Category Archives: Teaching

Sax Appeal 2010: on causing offense

By Jacques | Posted: February 4, 2010
Following the controversy caused by last year's edition of Sax Appeal (see here and here, if you don't know about this), the editor asked if I'd be willing to contribute a column. I was, and here it is, for those of you not in Cape Town (or those who simply ignored the pleas of those desperate students at the traffic lights).
Also posted in Morality, Religion | Tagged blasphemy, Sax Appeal, UCT | 7 Comments

The Frontline Fellowship wants your kids

By Jacques | Posted: November 16, 2009
The most recent newsletter from Dr. Paintball Hammond recycles one of his articles from 2004, which claims that universities are “hijacking our youth“. At the end of another long year of teaching, involving having to confront plenty of mindless prejudice, fundamentalism of various sorts, and deep confusion on how to reach justified conclusions, it’s really [...]
Also posted in General, Religion | Tagged child abuse, Frontline Fellowship, homeschooling, Lenora Hammond, Peter Hammond | 1 Comment

Blasphemy day

By Jacques | Posted: October 21, 2009
September 30 (the anniversary of the original publication of the (in)famous Danish Cartoons) was International Blasphemy Day, whose website unambiguously reminds us exists “because your god is a joke“. While I of course agree that your god doesn’t exist, her non-existence gives rise to a plethora of choice in terms of responses – some of [...]
Also posted in Morality, Religion | 10 Comments

Religion education in SA schools

By Jacques | Posted: September 26, 2009
The topic of religion education in South African public schools has recently been quite a hot issue – mostly in the Afrikaans papers – following Prof. George Claassen’s article about the topic on his blog and follow-up radio interviews and the like. To put it quite plainly, certain schools are clearly in violation of the [...]
Also posted in Religion | Leave a comment

Bad educations, bad science, bad students…

By Jacques | Posted: August 16, 2009
Regardless of the role religion may play in our dumbing-down, for whatever reason our students certainly arrive at university unprepared for "higher learning".
Also posted in General | Tagged education, innumeracy | 1 Comment
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