Apparently, yesterday in Technology, Spawn’s teacher stood up in front of the class and explained that she wasn’t trying to convince them that we had never landed on the moon and that there was no actual proof of her beliefs.
She just wanted to share an “alternate theory” with them.
I think a parent must have complained…
You know, for all the talk about whether or not the Bible Belt schools should be allowed to teach Creationism, it never occurred to me that there would be other "hot-topic" issues that would hit a little closer to home.
Spawn came home from school on Friday and told me about how his Technology teacher spent 20 minutes or so explaining to the class how we never actually landed on the moon in 1969 and the whole thing was recorded on a sound stage in Hollywood. The kids, because they are brilliant, countered all of her arguments with facts such as being able to see the flag on the moon through a high-powered telescope. She dismissed these arguments as children’s fancies!
Now here’s the thing. I don’t mind a teacher saying "Some people believe that we never actually landed on the moon and here is why…" and opening that up for debate and discussion, however, I do take serious exception to a school’s *technology* teacher telling her class that this is WHAT HAPPENED, in no uncertain terms, and dismissing logical rebuttals to her loony wingnut "theory".
I feel the same way about Creationism. If you want to bring it up in science class as "Some people choose to believe that evolution is not the root of life on Earth, they believe…" and then spark a discussion on the pros and cons of that argument, then we’re talking. We’re teaching children how to reason and to express their arguments. I do not, however, support, in any way, ANY teacher giving out loony wingnut conspiracy theories and ignoring the very good points that the teenage 8th graders are using to disagree.
If you’re going to be a conspiracy wingnut, that’s fine, but don’t try to sway MY KID to your line of thinking when clearly he is better at rational thinking than you are.
I fail to see how this sort of thing has any place at all in the classroom, especially when, though the name of the subject might be Technology, the point of the class is really to build bridges out of popsicle sticks that can hold a reasonable amount of weight.
Sheesh.
