Why, when whining about it is so much more easier?
Posted on 12/28/2005 3:49:52 AM PST by PatrickHenry
US. District Judge John E. Jones III's decision to bar the teaching of ''intelligent design'' in the Dover, Pa., public school district on grounds that it is a thinly veiled effort to introduce a religious view of the world's origins is welcome for at least two reasons.
First, it exposes the sham attempt to take through the back door what proponents have no chance of getting through the front door. Jones rebuked advocates of ''intelligent design,'' saying they repeatedly lied about their true intentions. He noted that many of them had said publicly that their intent was to introduce into the schools a biblical account of creation. Jones properly wondered how people who claim to have such strong religious convictions could lie, thus violating prohibitions in the book that they proclaim as their source of truth and standard for living.
Culture has long passed by advocates of intelligent design, school prayer and numerous other beliefs and practices that were once tolerated, even promoted, in public education. People who think that they can reclaim the past have been watching too many repeats of Leave it to Beaver on cable television. Those days are not coming back anytime soon, if at all.
Culture, including the culture of education, now opposes what it once promoted or at least tolerated. The secular left, which resists censorship in all its forms when it comes to sex, library books and assigned materials that teach the ''evils'' of capitalism and ''evil America,'' is happy to censor any belief that can be tagged ``religious.''
Jones' ruling will be appealed and after it is eventually and predictably upheld by a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees (Jones was named to the federal bench by President Bush, who has advocated the teaching of creation), those who have tried to make the state do its job for them will have yet another opportunity to wise up.
This leads to the second reason for welcoming Jones' ruling. It should awaken religious conservatives to the futility of trying to make a secular state reflect their beliefs. Too many people have wasted too much time and money since the 1960s, when prayer and Bible reading were outlawed in public schools, trying to get these and a lot of other things restored. The modern secular state should not be expected to teach Genesis 1, or any other book of the Bible, or any other religious text.
That the state once did such things, or at least did not undermine what parents taught their children, is irrelevant. The culture in which we now live no longer reflects the beliefs of our grandparents' generation.
For better, or for worse (and a strong case can be made that things are much worse), people who cling to the beliefs of previous generations have been given another chance to do what they should have been doing all along.
Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their ''instruction manuals'' for turning them into secular liberals and place them in private schools -- or home school them -- where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents' beliefs. Too many parents who would never send their children to a church on Sunday that taught doctrines they believed to be wrong have had no problem placing them in state schools five days a week where they are taught conflicting doctrines and ideas.
Private schools or home schooling costs extra money (another reason to favor school choice) and extra time, but what is a child worth? Surely, a child is more valuable than material possessions.
Our children are our letters to the future. It's up to parents to decide whether they want to send them ''first class'' or ``postage due.''
Rulings such as this should persuade parents who've been waffling to take their kids and join the growing exodus from state schools into educational environments more conducive to their beliefs.
Thomas is probably wrong about an appeal of the Dover decision, but that's a trivial matter. He's right that ID can't lie its way into science class, and if you don't like it, then abandon the government schools.
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Why, when whining about it is so much more easier?
--and if you don't like it, then abandon the government schools.
And your children will most likely end up with a much better education.
More to the point, you can't recapture what was good about the past by reinstituting what was evil. (Although, to be fair, the evil of creationism was at a low ebb at the time of Leave it to Beaver.)
All hail the Culture, Cal.
We have put our children in a Christian private school for these exact reasons but I can understand (and feel) the frustration of those that have to pay high taxes to support a school system that you don't benefit from and think is detrimental to children. If we could opt out of the system and get a refund (so to speak) it would take the sting out of having to pay again for private school.
"Why, when whining about it is so much more easier?"
Yes the 'stupid' people "whining" about the outstanding, government legislated, evolution indoctrination supplied via tax dollars legally taken. Animal farm in action, some are more 'intelligent' than the rest.
