[Foundation-l] university blocking wikipedia

[George Herbert]

On 10/2/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at 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?

One can hold different intellectual contexts, in which some differing
values apply.

I am not sure how I'd feel if I had young kids and they got to the
Wikipedia pages on pedophillia, for example.

That said... The comment that the French schools are laic (is the
proper english for that the "secular" sense, just to clarify...)
doesn't seem to directly address why Wikipedia would be inappropriate.
 We don't argue for religion being good, or genocide being good, etc.
We (try to) provide neutral and referenced information about religion,
genocide, etc.

The given description by the French school teacher sounds disturbing.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com