My son, who had the misfortune to have received a trendy arts degree (communications - whatever that is)from a Canadian university, recently told me that he wanted a real degree. He has been in the work force for a number of years and now realizes that his knowledge of Chomsky, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida et al does not translate into the wherewithal to support a family. He will probably return to university and read something useful but meanwhile his contemporaries, who studied science subjects are now earning significant salaries and buying their houses.
The irony of this situation is that the left has, and continues to, handicap the child who attends their beloved state schools providing additional advantage to the already 'priveliged' child at the independant schools.
A delicious irony if it was'nt so damaging to the child.
Tony | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 10:25 am | #

I linked this post at ChicagoBoyz, where we have a related discussion--focusing particularly on the decline of science teaching--going on.
david foster | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 10:25 am | #

I agree that only math should be taught in math class, only science in science class, etc. The problem I have with this post is I don't think what is described is a problem in the US, and the cultural bias is much more widespread, for example, an inclination towards recycling without examining the economic and cost/benefits of recycling.

What usually happens is these stories get passed around from blog to blog, making it seem like a widespread problem, when they usually are either inaccurate or represent a tiny minority.

You see, in the US school boards are elected, so if the community doesn't like what the schools are doing they can elect someone else. It doesn't get more democratic than that.
Michael Czeiszperger | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 10:50 am | #

School boards are not the problem- they never have been.

What is the problem are teachers unions (that won't even allow for teacher COMPETENCY exams) and teacher colleges, where the mindless drive that passes for 'progressive' ideals, are taught.
sigmund, carl and alfred | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:18 am | #

Michael Czeiszperger wrote: You see, in the US school boards are elected, so if the community doesn't like what the schools are doing they can elect someone else. It doesn't get more democratic than that.

Apparently, you think that simply because the majority voted for something makes that something right and workable. ALL majority vote proves is that the majority wants that something. That something being right and workable does not depend upon a public poll. It depends ONLY on full context correspondence with reality.

Consider that the democratic majority received the same government proscribed education that they are voting for. Calling the result of that process correct is the same logical fallacy we call "circular reasoning" and "begging the question". It is correct only by accident.

Consider too, that the content and method of education is increasingly determined by government dictates that are immune to local modification.

Further, the government takes your wealth by force (taxes) and requires you to meet their so called standards to get a fraction of your your own money back to pay for the education of your children.

The net result of this demented process is an ever downward spiral of the publics' ability to think critically and know what they are choosing. They even don't have the knowledge that their vote can do nothing but change the names on the name tags of the BOE.

What to do about it? Get the government out of education totally, completely, top to bottom. Make all schools private. At least then, a few could get an education worthy of the name. The people who cannot afford it will get no worse than they are getting now. They just won't be able to pretend they are getting an education when they are not.
A. Rational Human | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:28 am | #

2 out of 22 students think a war against an emotion is a good idea? you are right...the system is failing.
jay k. | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:52 am | #

There are amazing success stories with home schooling, but of course not all parents have the time in this day of two incomes required. The extent of my juvenile delinquency in public school consisted of cutting the loud rowdy classes, and hiding out in the library and reading. I'd expect that some of the books I read then have been banned today!
Tom TB | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:55 am | #

In this country, the same fashionable people who swoon at the mere mention of including "intelligent design" into the curriculum and beat their breasts at the idea of the Christian fundamentalists elected to school boards...

It's all because of that Pesky Christian Sexual Morality.

Very well.

If they can't stomach that Pesky Christian Sexual Morality, they don't have to. Instead, they will have Islamic Sexual Morality forced on them and their descendants. One or two generations of "I WANNA!", then the ten thousand generations of "ALLAHU AKBAR!" begin...
Headless Unicorn Guy | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:00 pm | #

Schools are broken. Period. I have had three in public schools (they just finished grades 1, 4, and 5). One is in a full-time "gifted" program that saw half of its former bright students failing because of a so-called teacher who would rather film skits for local access television than hold the kids accountable for doing their work and learning what they're there to learn. When you question, you get condescension and arrogance. And boy, when you tell them you're going to homeschool it gets incredibly interesting.

We are at our wit's end with public schools. Our children have been held back from their potential and dumbed won to fit what they think is appropriate. School boards? They're a joke.

