Washblog

Get students to think? No wonder it caused trouble. Or trouble with at least one God-fearin' family, which is all it takes to shut down a curriculum these days, it seems.

I was struck with the audacity of "The Problem of Evil" worksheet too. I noticed the (facetious?)presumption in the first sentence that God is a "He". I wonder if anyone's ever questoned that.

Jung pointed out that it is only when things go bad that we grow and mature.  Not just individuals but whole societys comply with Jung's observation.  When things go well, society looks to more hedonistic needs and when things go badly, we look inward to discover new solutions and new paradigms with which to view the world.

Or to quote Supertramp:

"Does it feel that you life's become a catastrophe?
Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy."

So why is there evil?  Because we can't grow without it.  It's a temporary measure, a condition placed upon us for our spritual maturity to develop.  Afterall, how can we understand or empathize with someone if we've never been in his shoes?  How can we have love even for the Devil if we've never strayed down the Devil's path?

It's totally Jungian and he left that option out of his paper, hence, I hate to say, he SHOULD apologize.

So I tried to be respectful of individual belief systems and faith traditions without revealing my own beliefs. If any parents had had a problem with this lesson, they would have been informed by the administration that it was part of the school's standard curriculum.

It's interesting to me that Arlene Hulten said that the lesson was more appropriate for a college-level philosophy course. At the school I referred to, this kind of lesson was always taught to 9th graders. They can handle it. I just don't agree with Ms. Hulten.

The literary analysis skillbuilder worksheet is a standard reading guide and is well within the norm of what I've seen elsewhere.

The "The Problem of Evil" sheet is another matter altogether. The "But wait" refrain is unnecessarily provocative and flip. In addition, the sheet presents a conclusion instead of presenting the students with questions to work out for themselves. The point isn't to alienate students with the tone of an argument; students don't learn or think when they feel dissed. In addition, the teacher should not be presenting the students with the foregone conclusions that, logically speaking, the truth has to be one of five things. The sarcasm is palpable in number 5.    That just wasn't necessary.

A bigger question is: what were the learning targets of the lesson and how does "The Problem of Evil" sheet figure in instruction that supports those learning targets? Mr. McDonald seemed to have in mind a skill learning target in which students develop their ability to think about difficult, foundational questions. However, if the  sheet alienated some students, then they simply won't serve his learning target. My view is that the teacher could have presented the same question without alienating his students. He could have presented several lines of reasoning that would have helped students look at the question from multiple points of view. Then he could let them discuss it among themselves and decide for themselves.

A separate question is whether he should have revealed that he is an atheist. I think that there are arguments to be made on both sides of the question of whether teachers should reveal their personal beliefs or not. Does it help students if they know that their teachers are capable of taking firm positions outside of mainstream thinking? I think Howard Zinn has made that argument, and it has merit. On the other hand, students should feel that their teachers are fair. They need to feel that their teachers can see things from multiple points of view. In fact, teachers who don't demonstrate this skill won't be able to model it to their students. So if a teacher reveals a strongly held controversial belief, then the teacher will have to work to show that he or she can be fair when dealing with students who have other points of views. I don't know if Mr. McDonald did this or not because I haven't been in his classroom.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue