Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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The Sins of the Father and the Mother
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Author:  Stephanie Williams [ Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:40 am ]
Post subject:  The Sins of the Father and the Mother

As I was reading the Poisonwood Bible, I wanted to jump in there and fix things. After a little while, I realized that my thought processes were not dissimilar to Nathan Price's. Who made me God and therefore the power to know what was best for each person? It would be easy to become a Nathan in our future positions. I would hope we would never become as fixated as Nathan Price on what was best for everyone, but by the same token, will we be afraid to interfere and allow things to happen until it is essentially too late - much like Orleanna Price? I appreciated the summing of Rachel, Leah and Adah’s lives on page 701 as Barbara Kingsolver in so few words demonstrated how the “sinsâ€

Author:  Jackie Shaw [ Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:08 am ]
Post subject: 

I also think one of Kingsolver's points was that things that seem wrong or different to us may not be and therefore do not need "fixin" just to match our concept of right and wrong. I always think of how shocked my students were about the practice of the tribes in Things Fall Apart when someone had twins-leaving them in the forest to survive on their own or not. Then we would discuss abortion and how that was perhaps less humane than the practices of Okonkwo's tribe.

Author:  John Robinson [ Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:03 pm ]
Post subject: 

Perhaps we need to think about our own motives very carefully. Nathan had motives that were grounded in "Saving the world." That is a noble idea in itself. Just maybe we need to make sure that the "remedy" we offer to the world is not worse than the status quo. Maybe what we think is "good for everybody" is actually not so good. As human beings, we need to keep in the back of our minds all the time the idea that "we do not know for sure what is good for all." Maybe there is not place in our lives for the missionary-crusader motive of saving the world. Take care of our own sphere before moving out into other worlds.

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