Excuse me for a moment while I go find some alcohol, without which I can no longer read this thread…
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Mischief managed
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So much derailment up with which Falcor likely will not put!
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Ah, I was proposing a substitution for the current “macho.” Men are the one’s in thrall of their testosterone, which is used by the culture to mold our behavior. This could be used to good effect, rather than to cultivate bias. This is what I was trying to say, but with fewer words. I was recently accused of being pretentious for using the word “ethos” here you know.
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I find your ideas fascinating, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Seriously though, comparative religion, philosophy and logic classes need to be taught starting at kindergarten, with regular check-ins during the whole school career. If you never teach children how to think well, they’re very unlikely to figure it out on their own without any help. I’m just lucky I found the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe as early as I did. Otherwise, I’d still probably be a credulous fool with poor critical thinking skills, instead of the marginally better skills I have now.
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I would temper that a tad, not in intent but implementation.
The ideas you obviously hold dear can (and imo) should be taught by metaphor. Logic by music theory and (heh) grammar Nazis. Comparative religion via iconography and wood/stone working. Philosophy via career guidance counselors.
When the values are instilled, introducing the academics becomes much more exciting.
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I wouldn’t recommend lecturing kindergarteners on Descartes or Socrates, but there’s definitely ways to introduce even the youngest minds to epistemology, for example.
And we need to teach them to question, to be critical, to value knowing true things because they’re supported by evidence, rather than wanting them to be true.
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Don’t most kindergartens already perform Socratic dialog?
“Put on your shoes”
“Why?”
“Cause it is raining”
“Why?”
“Well, the water cycle is a complex series of… Put on your shoes”
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Precisely. But far too many parents usually head that off at the pass with: “Because I said so, and if you don’t agree, I’ll force you.”
I remember doing the whole “why” thing. I remember just doing it because I knew it annoyed my parents and got a reaction. I have the feeling that if they actually asked if I really didn’t know why, I’d honestly answer that I did know why I had to do something. But yes, I also remember a lot of me going “why”, and my parents answering “because if you don’t then you’ll go to hell and burn forever along with Hitler, and Stalin, and your atheist aunt genie.”
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I have, many times, bored kids out of why, and equally infuriated parents cause they don’t have the stamina of Evil Uncle Japhroaig
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FWIW, my children at first enjoyed the fact that I would answer their questions, but as they got older it backfired for a while (they didn’t want to ask me questions, because they knew I’d answer…and yes, that included stuff about sex). Fortunately, they got older still (funny how that works) and now it’s gone back to being interesting and helpful to have a mother who answers questions with real answers. Or, “I don’t know, let’s look it up”…which also caused a lot of eye-rolling in those middle years!
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Here in the Eastern Bloc we call those “Russian screwdrivers”.
Where is your slang from?
I’m middle age and I ask my mother in law questions all the time–she may be crazy (one time we drove past a building and she asked if it was a bar. We said, No, that is Putt Putt golf) but she is a quite accomplished gardener.
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No, these guys are unfortunately real and were in fact real in the late 80s/early 90s too. I don’t think this is comparable Satanic panic.
This is a real problem that should be addressed, and it has been for years. It’s pretty easy to dismiss them, until one like Roof shows up.
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