I want my children to be critical thinkers, to ask questions, to search for answers... and they learn none of this in school. Unfortunately I think the only way to get the point across to the "powers" that be is to remove them. Homeschooling can be (and is) done by a wide spectrum of circumstances. It's not that it's impossible, it's more that we live in a society that no longer values its children. And double income families can and DO homeschool successfully. It boils down to commitment.
Jae | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:12 pm | #

The one thing I've found lacking in all but the best schools is critical thinking. It's hard to measure and even harder to test, but critical thinking is what allows us to separate fact from opinion or political bias. Load kids up with critical thinking and the scientific method and you've got a kid that won't be brainwashed by either the far left or the far right.

A lot of you reading this probably think you have excellent critical thinking skills, so here is something to try. Do a critical analysis of something like global warming or the war in Iraq. For example, ask yourself if you think the war in Iraq is going well. Whether you say yes or no, analyze why. What are the benchmarks for a successful Iraq, democratic goverment, lower incidents of terrorism around the world, decreased violence in Iraq, less U.S. troops required, etc? Accurate data for all of the above is available. Then see if the data matches your original judgement.
XMan | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:21 pm | #

xman...
critical thinking is like sex. and driving. everyone thinks they are the best. and most don't have a clue.
jay k. | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:34 pm | #

Rather than being an generic rant about how public schools are broken, the specific issue that this blog post addressed as I understand it is "political taint" creeping into the curricula. If this were true, the school board controls this, and it can be changed by voting in new people. This has happened many times in the past few years in high profile fights over what gets taught in science class.
Michael Czeiszperger | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:55 pm | #

Here's where I stopped reading:

"By their obvious contempt for the very idea of including a religious perspective in science"

Because that statement betrays such flawed thinking that it tarnishes this post as a "rant" with little real value.

"the very idea of including a religious perspective in science" IS COUNTER TO THE DEFINITION OF SCIENCE.

I'm sorry, they're laughing AT you, not WITH you.
ME | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:55 pm | #

the political taint begins each morning; "...one nation under god..."
jay k. | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 12:56 pm | #

Now I've done it... I read a little further:

"American education used to be the strongest on the globe, and to the extent that remains true, it is because the hard sciences in this country (e.g., math, engineering, computers etc.) have been largely resistant to the political taint that runs rampant in the humanities."

Dude, you don't even care about the basic veracity of your statements.

"to the extent that [American educational superiority] remains ... it is [because of] math, engineering..."

The hard sciences are a joke in this country. We don't teach our children nearly as well as many Asian countries and most of Europe. Don't bloviate on something you know so little about... it's painful to watch.
ME | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 1:02 pm | #

Hey ME, read it again. Do I say what I think? No. That's because I happen to also have contempt for putting religion into science education--no matter who does it, whether it is formal religion or your ridiculous secular religion. Are you capable of reading without inserting your own agenda? obviously not.
Dr. Sanity | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 1:28 pm | #

There must be a new "XMan" in town, but I liked what he said none the less.

Since we are on the subject of education, this may be interesting to some who have not seen it. Looks like the KGB had a nice Demoralization program going on back in the 60's in our Universaties and well, the rest is history. I have not personally verified the info as factual, so watch the video with a grain of salt.

Found this nugget on pajamasmedia.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p...smedia%2Ecom% 2F

.
xman | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 1:32 pm | #

"The health of our educational system--from K-12 through college-- is absolutely essential to the long-term welfare and competitiveness of the United States. "

Makes the KGB Demoralization project( if factual) even more brilliant when you look at it this way.

.
xman | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 1:53 pm | #

>>There must be a new "XMan" in town, but I liked what he said none the less.

Thanks! This is my first time here, so I take no karma from previous xmen/women.
XMan | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 2:22 pm | #

Were I an educator, my first project would be a challenge all students who recyle containers religiously to track a soda can or bottle to see if they are indeed given a new life, or just dumped in a land-fill somewhere else!
Tom TB | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 2:39 pm | #

P.C. = NEOEUGENICS?

final communication from uberuntermentch.

f you can not destroy the "inferior",

then it must be you who is the true "inferior",

therefore you must self destruct.

do not question this directive

ipliment asap.

over.

and have a nice day!
planet spaceball | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 3:10 pm | #

Should American kids be taught to hold accountable the 90% of politicians who promise-but-do-nothing for the 90% of the citizenry that wants effective terror control, secure borders, strong military, fair trade, religious freedom, quality education, etc, etc..? Or should they be taught to ignore public service and become better politicians for themselves?
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 3:30 pm | #

"He has been in the work force for a number of years and now realizes that his knowledge of Chomsky, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida et al does not translate into the wherewithal to support a family."