Sadly, much of the culture does not agree with this. How many couples do you know who elect to remain childless so that they can spend their money on themselves only? I know quite a few.
I'm guessing Cal's a Libertarian? He's right in this case. If you don't like what public, Gov. funded schools are teaching or not teaching your children, then, seek alternatives.
Thank you! Notice how nobody connects the dots of how society has become a cesspool, and the low standards of immorality and lack of personal responsibility are part of a forced agenda. All the arguments seem to be about the sensibilities of acknowledging God's presence and they never address the very real consequences of "keeping this non-scientific blather out of education". They are as equally loathe to admit that public acknowledgement of God, even in school, has never caused harm to the poor children that had to suffer through it in years gone by. They think that something that begets evil is good and something that begets good is evil. Hmmmm, where have I heard that before?
God Bless
This is exactly why my kids will never step foot in a government school. Also why I usually don't frequent these ridiculous crevo threads- I don't have a dog in this fight.
It's pointless for the two sides to come to an agreement over this issue. Overall, we should, as conservatives, agree that the government has no place in education, since they suck so bad at it.
Vouchers would change everything. Too bad Bush caved and let Ted Kennedy write that NCLB abomination.
Where are the small government conservatives? Not in DC apparently.
Hey, I want the kids taught ID. My youngest is finishing up a degree in biochemistry, and he doesn't want competition for the good jobs. He also needs someone to take his order at Burger King.
We also chose the private Christian school route. Here a number of views were shared by those who believed those views...Creationism (of which I.D. is a form thereof), Gap-Theory, and theistic and non-theistic Evolution. More than giving evolution a passing..."it's true, there is no God, move on" approach of the local public school...students explored the fossil record, probability and plain and simply put: What we know and what we DON'T know (which is more than what many scientists...and I am one...will admit) about evolution and how it works. Given all the information available, kids are less apt to be swayed by those who are on the extremes (4004 BC vs. there is 0% chance of God), and leave with an appreciation of scientic method...and an open mind to consider new information. BTW...Liberals today are the most "conservative" closed-minded people on Earth.
The problem is not to shift children from public to private or home school them. The problem is money and a voice in spending that money.
They are taxed for a product that is against everything they believe and which has been show to be sub par. Back in the old days, school values reflected the community. Today, they reflect the NEA and national groups. Add all the other national and State burdens, and you get a lot of money spent for very little and delivers an inferior product. Any business that did that would no longer exist.
I consider it humorous that those who revel in the exclusion of religion from schools forget that those who were in that system are the ones who made this country what it is today. The foundation of this country was based on the faith of the founders and it was perpetuated in that faith. Bible reading in school continued the foundation of that moral compass.
Today, those opposed to religion in schools revel in the disappearance of any moral base and have no idea of what they are creating. They think they do. But look at any University and you see the world they want.
Teaching ID in the schools is akin to teaching girls that babies are brought by a stork. If stork birth were included in school health classes would there be outrage?
Of course. ID is the same.
Well, first off, creation or I.D. should never be taught in science. The data provided by these people does not provide the basis to create a proper scientific theory that can be tested over and over. Usually it provides data that can be disproven.
Now this creationism etc. can be taught in religious courses since they are belief based.
As for the government sucking so bad at education, well I remember a time when most humans did not read or write. We have come a long way since then and thanks to education for everyone in countries like the USA, I think society as a whole is much better off.
Can it do better. Oh yes. Government has a place in education, may it be through grants to private schools or actual funding. I think that is what some parents want - a choice.
Ten years ago I read this exact same advice from Cal Thomas and heeded it. We homeschooled. His point ten years ago was, public schools will not survive if conservatives pull their kids from them, and so the conservative movement should take a stand and boycott public schools.
Too many conservative parents make excuses for their public school system, my sister did, for years, but finally after being confronted with sex education for her elementary school kids, "saw the light," moved one to a private school, and homeschooled the other.
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