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

[Thomas McCarthy <tmccarthy@SPS.EDU>]

Bravo!
Tom McCarthy
=20
The Hawley Observatory
St. Paul's School
325 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH  03301

O:  603-229-4884
H:  603-230-9624

http://astro.sps.edu

________________________________

=46rom: Forum for Physics Educators on behalf of Rick Tarara
Sent: Fri 12/2/2005 10:32 AM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: Another Shot Fired in the War Against Science.



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

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

Should we now conclude that the 'liberal/progressive' educational lea=
ders 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 th=
e
society?  That is, after all, why taxpayers are 'willing' to pay for
education.  Now going 'back to basics' and statewide objective testin=
g may
not end up being any more effective than open classrooms, unstructure=
d
curriculum, new math, cooperative/collaborative learning, or any of t=
he
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 ultimate=
ly
empty rhetoric.

Rick (who feels that no educational reform can be truly effective wit=
hout
social reform that returns stability to the family unit.)
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