Why is it the Left's fault he got a degree in basket weaving and can't find a decent job?
angryflower | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 3:36 pm | #

excellent

everything is proceeding as i will have forseen once i can look back and determine what actually happened.

heh heh heh heh
planet spaceball | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 3:36 pm | #

Your goal is to have all children start the school day swearing:

1. They shall have no false gods.
2. They shall not carve any sculptures.
3. They will not work on Sundays.
4. They will not be envious of their neighbor's X-Box or Wii.

Etc.

You are a superstition fool who wants to indoctrinate all America's children in your stupid old fairy tales.

Why don't you have the schools teach palm reading and astrology? They are as valid as your Judeo-Christian nonsense.

As one of my friends once said, people like you quote something found on a scroll in a jug in a cave in a desert. That's where you get your information from. And you want to force everyone else to believe. I think you were born a few centuries too late.
tommo | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 4:37 pm | #

Tommo,

Sometimes I think evolution is true and some people have indeed evolved from a rock.

Really our Judeo-Christian "nonsense" is the reason you received a free public education and did not spend your youth slaving away in a gulag.

Compare that to the success rates of ideologies that have tried to eliminate the Judeo-Christian influence on their societies.

One might think that is "cause and effect" scientific proof enough if one had not indeed evolved from a rock himself.
Wr_guy | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 5:16 pm | #

tommo's ignorant hate rant - it's what's wrong with the ideology of the Left

The idea is to respect everyone's freedom to choose what he or she believes, because we have free choice and ultimately are responsible for our decisions.

What many of us want is just what the founding fathers would have approved, and that is a moment of silence for each to be aware that there is a G-d, but not to coerce them into how to believe in Him.

Also, since it is a moment of silence, if they freely choose not to believe, that's their own business. But the majority of Americans have believed in G-d, at least until the school system began systematically undermining that belief.

What America is has been predicated on our belief in G-d. To deny that is to deny what America is. If that denial were to be "successful" America would cease to be America.

All of our highest ideals, our "moral compass," is calibrated to the fundamental principles of the Judaeo Christian tradition, without which there is no "moral compass" and it is impossible for the individual to chart a direction in life, or the nation to chart a course in the world.

Like the savage "palestinian" Arabs for whom "self-determination" means suppression of everyone else, and tearing down what others built. And they don't have anything to replace it with, because all they know how to do is destroy, not build.

See bottom of the page below to see what the "tommos" of the world stand for.
http://www.shechem.org/kyos/engkyos.html
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 5:21 pm | #

"...our Judeo-Christian "nonsense" is the reason you received a free public education and did not spend your youth slaving away in a gulag..."
the reason? really? what tripe.
jay k. | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 5:28 pm | #

tommo - The good Doctor is agnostic you idiot.

jay k. - when are you finally and at long last going to fuck the hell off? We're all waiting for that magical day.

You friggin' lefties never fail to amuse the hell outta me. You numbskulls don't know your arse from a hole in the wall.
Jack Ryan | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:00 pm | #

Both my kids were in gifted. The older one was the only child first identified in grade three to stick it out thru grade twelve. About half the gifties didn't finish high school. He also had almost 30 suspensions, never for misbehavior, but always for really grievious sins like playing football and hockey, which were strictly forbidden.

He was once suspended for insisting that there is a fourth state of matter (plasma), and once for denying the veracity of the bohr-rutherford model of electron activity, a theory from 1910. The teacher had never heard of high and low energy electrons.

This year, in addition to black history month(none of the teachers have ever read Uncle Tom's Cabin, the best selling book of the 19th century),there was the usual repeated tripe about "first Nations", the showing of Allah Gore's movie in EVERY single class, and the inevitable teacher strike.

My kid's endured teacher strikes every year from kindergarten thru grade twelve.

I'm so glad that they are out of high school.
earl west | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:07 pm | #

Everybody keeps saying the U.S. was founded on Judeo-Christian values but I don't remember reading about trial by jury, freedom of the press, equal branches of government, etc. anywhere in the Bible. All of that democracy stuff came from pagan societies like Greek and Rome and dead French philosophers like Locke and Rousseau.

