Re: Morality Question

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:35:52 -0500, David Friedman
<ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:ddfr-A03407.23355227082005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
rec.arts.sf.composition:

> In article <1bcivujapljk1$.1dc0yxqttlixs.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 20:24:55 +0100, Eric Jarvis
>> <web@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> <news:MPG.1d7ace4bc11f841898ca7d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
>> rec.arts.sf.composition:

>>> Brian M. Scott b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote in
>>> <t4r1s9ekya3s.14b7kesk2qi5l.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>:

>>>> On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:20:29 -0500, David Friedman
>>>> <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>>>> <news:ddfr-026F48.08202927082005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
>>>> rec.arts.sf.composition:

>>>> [...]

>>>>> In my case, as it happens, the short list of things every
>>>>> person should know at the end of schooling is very
>>>>> short--I'm not sure I can think of anything that
>>>>> qualifies other than how to read, although one can make a
>>>>> case for simple arithmetic. Holmes, after all, managed
>>>>> quite well without worrying about whether the earth went
>>>>> round the sun or vice versa. As did Leonardo.

>>>> You may wish to live your life surrounded and governed by
>>>> ignoramuses; I don't care for the idea. (Of course, the
>>>> idea that schooling should -- or even does now -- involve
>>>> only things that everyone should know at the end of it is
>>>> absurd to begin with.)

>>> I think you may be missing the point. The problem David is
>>> addressing is the standardisation of education. He is
>>> suggesting that the only thing that needs to be a
>>> standardised requirement is literacy and possibly basic
>>> numeracy. The rest should be as much as possible but not
>>> standardised, instead it should be a matter of teachers
>>> and pupils making the most of their talents and
>>> interests in order to learn as effectively as they can
>>> in the time available.

>> No, I don't think that I am missing the point. I consider
>> his minimum inadequate

> My minimum what? As you can easily see by reading what is
> quoted above, my statement was about the list of things
> that every person should know at the end of schooling.

Yes, I know; I can read.

> Are you claiming, not merely that everyone should know
> other things, but that there are lots of other things
> each of which everyone should know?

I am (fairly obviously, I think) saying that there are
specific things not on that list to which everyone should
have been exposed. I have no idea where you get 'lots of
other things'; it certainly isn't in anything that I wrote.

What *is* there, in case it was also unaccountably obscure,
is the implication (in the part that you snipped) that there
might well be things to which I think everyone ought to be
exposed, but in which I would not demand testable
competence.

Brian
.

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