Reply to comment

Well, this class has certainly boggled my mind.  Every day I get closer and closer to wrapping my mind around the ideas and thoughts presented in class.  I feel that the most interesting topic that we talked about was about evolution teaching in schools.  I know now that we're in college everyone looks at public schooling and sees society forming clones.  Isn't there a saying if its not broken don't fix it.  And if you were asked as a child in elementary school if you are suppressed and can't express yourself freely would you say yes?  I don't know if I would.  In elementary school I at least was having a great time with no worries.  If I was taught what I have learned so far about all the depressing and unfair facts in life I feel that I would be a very sad and unsocial child.  Why not let kids have fun instead of bombarding their minds with all of the worries of being an adult.  I know that in school you are told what to believe instead of figuring it out on your own.  Still it can be nice to have a basis for your thoughts instead of stressing over what it right and wrong.  I feel like I'm not making myself very clear. I just don't think that we need to change our whole school system so that we can have more free will or not conform to everything. Because once you get older yes you have conformed to what has been told to you but you still have the choice to break away and think through what you have been taught and change your mind.  As you go through school you keep getting taught more complicated ideas but once you reach high school you are able to disagree with your teacher. They may not like you afterword for saying that their wrong, who knows, maybe the teacher will change their mind and agree with you.  Yes, children are capable of understanding some complicated ideas for example how to work technology.  But by trying to get them to understand every single complicated and inconsistent ideas could make them go crazy as I sometimes feel when I get done with my classes for the day.  I guess I see the positive and negatives of schooling but I care more about a kids well being, that they stay happy even if they are being told junk then if they are conforming to a society. 

Also in our group discussions Grobstein asked us if we believe Darwin to be a pessimist or optimist.  When I read the book I see Darwin as an optimist, ready to new things to pop into his sight so that he can explore every detail.  I can just picture Darwin as a giddy child running around finding dirt or an insect and bringing it to his mother yelling look what I found isn't it cool.  I mean can you not see it when he starts talking about pigeons or how bees form hives.  He can't stop talking about the subject until every single detail is explained and analyzed. I can hear his excitement.  Maybe if I looked a little harder and found some of his fears about evolution I could see some pessimism. But all i see is appreciation and fascination of what is going on around him and how it all comes together.