And can anyone show me where God is mentioned in the Constitution, the law of the land? I'm looking through it now and the only time God gets mentioned is in the date. Then there's Article 6 which says there shall be no religious test for public office.

If I recall my history correctly, many of our founding fathers fled countries where people were being persecuted for their religious views; Catholics killing Protestants, Protestants killing Catholics, everybody killing the Jews. They got over here and everybody said, "Let's keep religion the hell out of government so we don't repeat the mistakes of our former countries!"

Sounds like common sense to me.

X

P.S.
But if you really insist on including religion in government, then you have to let in the Greek and Roman gods since their folk contributed far more to our Constitution and laws than anything from the Bible.
XMan | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:11 pm | #

A GOOD ONE I READ OVER AT GATEWAYPUNDIT

http://drmelissaclouthier.blogsp...w- religion.html

She quotes "Maxed Out Mamma" as saying:

"But we're not following the light of modern medical knowledge, and we're seeing the result en masse. We're becoming neither a scientific nor an Judeo-Christian culture; we are reverting to paganism, complete with the killing of sick children and diseased adults. So it's back to instincts, temple prostitution and human sacrifice for the non-religious or the non-scientific among us. Unfortunately, many of the scientific among us are climbing on the human sacrifice bandwagen as I write this."

Please I would not want these examples of Leftist intelligence to go anywhere. I enjoy their intellectual inadequacies. Soon they will resort to name calling and attacks because they lack the ability for intelligent discourse.
Who could want for a better example of the inability to read and write than Tommo or jay k?
The Doc talks about education and what better than these two for the example. Then add in planet spaceball and you have all the evidence one could need.
Doc must have hit another homer.
Dennis | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:20 pm | #

earl west | 06.11.07 - 6:07 pm |

My son is a bright young man but, for reasons that aren't anyone's business (None of it was illegal or due to anything illegal), he went to school only sporadically. He didn't even have go at all for the last year of high-school, and so he didn't.

Last year he took the GED, and passed "with honors"

I know there are a LOT of things he never learned, so it doesn't speak well for our K-12 curriculum that one doesn't need it to be certified "competent" in whatever it allegedly teaches.

Thankfully, he missed out on a lot of the P.C. nonsense he would have been subjected to had he spent more time in those social-engineering training pens.

If Hillarity gets to be president, and maybe even if she doesn't, things will only get worse. They have a vision for America,
http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/19.../ psrjune97.html
and for the world
http://www.usasurvival.org/ck061.../ ck061903.shtml
and it is a nightmare.

And if they don't get the leftislation they want passed, no problem - they have the courts to fall back on.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ new...RTICLE_ID=55250
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:45 pm | #

"My kid's endured teacher strikes every year from kindergarten thru grade twelve." -- earl west

Yeah, and just let your kid miss a few of days, even for legitimate reasons, and watch how "nice and understanding" they can be.

The message? How to hold kids hostage as a bargaining chip to extort the communities into transfering more tax money from the kids' parents wallets. to theirs.

And it might not so bad if only the curriculum were uniformly good, but it isn't.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 6:59 pm | #

I agree with all the comments regarding home schooling and letting the kids take time off when needed. The way I coped, and I was seen as the prince of darkness being a custodial single parent, was that I finally concluded that my children's education was MY responsibility. I educated them myself by directing their reading and exploration, and spent an average of two hours a night reading to them.

To all of you with young children: Save your kids from those fellow travelling bastards!
earl west | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 7:33 pm | #

I am hoping that after the announcement of Fidel Castro's death, we will be able to publish what we know of his payroll in the United States. Perhaps in the process, we can finally discredit the guilty parties and get away from their destructive ideology.
R S | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 8:03 pm | #

In 1990 a study concluded that:
"education in the United States was so bad that it would have been considered an 'act of war' had it been imposed by a foreign power."


They hadn't seen anything yet.


"When the year 2000 rolled around, U.S. students ranked 22nd among 27 industrialized countries in math skills, according to a widely regarded international comparison. In 2003, a similar study ranked U.S. students 24th of 29 countries."


(Follow the URL for the source of both quotes.)
Nobody | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 9:22 pm | #

"Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as ‘proficient’ in prose—reading and understanding information in short texts - down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient - compared with 40 percent in 1992."
- Washington Post, December 25, 2005.

