Daniel Dennett Essay

Daniel Dennett has come to the conclusion that the teaching of world religions should become a part of required education for school aged children. He specifies this would go for public schools, private schools, and home schoolers. He advocates this idea so children can make an informed choice on which religion they would like to be a part of when they are mature enough. This decision would be based on the information they have learned about all religions instead of blindly agreeing to the religion of their parents when they are too young to understand. The educational criteria would be historical and matter of fact as opposed to trying to encourage one religion or another, and both the negative and positive of each faith would be included.

Daniel Dennett agrees not all teachers would be a supporter of mandated religious education. Dennett’s response to this is anything that is taught about world religions, no matter if it came from a biased source, could help influence a child’s worldview and reveal other ways of thinking. He also thinks some promotional media about the educational program could help lesson the effects of teachers who might try to underrepresent the things they might not agree with. Through the use of standardized tests, the students would at least have to learn the material. This response is a bit inadequate. While his response highlights the fact that students would learn the material regardless of the teacher’s view on it, the only issue is the teacher’s position as a role model and the effort of the students to think for themselves. Students who do not go out of their way to think for themselves would be inclined to take the view of the one teaching them. While Dennett mentions that teachers who protest the system might lose their credibility, this would not be the most effective deterrent because standardized tests might not catch what is going on in the classroom. It is easy for students to learn for the test and still think something different. Periodic classroom monitoring might be