re: #22 ggt

Good idea, but there is a giant pitfall. A child in the home of creationists who are training their child to be a creationist is already significantly handicapped.

What you and D.F. are proposing is that a young teenager not be confronted with the truth, which IMO is the wrong approach.

Socratic methods have their place, but implied in the method is that the student is already mature enough to stand by themselves. Any student that has been and is undergoing indoctrination needs something a bit stronger and intense, IMO. Once a crisis in thought is arrived, then the Socratic method can help a person sort through paths to take intellectually.

When someone is learning to speak and later to read no one uses the Socratic method. It is by repetition that these basic skills are passed on. When it comes to basic mathematics and science I believe similar approaches yield the best results.