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bad thoughts make water bad

lionking

In the Peanut Gallery
lionking
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
58,012
Location
Melbourne
Yesterday my 11 year old daughter came home from school in Melbourne Australia telling me that her teacher told the class that bad words and negative thoughts directed at a bottle of water would make it taste bad while good thoughts and even positive messages on a sticker put on a bottle would make the water taste good. My daughter didn't believe any of this (and is now probably condemned to a lifetime of bad tasting water) but others may have.

This is a sad indictment of the education system in our region. For those who know Melbourne, we live in the Diamond Valley, where "alternative" lifestyles abound and ther are colonies of hippies in the sorrounding hills (truely). But this should not effect the education of impressionable kids.

I am unsure how to react. Should I ignore it like my daughter? Should I be accused of being an interfering humourless parent over-reacting to a bit of whimsy? What to do.......
 
I would take it to the school, and make sure my complaint was heard.

11 year old kids are supposed to be learning things, among them science.

New age woo is like religion. Would they allow a teacher to teach creation or preach Jesus at you? This is the same. Bogus, unsubstantiated superstition. It does NOT belong in a school.

A newspaper or TV news station might be an excellent place to go as well.
 
Agreed

Miss Anthrope said:
I would take it to the school, and make sure my complaint was heard.

11 year old kids are supposed to be learning things, among them science.

New age woo is like religion. Would they allow a teacher to teach creation or preach Jesus at you? This is the same. Bogus, unsubstantiated superstition. It does NOT belong in a school.

A newspaper or TV news station might be an excellent place to go as well.
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Agreed! Although it might seem harsh to take your complaint public, it would bring attention to others tempted to hawk such nonsense. Certainly, I would get media attention if the school did not take action.
 
Graham Jackman said:
Agreed! Although it might seem harsh to take your complaint public, it would bring attention to others tempted to hawk such nonsense. Certainly, I would get media attention if the school did not take action.
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I dont suppose you have an 11 year old daughter? She would mortified if it went to the media and would be embarrassed even if I took it to the school hence my dilemma.
 
I am willing to test that while testing my "talking to rice" experiment.

on the other hand, I think I know what the results would be.
 
lionking said:
I dont suppose you have an 11 year old daughter? She would mortified if it went to the media and would be embarrassed even if I took it to the school hence my dilemma.
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I have a 10.5 year old. And she'd go the media herself. But then again, she's an avowed Pastafarian of the highest order, who's read The God Delusion.

So don't embarrass her. How would it be found out school-wide that it was her mother who complained? It's fairly reasonable to ask the administration not to identify you unless required, but certainly it would not get to the students?
 
Miss Anthrope said:
I have a 10.5 year old. And she'd go the media herself. But then again, she's an avowed Pastafarian of the highest order, who's read The God Delusion.

So don't embarrass her. How would it be found out school-wide that it was her mother who complained? It's fairly reasonable to ask the administration not to identify you unless required, but certainly it would not get to the students?
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Please, please, please, father. But we are talking about a school of about 70 students, so it would porbably get out. That said, I will try to raise it confidentally. What I am most amazed about is how this can be taught in a school in the 21st century in a supposedly enlightened country. BTW I haven't given my daughter the God Delusion yet, but am delighted she is reading Harry Potter. If only her other siblings had read at her age! I have seven kids and at 11 it was Playstation or Friends!
 
This is the long-debunked laughable Emoto theory.

Go the other way. Get her to bug the teacher into having the class do the same experiment themselves. Only ensure that they know how to do good experimental design (and this is a simple experiment - it will be easy to design). In fact, I seem to recall that a number of posters here have already designed testing protocols for the Emoto experiments. This will make her (1) a keen student, (2) not a pariah among her classmates, and (3) ostensibly fully in favour of the teacher's crackpot theory.

Then see if they get the same results as Emoto! (Hint: No, they won't.) Then it will be the class as a whole who get the results, and the teacher who has to explain her previous silliness away...
 
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How about for a school project your daughter conducts a double blind study to see if the teacher is right or wrong? Let the teacher (blindly) distinguish between the "negative" and "positive" water.
 
Zep said:
This is the long-debunked laughable Emoto theory.

Go the other way. Get her to bug the teacher into having the class do the same experiment themselves. Only ensure that they know how to do good experimental design (and this is a simple experiment - it will be easy to design). In fact, I seem to recall that a number of posters here have already designed testing protocols for the Emoto experiments.

