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Teaching politics and philosophy in schools
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Shouldn't they teach those subjects in schools? I would have loved the opportunity to study that at school.
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Government and Politics is a choice at some schools I believe. Not sure about Philosophy though.
I don't really think Philosophy should be made a subject that you can choose to do at school - at highschool you should be made to concentrate on the more important subjects (by that i don't necessarily mean English, Maths and Science - well I do mean though but also subject that lead more directly into a job, unlike subjects like RE, Philosophy, Gov/Pol etc, which are more of companion subjects to do with other qualifications) and then branch out more at college.
I am on the math line which means that I differ from the linguists by having maths, chemistry and physics, while they use that time on latin plus a continuation and new language they have chosen to learn. Plus of course we have all the other compulsary classes, which both lines have.
Next year I have chosen to take Social Science- which is the nearest thing you can get to study politics. As it's basically built up by economics, politics and sociology.
I do find classes like philosophy and psychology useful, and would have loved to take those, but they don't fit into my schedule. Think that it's usefull knowing how the human mind works, and all the ideas and theories which are going through our heads.
I'll assume that Clandestine studied Political Science, so he could give you an idea of how programs are generally set.
I minored in Philosophy and can tell you that lower courses (Freshmen/Sophomore level) generally focus on general concepts. Logic is usually required to be taken in your first year. If you can handle the math for follow-up logic courses, they are useful. Third and Fourth year Philosophy courses generally focus on specific Philosophers (Kant, Hobbes, etc.).
I have done a first year course on human rights and a second year course on Pol Phil, both fairly broad whereas many of the third year courses are more focused ie 'Descartes and the Empiricists' or 'Plato and Aristotle'
There are no bans on teaching any philosophers in US universities. Where do you people come up with this stuff?
God it makes us look like fools sometimes........:(
well maybe im wrong then, but that was what our lecturer told us.. that there are some philosophers and sociologists which arent taught in the US, especially with sociologists (communism and such like), but maybe he was wrong about the philosophers.
I think your lecturer was wrong, full stop. The bulk of professors who teach the "social sciences" are of a liberal mindset, and have no problem what so ever with teaching communism and such.
Clandestine, would you agree?
Like i said he probably was wrong... im not questioning you.
I went to private college myself so the state couldnt have controlled the curriculum even if it wanted to.
But because kicking/hitting a ball around is so important, and politics being a humanities subject, it could be given as an option alongside history/geography.
I seem to remember that geography had political areas.
Could they offer a scientific (the environmental etc. bit) geography stream and a political one.
Or, because environmental knowledge is becoming more important, integrate politics with history.
But this is all based upon my dodgy memory of school...
But yes, providing they can fit it in somewhere, then it should be offered as a choice, at least.