. Police, bosses, supervisors what-have-you, it's just a part of life. I've rarely felt that it's a good idea to aggravate someone who might be in a position to seriously affect your life in a detrimental manner (particularly over a relatively minor issue as in this instance)...

 

[Richard Masters]

I see it differently Brandon. I understand your concern but personally I wouldn't report the teacher. You're talking about just one batty teacher in one class that (I presume) you will likely have endure for only one school year. I'd keep a low profile, get good grades and fuggetaboutit. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but when you get older you'll realize that your high school years were just an infinitesimal blip in your life...

I agree. Though the teacher may not be ideal, it might be more productive for you to get through this without making a scene. If you are worried about others learning "woo", I honestly think you can get more out of instilling critical thinking in a couple of younger students, nephews, cousins, etc., sometime in the future.

That said, I think you are smart enough to assess the situation for yourself. You managed to intelligently question an authority figure. I think you'll do fine.

 

[cgallaga]

Bolded part....

We're taking over the world! Chris Gallaga(sic), RabbiSatan(another young one - he's about 20, I believe), yourself, me.... 4 down and 7,999,996 to go! We'll run this place, soon!

Back on topic. Nope, although you get the born-again Filippinas praising the lord down in Central on Sundays (while their naughty sisters are drinking it up in the discos at two in the afternoon), there aren't a whole lot of fundies here.

I assume then that yall have not yet heard about the "Creation Science" museum soon to open in my little lovely community of Park Island, HONG KONG!!!...Seriously!!!

And because of this I am also seriously considering opening an FSM themed restaurant/education centre in the mini-mall that is being built just next to it. I am seeking serious investors now, if you know anyone. My preliminary guess is its a half million US$ project.

http://www.icr.org/article/979/

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2077723570084070727qeRqVk

 

[leon_heller]

At my high school, I'm enrolled in an AP World History class. We've finished both our textbook and our exams, so my teacher decided to shift the class's focus to postmodernism and how our perception of reality is changing. One of the major themes we are now exploring is how "enchanted" the world really is. My teacher thinks that we don't perceive how "connected" we and life on earth are with the rest of the cosmos---I don't know what that means, but he's mentioning quantum stuff, "non-local phenomena", "consciousness fields", and showing us clips from the movie What the [Bleep] Do We Know? He also asserted two things that I am very skeptical about:

1) Studies have confirmed that people's intentions and consciousness can affect the outcomes of random number generators;

2) There is a guy named Sheldrake who thinks that dogs have a strong enough sense of intuition to predict what their owners will do. My teacher tells me Sheldrake's studies have been replicated.

I find both of these claims bothersome, particularly the first, because I cannot imagine how a human mind can manipulate the complex circuitry of a computer. I can't even move little hairs on people sitting next to me; does my teacher expect me to accept that I can affect the functioning of a computer, with all its chips and wires? Furthermore, I don't know if this subject matter is appropriate for a world history course. The general topic of postmodernism, maybe, since it is a cultural development and cultural developments are relevant to history, but not this parapsychology sort of stuff.

See my thread on the Psyleron REG-1.

Leon

 

[LordoftheLeftHand]

There are lots of different places you could attack this one. If you want a home run I would attack the film where it says that the natives couldn't see the ships of Columbus because they had no idea what a ship was (but they could see the waves around the ships, but the ships were invisible to them).



LLH