Grassroots Activism, Crabgrass Style

rewriting history

Here's a good article about how the Religious Right gets its way in Texas. From the New York Times Magazine.

Remember, "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" meets at Fourth Ave. Methodist Church this Thursday at noon. Bring your own lunch if you wanna eat. AU is a good mix of clergy, atheists, activists, etc. You're all welcome.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=1&em

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7 comments:

Posted by frappyjohn on 2010-02-20 12:35:58:

I can't believe I actually read all ten pages of this article! It's a good survey of the mixed religious heritage of the USA and shows how things generally aren't ever as clear-cut as either side of a controversy makes them out to be.

Hint: The good stuff begins toward the bottom of page 3, beginning with:

There is, however, one slightly awkward issue for hard-core secularists who would combat what they see as a Christian whitewashing of American history: the Christian activists have a certain amount of history on their side.

The idea of having a board of 15 elected officials sort out our religious heritage for us is indeed troubling. To me it is a strong argument for home schooling and locally-based coop schooling. (In a co-op you might still have a shrill ideologue trying to skew things, but you will have the option to switch coops or do home schooling.)

Posted by LucifersAttorney on 2010-03-07 00:30:44:

Trouble is, replacing our current system of public education with

vouchers coops charter schools

will enable dogmas to thrive. Because, every cult and preacher who wants to isolate his or her memes from competing memes will suddenly be able to. Private schools can teach whatever they want. And if we cry, "Hey, you're getting tax dollars! Quit teaching that atheists will burn in hell! That homosexuals are evil!" Etc., etc. No one will care. Because the Wall of Separation will have been demolished.

Millions of Americans will grow up brainwashed like you've never seen before. This will facilitate domestic terrorism, because the poor devils will be incapable of handling diversity, and diversity of thought.

Cults galore. A weakening of our common sense of being Americans. It'll be a disaster.

Abolitionist Cassius Clay advocated a system of public education, and that's where I am, too.

With all due respect.

Posted by frappyjohn on 2010-03-07 02:14:38:

Dogmas will thrive no matter what we do.

The problem with a centralized school system is: Who decides which dogma will thrive?

The article's description of who decides this in Texas illustrates this point.

Incidentally, I'm not opposed in principle to free public education.

Coops would be a form of public education (and they wouldn't necessarily require tax dollars.) Vouchers and charter schools may not be perfect, but they are steps away from a centralized school system.

I am opposed to a school system that's designed more for warehousing children than for educating them.

Posted by frappyjohn on 2010-03-07 02:28:19:

Here's another interesting article on education from the NYT: Building a Better Teacher ... on how a few brave souls are finally starting to study how to teach effectively (and how to teach teachers to teach effectively).

The story points out that this effort actually began over a hundred years ago but got waylaid by an unintended consequence of the public school movement: There was a sudden demand for masses of teachers ... and no time to figure out how to teach them.

"The mechanics of teaching were not always overlooked in education schools. Modern-day teacher-educators look back admiringly to Cyrus Peirce, creator of one of the first “normal” schools (as teacher training schools were called in the 1800s), who aimed to deduce “the true methods of teaching.” Another favorite model is the Cook County Normal School, run for years by John Dewey’s precursor Francis Parker. The school graduated future teachers only if they demonstrated an ability to control a classroom at an adjacent “practice school” attended by real children; faculty members, meanwhile, used the practice school as a laboratory to hone what Parker proudly called a new “science” of education. But Peirce and Parker’s ambitions were foiled by a race to prepare teachers en masse. Between 1870 and 1900, as the country’s population surged and school became compulsory, the number of public schoolteachers in America shot from 200,000 to 400,000. Normal schools had to turn out graduates quickly; teaching students how to teach was an afterthought to getting them out the door. Thirty years later, the number was almost 850,000."

Posted by LucifersAttorney on 2010-03-07 11:35:43:

Whatever dogma gets into our present public schools is nothing compared to what would happen if we had vouchers, coops, and charter schools. You and I can go before the boards of our present centralized system and object to things. Imagine yourself going to private religious schools and objecting to something. You'll be ignored, or shown the door.

More so if they're run by a cult. Idaho will have Neo-Nazi schools. Cult schools will pop up here and there.

Mostly, as Thomas Jefferson said, no person should be forced to support a creed he disagrees with. Giving tax dollars to religious groups will do that. Feminists will support religions teaching misogyny. Minorities will support racists. Atheists and pagans will have to support schools where they are demonized. Patriotic people will have to support schools in which the USA is demonized.

There is a very real wall that separates the US government from religion. Historians say it is the only thing about the US government never tried elsewhere, on Earth. Madison said it should be "total".

Posted by LucifersAttorney on 2010-03-08 12:27:02:

Here's an example of why many of us don't want our tax dollars going to religious schools:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22769137/detail.html?hpt=T2

Posted by robeysan on 2010-03-13 04:25:30:

@everyone Sorry to troll this post but I thought some of you might be interested in Beta Testing for Brycc Social. Check it out from your couch or computer chair!

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