Then see if they get the same results as Emoto! (Hint: No, they won't.) Then let's see the teacher explain that one away...
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Great idea!!! This way she can embarrass the teacher rather than be embarrassed by her father's intervention.
 
lionking said:
Great idea!!! This way she can embarrass the teacher rather than be embarrassed by her father's intervention.
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Yeah, I like the experiment idea, because I think it would get through to people better. Instead of saying, "no, you're wrong" and having the teacher and possibly some students think you guys are just closed minded or whatever, you can say, "hmm, this doesn't sound plausible, but why don't we see for ourselves"? It is a school after all...
 
Hey depending on the Playstation game there might have been a lot of reading involved! (Okay, militant defending of my hobby over.)

No seriously, someone's gotta raise a big overreacting stink over this, and it might as well be you. I can't speak from experience, or even motive as I have no kids myself, but personally I'd go for confronting the teacher directly at first. It just seems like that's the proper tact, plus you can at least confirm it happened. If this teacher suggests it's true and the job is about teaching "truth", or something like that, I'd ask how this teacher figured out this factoid. Hey, the teacher could even run a class-wide test of this idea. First of course you'll need to figure out what makes "good" water different from "bad" and how you'd measure it, but after that a test should be pretty easy for the class to set up and moniter. It'd be fun and educational, if the teacher is willing to listen.

Otherwise, it's a "not proven" claim and you should go to the principal and then whoever you need to complain at to get this nonsense to stop.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
Hey depending on the Playstation game there might have been a lot of reading involved! (Okay, militant defending of my hobby over.)

No seriously, someone's gotta raise a big overreacting stink over this, and it might as well be you. I can't speak from experience, or even motive as I have no kids myself, but personally I'd go for confronting the teacher directly at first. It just seems like that's the proper tact, plus you can at least confirm it happened. If this teacher suggests it's true and the job is about teaching "truth", or something like that, I'd ask how this teacher figured out this factoid. Hey, the teacher could even run a class-wide test of this idea. First of course you'll need to figure out what makes "good" water different from "bad" and how you'd measure it, but after that a test should be pretty easy for the class to set up and moniter. It'd be fun and educational, if the teacher is willing to listen.

Otherwise, it's a "not proven" claim and you should go to the principal and then whoever you need to complain at to get this nonsense to stop.
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Thanks DJ. Firstly, don't be embarrassed about your Playstation addiction, I am alternating this forum with my favorite computer role playing game, at the ripe age of 56.
I have decided to talk to the Principal next week and suggest the experiment if the teacher in question persists in her lessons. Remember that we live in full-on hippie territory, so I expect that I will be told to respect other's beliefs. Will let you know how I go.
 
lionking said:
I dont suppose you have an 11 year old daughter? She would mortified if it went to the media and would be embarrassed even if I took it to the school hence my dilemma.
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Yes, but this is yet another teaching opportunity. Being mortified is not a justification for not standing up for one's principles. She may be motified but think of the lesson she will learn when Dad stands up for his principles.
 
SezMe said:
Yes, but this is yet another teaching opportunity. Being mortified is not a justification for not standing up for one's principles. She may be motified but think of the lesson she will learn when Dad stands up for his principles.
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Very good point. Parenthood is a hard gig, and you sometimes go for the line of least resistance rather than thinking of the long term lessons. I have just remembered my father confronting my teachers (Marist Brothers, sad to say) about my being held back a grade not because of my marks but because I was seven days days "too young". In retrospect he did the right thing standing up for his beliefs, even though I would have rather he didn't at the time.
 
lionking said:
I dont suppose you have an 11 year old daughter? She would mortified if it went to the media and would be embarrassed even if I took it to the school hence my dilemma.
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I understand your anxiety. Neither of my daughters would have accepted such nonsense, but one might be embarrassed by my intervention. The suggestions to put the idea to the test are good, but it may be harder than they think to persuade the teacher. Whatever you do, don't take it lying down
 
lionking said:
Remember that we live in full-on hippie territory, so I expect that I will be told to respect other's beliefs.
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There is of course a world of difference between respecting the beliefs of others and letting nonsense be taught as fact. I agree that direct confrontation maybe isn't the best approach, but this sort of thing has to be challenged.
 
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