[Phys-L] Re: Another Shot Fired in the War Against Science.

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

> Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> <clip>
>
> "However, one of the aims of the current
> Republicans is to destroy public education, by, for example, vouchers."

I always love how people like BC seem to see inside the minds of those with
whom they disagree.  The 'Republicans want to destroy public education' is
just outlandish, and quite frankly, is a crack-pot statement.

Should we now conclude that the 'liberal/progressive' educational leaders of
the 70's were aiming to lower the academic abilities of students, to lower
the reading and critical thinking skills of young people to the point where
they would have to rely on their favorite movie star or rock star to do
their political thinking for them?

Might it be that today, as then, the goal is to improve education so that
the students graduate with the ability to be productive members of the
society?  That is, after all, why taxpayers are 'willing' to pay for
education.  Now going 'back to basics' and statewide objective testing may
not end up being any more effective than open classrooms, unstructured
curriculum, new math, cooperative/collaborative learning, or any of the
other dozens of educational movements that have come, gone, probably come
again, and gone again.  However, to impugn the motivations of those
supporting today's attempts to get our educational system back under control
and back to doing its job, is just politically motivated and ultimately
empty rhetoric.

Rick (who feels that no educational reform can be truly effective without
social reform that returns stability to the family unit.)
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