Less than one-third of college graduates can read effectively.


The data that story is based on is from the "National Assessment of Adult Literacy." Link given in the URL.
Nobody | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 9:34 pm | #

When I see the left-wing tripe being pushed in public schools these days, I can't help but think of the "reeducation" camps set up in Vietnam and Cambodia after the communists seized control. There, the "students" were deprogrammed to reject any ideas of free-markets and individual freedom/responsibility. Our schools are less extreme in their methodologies, obviously, and much better financed, but a similar toxic objective seems to pervade the curricula.

Unfortunately, the NEA teachers union owns the Democrat party, so that unholy alliance will likely continue.
GnuCarSmell | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 9:43 pm | #

"To all of you with young children: Save your kids from those fellow travelling bastards!" -- earl west

I'll second that motion!
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 9:51 pm | #

[quote]But if you really insist on including religion in government, then you have to let in the Greek and Roman gods[/quote]

Geez, such animosity. Christianity's most obvious contribution to our society stems from Jesus' teaching of the sanctity of the individual. This is what stemmed our belief that we all have the right to puruse our own happiness and 'certain inalienable rights endowed by our creator'. If you don't believe Christianity plays a strong role in the founding of this country, why don't we ask George Washington?

[quote]Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.[/quote]
Will | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 10:56 pm | #

IDENTITY CRISIS

A – Who is “me?”
___B – That’s “me” is “who.”
A – O.k., “Me” is who?
___B – That’s right.
A – Are you going to answer my question?
___B – What question?
A – “Me” is who?
___B – That’s right. Now what’s your question?
A – That WAS my question!
___B – That wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact.
A – What do you mean?
___B – In Hebrew, “who” means “he,” but “he” doesn’t mean “who,” so I corrected you.
A – Why did you do that? I don’t even speak Hebrew.
___B – Well, now you do. You wouldn’t want these nice folks to think you weren’t educated, would you?
A – No.
___B – All right, then. Now what’s your question?
A – Who is the troll who posts here who calls himself “Me?”
___B – How should I know? Why don’t you ask him?
A – Who?
___B – “Me!”
A – But I already asked you and you said you didn’t know.
___B – What are you some kind of wise guy? Now get on over there and ask him.
A – But suppose “me” and “him” don’t get along. I wouldn’t want to start any trouble.
___B – I never would have guessed. . . . Now behave yourself, and go over there and ask him.
A – I Don’t wanna.
___B – Why not?
A – ‘Cause I’m shy.
___B – Oh, for heaven's sake! Just go ask him.
A - Him?
___B - Yes, him!
A – Suppose he is a she?
___B – What difference would that make?
A – Do I look like your father?
___B – Now cut that out.
A – But, suppose we don't have anything in common?
___B – Oh, I think the two of you were made for each other.
A – How so?
___B – Well, because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, either.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:09 pm | #

I stopped reading her comments as soon as I saw ME. If it's the ME I think it is, she's a tiresome provocateur and bore. Don't get sucked in. It will ruin any helpful exchange of idea's and civil discourse.
sean | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:31 pm | #

I. Q. TEST

http://www.livescience.com/ healt...0_evo_rank.html

Yippeee, we passed!!

Darwinian evolution is the weakest of all scientific "theories," none of whose tenets makes sense or can be demonstrated or tested empirically. Naturally I am proud of being called "stupid" by idiots who think it has been proven when it hasn't.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:44 pm | #

"If it's the ME I think it is, she's a tiresome provocateur and bore." -- sean

You've seen her before, too?

The little dogs always yap the loudest.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.11.07 - 11:54 pm | #

The issue of "indoctrination" really doesn't get at the real question because the Left would lob the same charge at the educational system if it was dominated by conservatives.

The real issue is why conservatives do not choose to enter into teaching in greater numbers. Why is that?
mocga | Email | Homepage | 06.12.07 - 10:29 am | #

Well, at least the total indoctrination will be all in place and ready for when the curriculum becomes the Koran and only the Koran...
Headless Unicorn Guy | Email | Homepage | 06.12.07 - 1:02 pm | #

Religious indoctrination of children is the most pervasive form of brainwashing in the world today.
BB | Email | Homepage | 06.12.07 - 5:37 pm | #

"Religious indoctrination of children is the most pervasive form of brainwashing in the world today."

