tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post6072341189233914618..comments2024-03-14T02:53:31.171+00:00Comments on Tom Bennett's School Report: Why NOT kill a President? The Book of Gove.Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-67380465467079278212012-02-26T14:49:58.702+00:002012-02-26T14:49:58.702+00:00Where HAVE you been? Nice to hear from you again. ...Where HAVE you been? Nice to hear from you again. I don't care what faith background people come from; it seems wilfully ignorant to get so upset about sending one of History's greatest moral texts to every school as a symbolic gesture. Perhaps it was a clumsy gesture, and perhaps the funding could have been worked out in advance of the obvious criticisms. But the protests would have been very different had the book been the collected works of Shakespeare. And there is not, despite the wishes of some secularists, a separation between church and state in England. That's what they should address, not the symptoms of it. Basically, chill out, is what I'm saying. It's not a big deal.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-56134646207979322162012-02-25T23:45:47.751+00:002012-02-25T23:45:47.751+00:00Clearly, I'm a few weeks behind ;0) We moved. ...Clearly, I'm a few weeks behind ;0) We moved. We settled...sort of...there are still a few boxes. As you probably know, I am a Christian. I've kept shtoom in the staffroom on this topic but I do wonder at times, that those in education can be so ignorant of the part the church played in the establishment of education. Anyway, I love your take on this. I love your honesty. And eh...God bless you :0)Journal for My Daughtershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16271784940616945687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-59041334536584922712011-12-07T20:57:48.387+00:002011-12-07T20:57:48.387+00:00I agree Tom - but we've got LOADS of Bibles in...I agree Tom - but we've got LOADS of Bibles in our school. We're beating them off like a plague of bloody locusts. Sometimes weird folk even turn up and GIVE them away to the whole year group. Now that's something I'd like to see with textbooks. EdExcel - you listening? You could slip a copy of "GCSE ICT" into my hotel drawer anytime. And that's not a euphemism baby.Davehttp://www.happysceptic.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-6115777100503753382011-12-03T19:14:19.155+00:002011-12-03T19:14:19.155+00:00@ Jon, cheers for the comments. Richard Dawkins di...@ Jon, cheers for the comments. Richard Dawkins did a pretty good job of finding shared communal values in a gene/ meme context (I think it was the Selfish Gene) but unfortunately accounts like that rather reduce our moral exchanges to determinism, and I'm rather fond of the concept of freewill.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-49802885228773375722011-12-03T19:12:00.890+00:002011-12-03T19:12:00.890+00:00@ Anonymous
Plato thought he could establish the ...@ Anonymous<br /><br />Plato thought he could establish the good cognitively, as did Plato, but couldn't- reason cannot supervene or correspond to value. It's no more reasonable to be a successful drug dealer than it is to be an average shelf-stacker. Kindness or cruelty can't be inferred from anything factual.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-65701935318070089602011-12-03T19:09:44.252+00:002011-12-03T19:09:44.252+00:00@ Dave
I'm not a Christian, but I'd be ha...@ Dave<br /><br />I'm not a Christian, but I'd be hard pressed to deny that the Bible, among other works of similar stature is an enormous edifice of a cultural text, straddling centuries of collective human understanding about meaning, value and morality. Some of it is hokey, and some is not. The C Programming Guide...er, isn't. I'm sure it's jolly good though.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-38544204045633676392011-12-03T19:06:53.329+00:002011-12-03T19:06:53.329+00:00@ JoeN Cheers, very kind@ JoeN Cheers, very kindTom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-69924873401060758602011-12-03T00:25:20.167+00:002011-12-03T00:25:20.167+00:00Inclined to agree with Dave - haven't Gideon&#...Inclined to agree with Dave - haven't Gideon's got this one covered as much as is useful? And in what circumstances are students likely to request the school copy of the Bible? How many schools have a Bhagavad Gita and Koran knocking around in their libraries? It just seems a bit fruitless as an exercise.<br /><br />Fantastic writing though; I especially enjoyed the 'No, reason alone...' paragraph - very eloquently put!<br /><br />FWIW, I reckon most of our values stem from the biological imperative of evolution giving us a healthy instinct for self-preservation and preservation of those that might help you out. If you think of society as a large mob of potential adversaries and consider whether to accept what is a pretty good deal (given that they basically have you by the short n curlies if you kick up too much of a fuss) then compliance as far as is necessary to keep your nose clean is a good option. And when obeying an externally set rule, I'm pretty convinced there's some instinct to want other people to kowtow those rules too. Thoughts?Jonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-60328384265564923962011-11-30T05:54:46.565+00:002011-11-30T05:54:46.565+00:00I don't agree on this one. Reason is the best ...I don't agree on this one. Reason is the best way to discover the virtuous life - 'what is the good?' - as per Socrates so many years ago. Today scientists are finding that morals are biologically based, not just in humans but in many of our closest animal relations. Relying on 'faith' lets in the ayatollahs or imams with their rather different ideas on justice or ethics.<br />But more than this, why a christian bible? Shouldn't a government be religiously neutral? Secular in fact?! I would not be happy if I were muslim or jewish. And if I were hindu or buddhist or humanist I would merely think 'what a blasted waste of money'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-15488776032584178622011-11-28T07:52:00.148+00:002011-11-28T07:52:00.148+00:00Philosophical musings aside, the simple fact is th...Philosophical musings aside, the simple fact is that this will cost money. Even should some rich theist cough up, I'd rather have a copy of "The C Programming Language (2nd Ed)" please. This would be much more useful to my pupils as we already have one or two copies of the Bible (sans Govean foreword, natch) knocking about but cannot afford the seminal K&R reference. <br /><br />Then again, the Beano would be good too. Why NOT the Beano Annual 2006? Lots of morality tales in there and just as arbitrary.Davenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-5580395936391248232011-11-27T15:54:55.916+00:002011-11-27T15:54:55.916+00:00*Bows down* Your writing at its best. A masterful ...*Bows down* Your writing at its best. A masterful commentary on the source of the values that make our society what it is. I'm a Christian but one who has been exposed to every major faith, and who has worked with members of all of them. My work continues...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15726540916578169593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-38696489676546318322011-11-27T10:53:22.847+00:002011-11-27T10:53:22.847+00:00What a balanced, lucid analysis of what so many le...What a balanced, lucid analysis of what so many less objective minds would dismiss as "fundamentalism" or "reactionary." I suspect (a bit like Gove) I've never had a problem with the question what are schools for? We are where we are, after several thousand years of sweat, blood and tears and every child should have the benefit of knowing something of the best of human thought, activity and effort that has got us here. And it's impossible to do that outside of some kind of cultural or linguistic framework.<br /><br />Your post reminded me of a nice quotation from Jostein Gaarder's "Sophie's World," a book I used to teach year 9 kids very successfully. <br />"Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith." I find as I get older: experience and reason increasingly let me down!JoeNhttp://joenutt.squarespace.com/noreply@blogger.com