[MD] Teaching without Values

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Khaled mentions the NPR story]
Are Colleges Obligated To 'Save The World'?

[Arlo]
Greetings, Khlaed. Always good to see your voice among the chorus 
(and cacophony) here. The story is interesting, and Fish seems to 
think advance the notion that "critical thinking skills" are really 
all higher education should be about. In many ways, I agree with him. 
But the problem backs up into curriculum development where the 
limited time of the classroom mandates that certain positions are 
included while others are not. While Fish seems to feel that 
"Intelligent Design" should be given equal time to "Darwinian 
evolution", he doesn't indicate criteria on which of any other 
competing theories should be assessed. Do we teach the KKK's theory 
that black people are inferior and Jews are subhuman in our 
humanities classes alongside theories that profess all humans to be 
equal? Do we teach each and every creation story alongside the Big 
Bang as equally valid alternate theories? Do we teach that the eating 
of human flesh (cannibalism) is a view of cuisine equal to 
vegetarianism, presenting "both sides" in a discussion about 
agriculture? And, consider this, do we present the theories that Bush 
was behind the 9/11 attacks as equally worthy of respect as those 
that it was perpetuated by Al Qaeda? Do we teach alchemy alongside 
chemistry? Do we teach theories which place the orbit of the sun as 
going around the earth, or the earth as the hub around which the 
entire universe spins, alongside "competing" theories that place the 
earth as going around the sun?

That is, Fish makes the argument that universities should expose 
students to every possible theory about everything equally and 
without prejudice, and the let the students decide. What happens when 
an student in an astronomy class professes that the stars are merely 
tiny dots God uses to decorate our night sky, and denies that they 
are balls of hydrogen burning billions of lightyears away? Or when an 
anthropology student turns in a paper about Bigfoot being the missing 
link between aliens and humans? Or when a student hands in a term 
paper proclaiming Jews to be rats who, while the should be 
exterminated, never were. Do we praise these students for selecting 
one theory from among the multitude so presented?

Its a nice idea in many areas, but I think its a bit naive and 
devalues the entire endeavor of "knowledge". My thoughts anyways.