Posted on 02/12/2006 10:32:27 AM PST by PatrickHenry
This is a false comparison. You need to compare the RC schools with other private schools -- the numbers would be very different.
Your grade: F-. Live with it.
I-can't-believe-I-read-all-this-crud placemarker.
I would be wrong based on the text. Frodo carried the ring.
Someone, however, could come along and say, "Well, Gandalf really "carried" the whole enterprise, and in that way it could be said that he really carried the ring to its doom."
The first is exegesis: simply reading what's there.
The second is eisegesis: reading into the text.
The Bible includes no notion of "theisic evolution."
It simply isn't there. It has to be "read in" by some other means.
The bottom line is this: the Christian faith is revealed in the pages of the Old and New Testament. There are some things that are not in the pages of those texts,and among them are: (1) the 3 billy goats gruff, (2) the ID, the ego, and the Super-ego; and (3) Theisic evolution.
It is not a false comparison. Of all the schools in the area, the private schools (to include Catholic schools) have far fewer students and far outshine the public schools academically. (And athletically, too, in most seasons....although my county school alma mater won the state last year. :>)
It's simply a fact.
You can give me a zillion reasons for why you think it is that way, but you cannot change the fact that it is that way.
Reading his reply, it appears he's going for box number 2. A one trick pony, our tallhappy. You know no biology. I know no biology. Only tallhappy knows biology. Appearances to the contrary are, like fossils, the work of the devil.
Looks that is what humans are all about is pre-suppositions.. according to their qualia.. Each human has their quales.. some convex some convoluted in other ways.. All formulated in simple or complex iterations of them.. Who is free of them?.. Most humans have no idea the difference between their body and their spirits.. except thru superstition or some mythical quales..
How to get free of them?.. maybe we can't.. The last thing the arrogance of humanity would propose.. Freedom from those cherished "realities".. That we are mice in a maze for a test.. and thats a good thing... may be the last thing any human would admit.. i.e. that the reality we see is stunted ON PURPOSE.. and mathematics is a parlor game in the maze.. With the deepest mathematic formula known to current humanity is;
1 x 1 = 1... 1 + 1 = 1 and that 1 / 1 = 1..
Could very well be.. At-one-ment being the lesson..
lol. No pain/no gain.
It is? Seems to me that, if we leave aside theological questions such as whether evolutionary theory should be taught in schools, public compulsory education is morally neutral - and, given the increasing level of technical ability that is required simply to compete in a national economy, may be a moral imperative.
In Dec. 2005, the unemployment rate of those without a high school diploma was around 8%. The unemployment rate for high school graduates without any college was around 5%. The rate for those with any college or an associate degree was around 4%. With a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate was under 2%. Also interestingly, the college-educated saw the most stability in employment in the time-frame between Dec. 2004 - Dec. 2005. The high school dropouts saw wild fluctuations in the unemployment rates - as high as 9% in August 2005.
Neglecting education dooms children to a future of either unemployment or dependancy upon the government. And you want to say that compulsary public education is immoral? You're wrong, my friend. Your issues are not with the concept of public education - or at least it should not be - but rather over whether evolution belongs in that curriculum.
Actually, to get hyper-technical, a 7th Cir. ruling is binding precedent only in the 7th Cir. In my own circuit (the 2d), it might be pursuasive authority if the Court considers the arguments compelling, but it is nothing more.
No one says to "neglect education," just remove it from the public bureaucracy and return it to the private sector under parental leadership.
If member accountability is good for our government and good for our Presbyterian church, it's likewise good for the education of our children.
And the vacuous PTA does not count.
Frankly, that idea frightens me - but not for the reasons that you might think.
Most of the parents in the circles in which I, and probably you, move would probably be able to do just as well or better if they were able to select their kid's schools with vouchers, or if the vouchers could be applied to home-schooling costs. But there is no shortage of parents who have no business making those sorts of decisions about their kids - they'd end up sending them to the educational equivalent of the con nursing homes you see on 60 Minutes.
Public education is important because there are some things that children need to learn in order to participate in a democratic republic. If we are going to grant the franchise to all citizens, then all citizens need to be indoctrinated into the basic beliefs of America, and the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to making a living - whether the parents like it or not. The question, therefore, is not whether or not schools should exist; the question is whether evolution belongs in the curriculum.
Guess I outed myself as a statist.... but Thomas Jefferson, as an advocate of public education, would probably agree with me on this one.
