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Retorts

Pupils' Beliefs and Polytechs

I found R.A. Gillanders's letter [Skeptical Survey, Feb] about school pupils' beliefs very interesting, but his sample sizes seem too small for the results to be significant. It might well prove instructive if s/he were to make the set of questions available to other teachers who would like to survey their classes.

It might also prove instructive if someone were to carry out such a survey at some of New Zealand's polytechnics. What with "cultural safety", degrees in naturopathy and crackpot publications, one begins to suspect that some of these institutions are on a downwards slide in terms of quality teaching. It almost seems plausible that their students might be more credulous than schoolchildren are.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to single out polytechnics in this way, but I don't recall seeing reports of universities doing anything quite so silly in the recent past. Are they more sensible or better at covering things up before adverse publicity hits, or is it just that there are more polytechs and hence more chance for jokers to pop out of the pack?

P. Dalton, Christchurch