Semantic Squabbles
In general, Dan, I don't have too much trouble with the definitions that you have thrown out. I have a question regarding your definitions, though; you don't ever give your own definition of "virtue". Since this is one-half of the definition you have given for "wisdom" it seems like it would be pretty important to know what exactly "virtue" is. In particular, how does "virtue" differ from "the accumulation, understanding, and application of ... moral... knowledge."
Making morality a part of the education process really gets to the heart of this debate, I think. As a Christian myself, I would have that all students come to realize that their lives are a mess without God and that they are completely inadequate in and of themselves apart from Christ. I want all to choose to follow Him instead of the dead-end desires of this world and seek to place their lives in complete surrender to him. If education has a moral foundation then I would say that I desire that foundation to be Christ.
If it were only that simple.
The plain reality is that not everybody in the US agrees that Christ makes an excellent moral basis in education. Obviously, as your definitions make clear, in Christian education, Christ is the center of this morality. I think we could change just those two words ("Christ Jesus") and come up with reasonable definitions for many types of moral education:
Islamic Education - the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty, so that, in Mohammed, the students are better able to fully glorify Allah.
Buddhist Education - the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty, so that, in the Buddha, the students are better able to fully glorify the Divine Reality/Spirit.
I guess my question to you, Dan boils down to this: must morality play a part in education (ie is values-neutral education even possible) and if not, how can we figure out which morals to teach? Or, to put it another way, if we're going to teach morals in the classroom, on what basis can we substantiate our choice of morals to teach knowing that there is a diversity of views on any given moral question?
And, since this is not an easy question, I'm going to let you take it from here, Dan.
Making morality a part of the education process really gets to the heart of this debate, I think. As a Christian myself, I would have that all students come to realize that their lives are a mess without God and that they are completely inadequate in and of themselves apart from Christ. I want all to choose to follow Him instead of the dead-end desires of this world and seek to place their lives in complete surrender to him. If education has a moral foundation then I would say that I desire that foundation to be Christ.
If it were only that simple.
The plain reality is that not everybody in the US agrees that Christ makes an excellent moral basis in education. Obviously, as your definitions make clear, in Christian education, Christ is the center of this morality. I think we could change just those two words ("Christ Jesus") and come up with reasonable definitions for many types of moral education:
Islamic Education - the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty, so that, in Mohammed, the students are better able to fully glorify Allah.
Buddhist Education - the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty, so that, in the Buddha, the students are better able to fully glorify the Divine Reality/Spirit.
I guess my question to you, Dan boils down to this: must morality play a part in education (ie is values-neutral education even possible) and if not, how can we figure out which morals to teach? Or, to put it another way, if we're going to teach morals in the classroom, on what basis can we substantiate our choice of morals to teach knowing that there is a diversity of views on any given moral question?
And, since this is not an easy question, I'm going to let you take it from here, Dan.
posted by Trevor Hardy at 6:57 PM
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