Re: [Phys-l] California state standards and their tests

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>]

Your example is what adds fuel to the move for the West Coast to declare 
independence from the United States.

bc, aghast.

p.s. I think it's an example of how people can "compartmentalize" and ....

Lakoff writes much about his "family" types * and the logic of what "we" 
think is so illogical in creationist and other religious thinking.  
(Once one understands, they're quite logical and consistent.).

Earlier Erich Fromm similarly wrote about the "Fascist" personality.  
["Escape From Freedom"]


"...  But milder versions of authoritarianism are everywhere. In many 
classes, for example, there is an implicit contract between students and 
professors: Students demand structure, and the professor sticks to his 
notes. It seems innocuous and even natural, but this way the students 
avoid taking any responsibility for their learning, and the professor 
can avoid taking on the real issues of his field."   [  If Fromm is 
correct, no wonder there is so much resistance to PER, etc.] 

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/fromm.html

Something tells me I've posted this before.


More:

"The person who uses automaton conformity is like a social chameleon: He 
takes on the coloring of his surroundings. Since he looks like a million 
other people, he no longer feels alone. He isn't alone, perhaps, but 
he's not himself either. The automaton conformist experiences a split 
between his genuine feelings and the colors he shows the world, very 
much along the lines of Horney's theory."

Reminds me of the "Lonely Crowd".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lonely_Crowd


<>* Lakoff argues that the differences in opinions between liberals 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_liberalism> and conservatives 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_conservatism> follow from the 
fact that they subscribe with different strength to two different 
metaphors about the relationship of the state to its citizens. Both, he 
claims, see governance through metaphors of the family 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family>. Conservatives would subscribe 
more strongly and more often to a model that he calls the "strict father 
model <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_father_model>" and has a 
family structured around a strong, dominant "father" (government), and 
assumes that the "children" (citizens) need to be disciplined to be made 
into responsible "adults" (financially and morally responsible beings). 
However, the "children" are "adults", and so the "father" should not 
interfere with their lives: the government should stay out of the 
business of those in society who have proved their responsibility. In 
contrast, Lakoff argues that liberals place more support in a model of 
the family, which he calls the "nurturant parent model 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurturant_parent_model>", based on 
"nurturant values", where both "mothers" and "fathers" work to keep the 
essentially good "children" away from "corrupting influences" 
(pollution, social injustice, poverty, etc.). Lakoff says that most 
people have a blend of both metaphors applied at different times, and 
that political speech works primarily by invoking these metaphors and 
urging the subscription of one over the other.[3] 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff#_note-1> Lakoff further 
argues that one of the reasons liberals have had difficulty since the 
1980s is that they have not been as aware of their own guiding 
metaphors, and have too often accepted conservative terminology framed 
in a way to promote the strict father metaphor."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff

I pray many agree this is "on list".




John M Clement wrote:

> While the CA standards and testing may be bad, TX is even worse.
>
> As of this July the governor appointed an avowed creationist to be 
> chair of the State Board of Education.  He does have training as an 
> electrical engineer, and is a dentist.  Clearly here is a colossal 
> failure of the educational system.  He did not learn the nature of 
> science despite his many years of scientific training.  There are a 
> large number of articles about him, and most of the TX big city 
> dailies were aghast at this appointment.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
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