Faith School Menace? Page #6

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methods, just asking children

to spontaneously tell you what they

think about the origins of things,

and also then sort of presenting

them with answers.

So we are going to play a game.

We're going to look at

some pictures...

Dr Deborah Kelemen

is a leading child psychologist

at Boston University.

You have to pick the answer

that makes most sense to you.

In this experiment, she poses

the children questions like,

"Why are rocks pointy?"

One person says they were pointy

because little bits of stuff

piled up on top of one another over

a long time, and another person said

they were pointy so animals could

scratch on them when they got itchy.

What answer makes more sense to you?

The animal one

with the... scratch,

to make itchy.

OK, then.

All right.

And here's another one.

What you find is that kids have a tendency

clearly from about four years of age

to endorse a purpose-based

explanation or to

give you a purpose-based explanation

for the origins of things.

Another question she asks the

children is, "Why are lakes still?"

One person thought they were still

and didn't have waves

so animals could cool off in them

without being washed away,

and another person thought they were

still and didn't have waves

because no moving water

ever ran into them.

Which answer make more sense to you?

Animals can be cool

without being washed away.

So that animals could be cool

without being washed away?

Animals could wash in them

and don't get washed away.

OK, brilliant.

Because no moving water.

OK, excellent.

'I suppose a child is surrounded in

the home by artefacts, telephones

'and televisions,

all things which actuallyare

designed for a purpose. '

What we're finding right now

is that children really start to do

this at the point where they start

to understand that artefacts

are objects that have been made

by someone for a purpose, and that

might be orienting them towards

an understanding that things are

intentionally caused,

intentionally designed and then,

once they understand that, yes,

they're surrounded by these objects

that are intentionally designed,

then going, "Well, that's quite

a good way to understand everything. "

Do you think children can be

described as natural creationists?

In some sense yes, insofar as they

are attracted to and spontaneously

invoke notions that things exist for

purposes and that's associated with

their notions that these things

have been intentionally caused

for a purpose. In many respects,

it mimics what's seen in

religion as creationism.

Are you up for that?

I think so.

You think so. Brilliant!

So children naturally tend to assume

meaning and purpose in things

even where there is none.

This, of course, gives religions,

with their own presumptuous,

but unfounded, sense of purpose

and meaning, a peculiar advantage.

That's why it's all the more

important that religion

is put in its proper place, as it is

in normal schools like Windmill,

and not allowed to get in the way

of children's questioning minds.

Rather than indoctrinating children

in faiths that can only preach a

limited view on the deep questions

of existence, how much better

instead to fire children's curiosity

about all the extraordinary

questions we have yet to answer.

'At Windmill School, I'm going

to take an alternative assembly.

'I'm hoping I can share with

these children something of

'what I wrote to my own daughter

'and get them to ask me questions. '

When I was your age,

I pretty much thought that anything

that a grown-up said must be true.

But that can't be right, can it?

Because grown-ups say different

things, and they don't always agree.

How do we know what's true?

You've probably all heard

about a great big,

meat-eating dinosaur called...

Do you know what that's called?

T. Rex.

T. Rex. That's right.

Yeah. Tyrannosaurus Rex

Now, if I tell you that T. Rex was

about as long as a double-decker bus

and was taller than an elephant,

it'd be very sensible of you to ask

me:
"how I know these amazing things?"

So evidence is a

good reason for believing...

'Our greatest

responsibility in education

'is to unleash children's curiosity

and never limit their questions. '

"You and I are really very lucky.

"We're lucky because we live in

a country with a long history

"of thinking for ourselves

and asking questions.

"We're lucky because we live in

"the most extraordinary world,

the real world, of real evidence.

"And I hope you'll enjoy finding

out much more about its wonders. "

(INDISTINCT QUESTION)

Yes, well, horseshoe crabs

haven't changed very much.

Lots of other things have

changed a lot since that time.

How did the sun come?

How did the sun come?

Well, the sun came from a huge,

great cloud of gas which came

from an earlier star that exploded.

How did the dinosaurs die?

Well, probably what happened

was there were lots of fires.

And there was huge lot of steam

and smoke and dust, and a great big

cloud formed all around the earth

and so the sun couldn't get through.

That's what people think,

but nobody really knows,

and you have to ask,

"what the evidence for that is?"

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