Re: the weight aginst evol


Robert J. Kolker wrote:

"2. There are still schools in this country that promote intellectual
excellence. These are (some of) the charter schools and the so-called
test school. The pinko stinko socialist liberals usually condemn this
schools as elitist. Well they are elitist. Why not enourage our best
and
brightest and give little to the mediocre. "

Now while I might not use the same wording in regard to liberals, it
was a liberal philosophy and action that created the problem.

During the late 40s, 50s, and early 60s the US had the finest school
system in the world. It was a time when superstitious organizations
were on the decline (even Time Magazine carried the banner headline
"God is Dead"), research in the sciences was exploding and the US was
sitting on top of the world. The fact that the Soviet Union got a
small object into orbit did not mean they had a superior science
program. The "space race" was only one small part of overall
scientific endeavor.

Schools were locally controlled and while some were second rate, there
were also those which were surperb and even the 'average' of the time
did a far better job than they are doing now.

To address unequal education opportunities brought to light by the
Civil Rights Movement, as well as unequal opportunities between
wealthier and poorer school districts, among a list of other things,
the US established a new cabinet level Department of Education and the
federal government, for better or worse, became involved in American
public education. Local control began to vanish under an avalanch of
new federal regulation ranging from funding to subjects taught.

In the latter of these two categories, so called "feel-good" subjects
began to replace the basic three Rs. Basic skills became second place
to such things as "student self-esteem." Academic competition was
being looked at as being somehow "unfair" to students who acchieved
less. Failing students were automatically "passed" into higher grades
as holding them back would hurt their "self-esteem." Classroom
discipline suffered greatly and the public school system became largely
diploma mills.

In the name of "equality" in education, the superlative schools were
pretty much destroyed and became 'average.' The concept of what was
'average' also dropped. Those schools which federal legislation was
supposed to help, namely those at the bottom, fared little better. The
Department of Education got what it wanted, a greater equality among
schools. But it did that by destroying what was already best in the
system, namely local control, which while causing some inequality,
still produced, overall, the best public school system in the world.

The result was a growing body of Americans graduating from the system
lacking basic skills. (the number of remedial math, and even reading
courses, colleges and universities had to institute give some
indication of how bad things were getting) And minds 'not taught how
to think' became prey for many vulture types waiting to jump.

During the height of our school systems, religion was on the decline.
You may check your own history sources, but after the fall of our
schools through federal interference, empty minds abhore a vacuum just
as as physical space does. Something will step in to fill it.

In come the "Legions of the Simple Answers" ready and willing to fill
that void. This is the point in American history when "conservative
religion" began its explosive growth phase. It provided the
simplistic, dogmatic answers to questions students and young adults
were no longer able to grasp due to the diminished opportunities
offered by the schools they attended.

During the earlier years of locally controled public education, a large
percentage of each graduating class went on to a higher education and a
large number of those went into the sciences. They had been taught,
and provided, a good education in scientific methodology while still in
high school. They were scientifically literate.

Later schools also produced many who went on to higher educations. But
the number going into the sciences dropped off sharpely. Such things
as "business degrees," "law," and "economics" became the new hot
university courses. The United States still produces as many people
with university degrees as ever, but the overall texture of those
degrees has changed. We are now a nation that is more than 90% science
illiterate.

We still have people with advanced educations. But how much
biochemistry is needed for a degree in business? How much astrophysics
study does it take to get an advanced degree in law? How much basic
chemistry is covered on the way to an advanced degree in economics?
And how much basic science of any type is needed for the ever upward
spiraling number of degrees coming from so-called Bible Colleges?

The largest block of students now getting higher degrees in the
sciences are foreign students, not our own home grown.

Now, we are between the proverbial rock and hard place. There are
movements to take back control of the schools by local schoolboards.
But now, that is a dangerous situation. Who is running to be on those
boards? It is the very people who swallowed the "simplistic and
dogmatic" answers provided by the fast growing conservative Christian
churches. These people are no longer as interested in providing a
"good, basic, education" as they are in turning local schools into
teaching factories for their own agendas, ID, creationism, etc, etc.

So, in many ways, Bob Kolker is right. We need to find alternatives.
However, the destruction of public schools is not the answer.

So what is the answer?

I haven't the foggiest idea.

There are minds far, far greater than mine trying to work on the
problem. But first, we need to know what the real problem is and I
hope Imay have shed some light on it.

I fear we are only at the beginning of a long seige. That the
anti-intellectual forces of the new American conservatism, religiously
led, now have the finances and the numbers to carry on their attacks
for the forseeable future.

I also fear that when the dust finally settles, America will have lost
its lead in the sciences and we will wind up with a definite Third
World educational system.

Here in Ohio, there has been a move trying to establish private secular
schools providing a good basis in science. They are not succeeding.

Why?

If a church body wants to establish its own private school, it is given
a green light and rushed through the process.

If a non-religious secular private school applies for the same
permissions, the Religious Right politicians in Columbus jam it into a
cubby hole and delay it till the proposed school is simply no longer
financially possible. Their beginning operational budgets are eaten
away though legal fees simply trying to get the thing off the ground.

The alternatives we should be setting up, as Bob Kolker seems to be
suggesting, are being shot down left and right, and not just in this
state either.

Sorry for being such a doomsday philospher, but I am seeing the
Religious Right and the exploding growth of Fundamentalist/Evangelical
and Pentacostal forms of Christianity as the death knell of civilized
life as we know it.

A Theocratic Oligarchy is growing by the day.

Also apologies for being so windy.

Digs

.

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