Learn Both Sides of Subject

Or At Least Try To…

Home School? Or can this be done in public or private schools?

I was a Youth Group sort of conference recently.  A number of the students spoke on the subject of Climate Change. 

I have pretty strong views on the subject.  But that is not the point of this essay. 

Three students were speaking on how important it was to do something about climate change.  Got me thinking back to my school years. 

Way back when… we had debate teams.  Now, if you are a late comer then you may not know how this sort of thing worked.  I won’t go into all the rules, and there were lots. There would be a suggested subject such as ‘climate change’.

Students were assigned to one side or the other of the argument. As a student, you might be assigned to the opposite side which you felt was right. It was pretty random.

Screenshot

That, for me, at the time, really sucked.  I had no idea how to think like that.  How to take the other view and properly research it.  And defend it…! 

There would be some sort of point system and one side or the other would win based on this.  For me, looking back I wish I could have thunk through this.  Now, on the other hand, I’d have a great time with it.

It was effective in getting students to look at the other side of an argument. 

I read a lot and encourage others to do the same.  Research.  If you send your student to search the internet, Wikipedia, etc., they will get a very one-sided view of pretty much any important subject. 

Take climate change as one example.  Do any internet search and the first fifty listings will pretty much tell you that we are all gonna die.  If you go someplace like Amazon even or search some other databases, you very likely will find some scientists that disagree with what is commonly promoted about climate change.  There are just as many scientists that disagree with the idea that ‘we are all gonna die’.  Or at least any changes do not have anything to do with humans.  Or maybe they aren’t as harmful as most think.  All things that should be investigated.

I’m not going to put forth any arguments against these common agreements on the subject of climate change.  My point here is that students are fed one side and are not encouraged to discover if true or not.  Lots of information on both sides. 

I would love to have each of the students that spoke on the subject research data on the ‘other side’ and make an argument that way. 

What an exercise that would be!!

I’m a huge proponent of Home Schooling.  Most home schoolers will at least attempt to have their children decide for themselves what is true and what works for them.   The whole point for many parents is to have their children able to think for themselves and not just regurgitate what the teacher tells them. 

If you had two teachers in a public school that had complete opposite views on important subjects, taking turns teaching the same class, this, to me, would be ideal. 

Imagine how beautifully confused some students would get!

I mean, ideally, a teacher would not be wanting to import his or her beliefs onto a student.  The ideal teacher would help a student evaluate information for him or herself to the truth of it. Is it true for me?  Does this make sense?  Or am I just aiming to please my teacher or whomsoever is running the show here.

But if you home school your kids, you don’t have to deal with all this.

Authors/Books on the subject:

Anything by John Taylor Gotto

Anything by John Holt

And for sure check out Classical Learner https://classicallearner.com/