How to teach objectivism to kids?

Questions about Objectivism
21

Either way, the thing that stood out to me in your previous post was the idea that providing this type of commentary from an Objectivist perspective was more difficult than from a mystical perspective. Wouldn’t it be the opposite? Wouldn’t the Objectivist perspective sound like “common sense”? What would be an example of a stumbling block that makes it difficult?

Are you referring to this comment?

I’ve found that objectivism is difficult for others to understand, especially for mystics, when viewed from the outside.

If so, what I meant was not that providing commentary from an objectivist perspective was more difficult than from a mystical one. Rather, that from the perspective of someone who believes in mysticism, objectivism is difficult to understand if all they see is your behavior without the associated commentary – and even with the commentary, they usually still don’t get it, because their entire worldview is distorted.

For example, consider the following conversation, although the o-ist perspective is only implicit (based on a real-life recent experience):

A: Look at those clouds, they’re spelling a word!

B: Oh, pretty.

A: A spirit is trying to communicate with us.

B: No, those are just clouds.

A: But things like that don’t just happen by accident.

B: Yes, they do.

A: How can you say that? Those are too intricate to just happen randomly. There are hidden forces that we can’t explain.

B: Forces that are fully understood can explain the clouds.

A: You don’t get it. The universe is more complex than anyone understands. There are other dimensions, you know. Sprits could be reaching through to communicate with us.

B: Why do you think that’s true?

A: I saw it on TV and read a book about it written by a really famous guy. There’s a lot on the Internet, and my friend agrees with me!

22

Ok, Ace. The example helps make things real. I see that I was assuming a problem that had not progressed this far. I’m not sure what you can do other than providing your explanations, just the way you try. Of course, if your wife is providing the bogus interpretations, this is an uphill battle. Still, my guess is that if you stick with your explanations, you will keep finding better ways to make your case.

One thing to watch out for (in your counter explanations) would be this: do not set up a dichotomy between (say) beauty and rationality, or between meaning and reality.

All the best.

23

Rational Jenn is a home schooling Objectivist, and her blog has some ideas. some of it is not teaching Objectivism per se, but making the values and virtues of objectivism daily habits that are built into her children. she had a great post on teaching productiveness. Her blog is on my blog’s blogroll. Just click through. (oh, and stop and read a post or two :slight_smile: )

Rational Jenn’s post is part of the Best of 2007 Objectivist Round-up. Check it out.

http://crucibleandcolumn.blogspot.com/2008…ry-14-2008.html

24

Which is what, exactly?

Your point is to say morality is not devoid of context. I would agree with you. I am not for a strict religious interpretation of the definition of moral absolutism. My concern is the growing influence of moral relativism on kids at a young age, especially in today’s preschools. A better term would probaby be “moral objectivism,” that is to say the notion that morality depends on matters of fact and not social, economic, or cultural acceptance. I would of course not want to teach my kids that action X is always wrong, but I would want to teach them that moral questions are to be looked at with truth instead of subjectivism.

25

My concern is the growing influence of moral relativism on kids at a young age, especially in today’s preschools. A better term would probaby be “moral objectivism,” that is to say the notion that morality depends on matters of fact and not social, economic, or cultural acceptance.

Absolutely. Moral relativism is, in fact, moral nihilism.

26

A: Look at those clouds, they’re spelling a word!

B: Oh, pretty.

A: A spirit is trying to communicate with us.

B: No, those are just clouds.

A: But things like that don’t just happen by accident.

B: Yes, they do.

A: How can you say that? Those are too intricate to just happen randomly. There are hidden forces that we can’t explain.

B: Forces that are fully understood can explain the clouds.

A: You don’t get it. The universe is more complex than anyone understands. There are other dimensions, you know. Sprits could be reaching through to communicate with us.

B: Why do you think that’s true?

A: I saw it on TV and read a book about it written by a really famous guy. There’s a lot on the Internet, and my friend agrees with me!

You have allowed for things to go far in the wrong direction. So what do you now?

You have to go one by one. You have to identify the root of each wrong idea you encounter, educate yourself about the counter arguments, if you don’t know them well already, and present them to your kids in a way that will be understandable. So in this example, it would be argument from design and thus you have to gather enough evidence to present to your kids that while many things may seem purposeful and ordered, upon closer inspection, that becomes questionable. There are a lot of books on this topic. This would be a good time to say (and illustrate using examples) that people believe in all kinds of wrong ideas, even the so called “experts” because their personal philosophy, which most often than not is flawed, influences their conclusions.

Then you have to tackle the mysticism part. What properly can be considered knowledge? What is a fact? How in a complex world and many mixed views do you determine what the truth is?

You have to talk to your kids a lot. You have to assume the role of a teacher. You have a lot of work to do before you can talk Objectivism. Maybe take them on a camping/cabin trip or something, away from everything (no TV or cell phones), where it will be them and you for few days - lots of time to talk without many distractions.

27

Just a quick note - the “spirit clouds” example brought to mind the movie “My Dinner with Andre”! It’s a conversation between a mystical guy and his non-mystical friend. The non-mystic listens politely through most of the meal, and then makes some common-sense remarks that show instantly how foolish the mystic is being. I’d recommend watching it with your kids. One nice thing about the movie is that the non-mystic does get something out of the conversation, in spite of the fact that it’s a bunch of BS! It sort of makes him see things from a different perspective.