I'm sorry you guys had such a hard time at school, but I think you oversimplify the complexity of your personal problems when you just put all the blame on "the system". My advice is to see a therapist or a pastor for professional help.

Or just stay at home and take a tablespoon of pastor oil every six hours.

- NonE :-)

Clearly that does not work!!!

First off, as a practicing alchemist, I take great offense to the notion that alchemy is nonsense. Just because you have some personal prejudice against turning lead into gold doesn't mean you should take it out on the rest of humanity.

ChristianStatist, you should consider applying your own criticism of others to yourself. Maybe you're the one who is oversimplifying things with your advice to "see a therapist or a pastor for professional help."

Cart, I'm skeptical that the British education system is the paradise you make it out to be-- but I can speak from firsthand experience that the American system is not. The problems that everyone else in thread talk about are pretty close to my experience of the American system. I don't even have a problem with religion being taught, but rather with remedial standards being applied.

Well I'm not making the British Educational system out to be a paradise I would say. I am not giving a full account at all - merely outlining some of its strengths in relation to teaching children about the world they are going out into.

I am not treading on anybodies personal experiences. Yours or anyone elses. However, i would take issue with some of the anti-intellectualism that goes on here and anti-education propaganda. Generalizing about eduction on the basis of our own experiences of it is not the most objective way of discussing the topic at hand.

Hey! At least you were taught evolution and not allowed to be taught any criticisms of it! Is that not the case in most of North America? Surely there's some things to be grateful for???

It's not the teaching of religion in schools I oppose. Surely, that's a contentious issue due to its unavoidable connection to lifestyles and value judgments of students and parents, but no less so than sociology, psychology, history, political science, and other subjects.

The problem is that there's never a certain "right," way to teach these subjects, i.e. a way in which nobody's feathers will be ruffled, and thus we're left with mediocre education in which nobody gets an education unless through autonomous effort they achieve it themselves. This is right and proper; though teachers can play an important role as assistants and guides to students, true education cannot be anything but self directed. The problem is that we've conflated education (necessarily self-directed) with obedience and parroting (necessarily not self-directed).

I don't think it's that complicated at all.

Teaching comparative religion is not difficult. You just teach students what the generally accepted beliefs and ways of living are in each of the world's main world religions. As they get older and know more about those religions it's obvious they will begin to spot the nuances. They begin to see the differences which exist in these religions and the reasons why.

They also get the chance to appreciate their own worldview and ask themselves why they believe what they do.

I have no idea what you are meaning when you say 'self-directed'? What are you talking about with that phrase?

Well, why don't you explain it Non-E and then I'll point out what's wrong with your definition. I'm asking for TEM to expand on the philosophy behind that term which is why I want to know what he means by it and what assumptions may hide behind such a notion.

If you want to type something why not have a go at the actual questions I directed at you instead of constantly coming along and interrupting discussions I'm having with other people. I know you're very needy of attention so i send comments your way. You then ignore them, disappear for a week and then pop up again to say something stupid in the middle of a conversation that's got nothing to do with you.

What's with this odd behaviour you exhibit eh?