On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 08:56:30PM -0700, Geoffrey Thomas wrote:
I normally wouldn't say this, because I am quite Christian myself, but I agree we need a 'pedia with NO religion entries, except for historical articles on the religion as one would find in a history textbook, and in the same vein NO explicit topics, or anything of that sort - we should have a separate, school-topics-only Wiki encyclopedia for use at schools or other filtered environments.
Bullshit. I can accept that American schools may not indoctrinate a religion to their pupils. But that they may not even mention religion is stupid. Saying "There are people who believe in divine beings. Jews, Christians and Moslems believe in only one God while Hindus believe in many Gods" is just facts. Schools shouldn't have a problem with the neutral presentation of facts.
If an article isn't neutral, it has to be refactored. But not censored. What about the "free speech" principle so many of you have defended? In an American's eye it is OK to say "No Jews have been gased during WWII" but you may not say "There are people believing in a divine being" ??
I have been working in some school projects as a technical tutor, and I learned that pupils should not be confronted with the Internet without the supervision of a teacher. No matter how good your content filter might be, pupils find a way to content not supposed for youngsters.
Don't censor wikipedia. It's the responsibility of the teacher to do so.
Regards,
JeLuF