[WikiEN-l] Schools, notability, inclusionism, deletionism, etc.

Mon Sep 25 20:35:07 UTC 2006

On 25/09/06, David Russell <webmaster at davidarussell.co.uk> wrote:
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> Mark Wagner wrote:
> > Define "school".  Under Michigan law, I was educated in a private
> > school: the Vernon-Dunlap School.  I can even cite sources that prove
> > the existence of this school and that I went there; however, this
> > particular "school" existed only because that's how the state of
> > Michigan defined homeschooling: as a private school with a religious
> > or philosophical objection to teacher certification.  Should we have
> > an article on it?
>
> Yes. The unusualness (is that a word?) of this arrangement means that it
> would be inherently notable.

Ah, no. The *arrangement* is highly notable - an individual incidence
of the arrangement isn't. We can and should write about the legal
loophole Michigan uses to handle homeschooling; this doesn't mean that
a single specific homeschool is notable, unless it's the only one that
loophole applies to.

To use a different, and hopefully clearer, example... you know "John
Doe"? The name comes from an archaic English law proceeding, which
involved having to make up fictional plaintiffs and defendants in
order to permit a court to hear land-possession cases.

The proceeding (a mixed action of ejectment) is very notable - not
only did it give the English-speaking world a commonly used
general-purpose name, but it made all sorts of interesting leaps
forward in jurisprudence. But any individual case of it - this or that
particular occurence of John Doe in a land register in 1342 - is not
itself notable.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk