Schools and libraries do many stupid things, and so does the rest of
the world. That sort of interpretation of "laic" is arguably an
expression of religious prejudice against a particular religious group
of historic influence there, and the present hyper-aggressive use is
arguably an expression of prejudice against another religio-ethnic
group, one of feared influence. But that of course is my personal POV.
Tom, do you have the reference for that--I strongly doubt it was
official policy even there. But it does resemble the refusal of many
groups of various sorts to permit use of the internet.
It represents for me the total misunderstanding of responsible
democracy. Of course schools inculcate cultural values--they could
hardly do otherwise even if they had no conscious intentions. But this
does not prevent teaching the existence of the actual world in its
frequently unpleasant variety. To see and know, and yet abstain, as
Milton put it.
On 10/2/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Recently, I
read a report from a French teacher. He enjoys a certain
reputation in the teaching environment, so whilst not all agree with
him, he is certainly listened to by many.
He made a comment which I thought was interesting.
He said "Wikipedia can not be used in the French formal educational
system (schools) because our nation is laic, whilst Wikipedia follows
the neutral point of view. Being laic means that our schools precisely
chose a certain value framework and deliberately educate the kids to
hold certain beliefs and share certain values. On the contrary,
wikipedia holds that all points of view must be given room. For this
reason, Wikipedia is not compatible with our schooling system and should
not be used as a resource".
I found that approach interesting indeed. For once, the issue he was
raising was not so much a question of quality or of stability of the
information, or even of manipulation, but simply a statement "we want
our kids to learn that certain things are true, and others are not true.
Or certain things are good, and others are not good. Wikipedia is a
great resource, but can't be used as teaching support".
Topics that come to my mind are of course topics such as revisionism,
cults, creationism, or pedophilia.
Interesting viewpoint. Wikipedia is incompatible with the French
education system, due to a different definition of "truth". I would
say it's a failing in the French (and many other nation's) education
system, more than anything else, but then if I didn't firmly believe
in NPOV, I wouldn't be emailing foundation-l, would I?
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David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.