Thomas Dalton wrote:
Ask them
to cite their sources :-)
(for example, ask the person to provide names of universities
supposingly doing that)
Then, if the person reveals unable to provide any names, adopt a very
serious and dignified face, nod gravely, and says "urban legends are
terrible. I wish so much people would start using figures and citing
sources when they make a claim. We should ban sentences starting by
"many says that", or "some people consider that" or "Most people
know
that"".
You want to pass [[WP:WEASEL]] into law? Sounds like a plan. Everyone
pick a country, and we'll start work.
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Let me pick up France :-)
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.
And this is the most frequent cause of emotional conflict within a person:
when their "gut" (their "self") tells them one thing, and their brain
(their
learning) tells them something else. Your self is who you are - and your
brain is full of other peoples' opinions of who you should be. The beauty is
you have the choice of which to follow.
Marc
--
Just be.