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That's the concern happening today. So much is being left out of history, literature, etc that students are being left with only part of the story. That's where most of the bias happens. What's not said.
Not quite the same, but close enough:
A few years ago a friend of mine made a point to look at her oldest child's history book when he was learning about the different religions in the world. Nothing too heavy or in-depth as it was 7th grade.
She was unhappy with what she found regarding the Christian religion vs. all of the "others". The text stated that there are 10 commandments, but only listed 8. She contacted the Principal to let him know that this book had a printing error. He couldn't have cared less.
She contacted the publisher of the textbook.
She was eventually told, in no uncertain terms & by a big-wig at the publishing company; there are different VERSIONS of the textbook and TPTB in her school district ordered this specific version for the district.
The two commandments were left out on purpose as to not offend the kids who, in this very heavily South Asian populated school district, worshipped idols and believed in more than one god and didn't keep the Sabbath holy.
A public school where you can't have a Christmas tree, but Diwali is a huge deal.
She wasn't having any of it and made that more than clear to the principal of the school, the BOE, the PTA, and anyone else who she felt needed to know. She was going to go public with this issue if it wasn't fixed.
Long story short: the publisher of this specific MS history textbook ended up sending the school district the version of the book that had all of the 10 commandments listed. Replaced them & for free.
Two years later, her youngest child, while in 7th grade, had the textbook with all of the 10 commandments listed.
The key that keeps getting overlooked, other than a few egregious cases, isn't about some teacher making an obviously political statement. The bias is much more subtle, and therefore, harder to pinpoint. So often it comes not from what is said, but what isn't said. For example, even way back as a kid in the 60s, I wondered why our history books taught from what I will call a "New England centric" point of view. Sorry, can't think of a better term. By that I mean the history books spent a great deal on events and people centered in the northeast. Kind of a Columbus discovered America in 1492. Then nothing happened until the Pilgrims landed. From that point on most of the text covered events in New England, some eastern Canada because of the French Voyagers, settlement through the French and Indian Wars, and the American Revolution until basically the war in the North settled into stalemate. Then jumped ahead to the end of the war and Washington being elected president (skipping over the intermediate history of the Articles of Confederation and how they didn't work). Then mentioned the Civil War and Lincoln freed the slaves. And then skipped some more to WW2.
The point? They "historians" who wrote those texts ignored the settlements in the South. Or the fact that the Spanish had extensively explored the South and Southwest. Or that they had been thriving in St Augustine and the West for a hundred years before the Pilgrims were starving in New England. They also ignored the culture beyond a brief mention of the native Americans, except for their part in the French and Indian wars and the taking of scalps. And amazingly, there must have been no culture's here before Columbus because they were never mentioned in the text books.
It was only what I researched myself did I discover what had been left out. That's the concern happening today. So much is being left out of history, literature, etc that students are being left with only part of the story. That's where most of the bias happens. What's not said.
I distinctly remember learning all of that in school.
But if you want teachers who don't show any bias at all -- since our biases become ingrained in ourselves -- then I guess you don't want humans to be teachers.
Most kids already have the largest "super-library" that's ever existed on their cell phone and laptop. What question cannot be answered there? It has almost made hard copy libraries obsolete.
The issue is not about getting massive doses of data into the hands of school children. It's about teaching them to how to think and use information and differentiate between internet opinions, polls, and editorials - and facts, truth, and substantive evidence.
I like the idea, at face value, but would need to think about it more.
One important factor for this to work, in my opinion, would be to have the appropriate mentorship and guidance available. One thing that I always struggled with, being a first gen college student and having parents that were ultimately clueless about educational attainment, was having the proper guidance. With the lack of parental guidance, and a school district that was ranked fairly poor, I was sort of left to figure it all out on my own. We had no career guidance, college/trade school guidance, or much else when I was growing up. I still don't even really know what I want to do, though I'm in a much stable and experienced place for figure it out.
The issue is not about getting massive doses of data into the hands of school children. It's about teaching them to how to think and use information and differentiate between internet opinions, polls, and editorials - and facts, truth, and substantive evidence.
All of that is common sense, and can be grasped quite readily through experience with the internet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by turf3
Information is not the same thing as wisdom.
Plenty of ways to gain wisdom, none of which require sitting in a classroom.
This is also a great idea dude, if we convert schools to super libraries then I think the student who wants to study really they will get all type of Knowledge they no need to attend various class and waste time. don't waste time in school dude because all Scientists and Experts are School and College Dropper. No one has a particular degree. Those who are ranker in school they are working under their company...
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