That's Islamic indoctrination to be more specific. Islamic indoctrination and leftist indoctrination go hand in hand.
darwin | Email | Homepage | 06.12.07 - 7:24 pm | #

TRUST YOUR CHILD TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR, ...IN THE MOON

http:// mavericknewsnetwork.typep...g_propagan.html

http:// mavericknewsnetwork.typep...in_am.html#more

YEP, IT'S TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY, ALL RIGHT.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 12:53 am | #

ARE YOU FEELING "SENSITIVE?"

http://foehammer.net/2007/03/ isl...onnecticut.html

http://www.courant.com/news/educ...lines- education
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 1:06 am | #

"In the case of the left, the "alcohol" is postmodernism, a toxic intellectual addiction which undermines reality and truth and short-circuits the critical cognitive skills that children will need to survive and meet the challenges of life."

Wow. The only thing your assertion demonstrates is that you simply do not know what you're talking about.

That may be the wingnut cocktail party chatter about postmodernism, but it has nothing whatsoever to do w/ the real deal.

Five minutes w/ an actual text would disabuse you of this stuff.

But that would presuppose some actual thinking rather than blithely gliding down the rails of your prejudices.
Henri Alleg | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 1:57 am | #

You need to relax, guy!

"Political Correctness" just means not being a prick. "Multiculturalism" is merely a subset of that, concerned primarily with race.

Would you call african american people 'niggers'? Would you make jokes about the holocaust while dining with Jewish friends?

Unless you answered 'Yes' to either of these, I must inform you that you are already a fully-fledged, card-carrying communislamofascistist. Welcome aboard, comrade!
Railroad Stone | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 3:06 am | #

Henri writes:

Wow. The only thing your assertion demonstrates is that you simply do not know what you're talking about.

Having been steeped in postmodern literature through a BA, MA, and PhD, I can assure you, Henri, that this characterization is quite close to the truth.

It is at least closer to the truth than the defense of PM that you offered...

...oh, wait, you didn't offer one. Just a typical personal attack from someone slithering around on your side of the fence.
Cowboy | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 3:53 pm | #

I'd concur with Cowboy in backing up Dr. Sanity's indictment of postmodernism. (I, too, have a BA, MA and PhD in literature.)

But at the same time, I wanted to question the assumption here that things are proceeding along fine in the sciences. The fact is that while people who study the sciences might receive a stronger education in practical skills and forms of knowledge, they are not immune from the taint of postmodernism, multiculturalism, relativism, and other insidious forms of leftist fuzzy thinking. In fact, some of the most avowed leftists I've come across in my time in various universities have been professors or graduate students in the sciences. To give but one example, I think of one college classmate of mine in the mid-1980s who--during our freshman year--was conservative enough to argue with a Marxist professor about whether or not certain freedoms could be dispensed with in the socialist utopias of Central America (Nicaragua at the time), but who, by the time he finished a PhD in Electrical Engineering had fallen completely for the leftist claptrap that dominates discourse on the elite campus where he earned his doctorate.
Kurt | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 7:54 pm | #

THE DIAGNOSIS

MOTHER: Well Doc., what's wrong with my son? Is he . . . ?

DOC: No, he isn't Dyslexic?

MOTHER: OH, WHAT A RELIEF!

DOC: Not really.

MOTHER: What?

DOC: That was the good news.

MOTHER: Oh, no, you mean . . .?

DOC: Yes, he's dysthinkic

MOTHER: Is there any hope?

DOC: Have you considered adoption?

MOTHER: But I can't afford any more children.

DOC: No, I meant him.

MOTHER: Oh.

LONG STORY SHORT . . . (ok., I guess not)

I messed up in my little vaudeville routine. I suppose it doesn't matter if I correct it, since no one seems interested, but in the interest of accuracy the line should have read . . .

"___B – In Hebrew, “me” means “who” but “who” doesn’t mean “he" so I corrected you.

While the other line IS correct, it doesn't fit the story line as I finally wrote it, but forgot dysthinkically to rewrite.
_________________________

Also:

Who is "Railroad Stone?"
. . . .

(I think it changed it's name from "me", since the arguments it makes are just as illogical)
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 10:11 pm | #

"___B – In Hebrew, “ME” means “WHO” but “WHO” doesn’t mean “ME" so I corrected you.

Ok., Ma, call the adoption people. I'll go quietly.

Good night.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 10:19 pm | #

oops

... and ...