I don't mean to be rude, just informative.
Then make sure your information is correct.
The National Merit Scholars ARE selected on the basis of their SAT scores. That is the determining criterion.
Ahem:
Oh, look, filling out and sending in an application is a necessary part of the NMSP program. Just as I said.
And since you brought it up:
...and I went to a public high school school.
...and yet I can't type without stuttering, apparently.
Member accountability works in the Presbyterian church because the church is a community you choose to associate with, and if you don't like it, they can ask you to leave.
Society, however, does not have those solutions. I've seen too many parents who couldn't give a damn about their children's educations. They;re too busy with with their sexual affairs, booze, drugs, pimping around, and plasma TV's. Parents like this shouldn't have a say as to whether their children get an education. These kids will grow up to be voters and, if they don't learn a trade or a knowledge-set, I'll have to pay to support them on welfare. No thanks.
That sounds a lot like things I've been saying for quite a while. I wouldn't stop anyone from choosing a private school, but the demise of public schools would have a downside of the "unintended consequences" variety. Here are a couple of past posts I've written when that subject came up:
I can't think of a single good reason why people can't choose between an 'evolution-in' school and an 'evolution-out' school.And:I'm not against school choice or vouchers or home-schooling, but I *can* think of "a single good reason" or two why there might be a downside to it.
1. It accelerates the balkanization (i.e. cultural fragmentation) of America. For better or worse, uniform public schooling has been one of the stronger influences assisting the "melting pot" effect of America.
2. It's not going to help America's competitiveness in today's technological world when a significant portion of the younger generation has been taught that large portions of established scientific knowledge are bunk, that scientists in general are deluded fools, and that science itself is a poor way to acquire knowledge about how things work. Many parents would choose to send their children to schools which taught these views.
But there's a silver lining to this ominous cloud -- it will hasten the demise of government schools.Works for me, since it appears they are beyond repair, unfortunately. I'm concerned, however, that if all public education is done via private schools, before long it would lead to (or since it may already be underway, hasten) a Balkanization of the US.
In the past 2-3 generations, the biggest forces maintaining the "melting pot" nature of the US have been public schools, and TV. Back when TV (and before that, radio) was limited to a few major stations, everyone was exposed to the same news, same broadcast opinions, and the same entertainments (e.g. the sitcoms on the "big three" networks and "American Top 40" on radio all across the country) to be discussed around the water cooler. Whether they accepted those opinions or not, or viewed the news in the same way, etc., it still provided a central, core, common focus to American life that everyone shared as a society.
Likewise for public schools, which while they suffered from many of the problems of institutions formed by consensus (i.e. community consensus, state standards, etc.), they still provided a common foundation of facts, ideas, and teachings which everyone shared as a starting point for their lives.
But with TV and the news/entertainment sources fractioning into thousands of cable channels and internet sources, and primary education devolving into countless private schools and homeschooling, is there really any common American experience anymore? While there are many upsides to parents and individuals being able to choose and customize their own news, entertainment, and educational choices, the big downside is that America may fractionate into multiple insular social groups which find little if any common ground with others, and even less reason to seek any.
Like the Balkans, we may find ourselves with a single geographic expanse inhabited by multiple groups of people with incompatible religious/social/political "national" identities.
Not only that, but you ignore the fact that you said, A much better indicator would be raw SAT rates or some other indicator
Raw SAT qualifies them in the first place.
They were selected from 15,000 finalists and 1.3 million high school students who entered the program by taking the 2002 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors.
All finalists compete for one of the National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. The number of winners in each state is based on its percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
A selection committee that included college admissions officers and high school counselors reviewed the information submitted by finalists and their schools, evaluating each finalist's academic record, scores from two standardized tests, leadership, essay and a written recommendation.
And that's how education should work, too. The private sector can educate children far better than today's unionized, socialistic, homosexual-leaning bureaucrats.
Parents like this shouldn't have a say as to whether their children get an education.
When you get to be a parent, your condemnation of other parents will have more weight.
They just don't get it from reading the bible which is the foundation of the Christian faith.
Since theistic evolution can only be read from "nature," then we are not dealing with the God revealed in the Bible. We are dealing with some other god who hangs around a long time in his laboratory prodding living things in certain directions.
He must be long-lived, wouldn't you think? Or is he a series of beings who hand down this herding/breeding task on their own demise? But.....I speculate......don't I?
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