"who" DOES mean "he."

I quess the editor job I applied for isn't going to pan out, is it?
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 10:26 pm | #

[quote[If you don't believe Christianity plays a strong role in the founding of this country, why don't we ask George Washington?
]Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports[/quote]

Yes, let's ask George. Here's an excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli circa 1796 ratified by the newly created Congress and signed into law by George Washington:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
XMan | Email | Homepage | 06.14.07 - 5:01 pm | #

Thanks for this post. Unfortunately it looks like the US education is following the same way down to hell as the French education has been doing since the '60s (Derrida, Foucault and Lieutard are French... what else?!). Hope you Americans will eventually get rid of that suicidal post-modern, socialist mental disorder like you got rid of the '60s so-called counter-culture.
At least you can actually homeschool your children. In France it's barely legal, and you will have to deal with the "State childhood administration" that'll sue you for child abuse, and very possibly take the children away from you: this happens every day here, the administration argues that you're a sectarian, irresposible fool and shouldn't be allowed to raise your kids.

I'd like to give a rational, factual answer to a couple of trolls -- I do know they won't give a f*ck about actual facts, but if that can provide some information:

ME: "The hard sciences are a joke in this country. We don't teach our children nearly as well as many Asian countries and most of Europe. Don't bloviate on something you know so little about... it's painful to watch."
There's an old common sense saying here: "Better say nothing and look like an idiot than say bullshit and allowing no doubt about that."
I'll talk for French education system, the alledged "best" in Europe after the UK, for I don't know about Asian ones. You obviously don't know what you're talking about, jerk. French universities don't even rank in the top 100. Buy a plane ticket and come in Paris: universities are rotten to the core, both physically and mentally. The buildings are crumbling, but hopefully you don't see it too much because walls are constantly covered with graffitis and posters for all sorts of gulag-loving gangs. They are self administrated: teachers unions (all of them communist) are in charge, so it's a financial black hole. Each year thousands of pupils attend lessons in overloaded classrooms, at least when the teachers are not on strike. I've talking with an English teacher, she told me how every single day, in the "teachers' meeting room" of her university, the same gang gathers and elaborates the next Socialist, 1917-like revolution.
So much for higher education. For basic schooling (I guess this is what you call K-12), official figures show that about half the pupils entering high school (7 years before baccalaureat graduation) are not able to read mechanically, to glue letters together and pronouce a word without even understanding it. Nearly 90% can't write one single sentence without at leats one mistake. Added to this comes problems due to the Religion of pieces: in some classrooms Muslims are 80%, and the teachers are explained loud and clear that WW2 shouldn't be taught in its integrality, and a lot of pupils don't use the "+" and "x" math signs because they look like Christian crosses.

This is what you get when 2 generations have been brainwashed by a Leftist education: total destruction of the mind by people who already have their mind destroyed. You guys in America better take care of that problem before it's too late: 20 years of such suicidal behaviour can acutally be reversed.




XMan: "All of that democracy stuff came from pagan societies like Greek and Rome and dead French philosophers like Locke and Rousseau."
Hahaha! John Locke was French! Hahaha! Excellent. The so-called Enlightenment is a philsophy based on Christian values, and absolutely nothing else than Christian values. The philosophy of Individual Rights didn't exist per se in Ancient Rome of Greece more than in Saudi Arabia or in Chavez's sick brains. Individual Rights, private property and the pursuit of happiness stem ONLY from Christianity. As a matter of fact, this was born in the West, and nowhere else.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was nothing but a philosopher of freedom. His ideology is one root of modern facsisms: collectivism, anti-progress, anti-civilization, perticularily his "good savage" stuff: a human being raised by wolves and worms in the woods would be better than someone raised by his parents, for society is inherently bad. Doens't ring an envrirofreak or anti-globalist bell? Rousseau has been writing about his imaginary child, "Émile", explaining how a child should be self taught, that absolutely no education should be imposed on him, so he could develop his own abilities and creativity. Doesn't ring a post-modern education bell? Rousseau is an excellent example of Leftist raving ratiocination: a big part of his writing was about rasing his imaginary child, and he never had any children -- he had a penis-related medical problem, that explains a lot; it's possible that the most arrogant Leftists have the same kind of problem, but I don't want to investigate this personally!
Hervé Grouik | Email | Homepage | 07.03.07 - 7:54 am | #