Posted on 03/20/2007 2:02:43 PM PDT by Diago
More than that: read any issue of the NEA Journal. It will likely have at leaast one article dealing with "children at risk"; separation of Church and state, or federal aid for education, or just money in general. Years ago I was a union rep and I had a debate in the teachers lounge with one of the directors. My point was that NEA needed to come to terms with the private schools. He said, more or less, Never. They are paranoid about private education.
This was posted last night. There appears to
be some confusion among FReepers about the
teacher's motive. I think he is a hero.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803943/posts
Oops! Just noticed it is the same thread. My bad.
Evolution is an agenda contrary to science.
Not a reprimand, not a counseling, but a firing. You think he'd killed someone.
Creationism is a Biblical truth unlike evolution which is just a theory and really a lie.
>My point was that NEA needed to come to terms with the private schools. He said, more or less, never. They are paranoid about private education.<
Yes, private ANYTHING is not on their agenda. And I wish the Fed would get out of education, too. No Child Left Behind has been taken too far. Even children at risk must take it, which is outrageously ridiculous. The tension on all students is enormous, and unnecessary. It has been said that many teachers teach only for tests so the norm will rise at their schools, by which the student's general education suffers. Local control over education is more than needed to make the schools stop "dumbing down"; and to encourage healthy thinking, individualism and creativity.
Only to crackpots.
And if you pulled the same crap as he did, I would expect you to be fired as well.
Theological concepts can be true or they can be false. That God created the universe out of nothing is true,
It is not the Act that has caused the dumbing down of education. Yeaching to the test may in fact lead to students learning more than they otherwise would. After all,students who face the SAT are cramming for that test, which seems to count more than their GPA. I agree that one can not simply legislate learning. because most lawyers haven';t a clue about how or what to teach youngsters under the age of 20, because they have almost no professional contact with them. On the other hand, hose who actually run the schools, the school administrators and school board members also have little day to day contact with students, and are under constant pressure to please a whole raft of pressure groups. This includes teacher unions, which hard to believe are led by educators who no longer have much contact with students and who are more interested in pushing a political agenda than in improving education. But it also includes those parents who want their children to have the best school record possible with the least effort possible. Very many parents think of high school as a time when youngsters ought to enjoy themselves before they face the rigors of college and then work. This seems to be part of the culture. In Japan students work their asses off to achieve high scores on the equivalent of the SAT. But then they go off to college where they are expected to take a breather before they go to work for high pressure bosses.
The Bible is not a book of theological concepts. It is the only book that contains absolute truth.
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Humanist Manifesto IThe Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed. The individuals whose signatures appear would, had they been writing individual statements, have stated the propositions in differing terms. The importance of the document is that more than thirty men have come to general agreement on matters of final concern and that these men are undoubtedly representative of a large number who are forging a new philosophy out of the materials of the modern world. — Raymond B. Bragg (1933)
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better understood we, the undersigned, desire to make certain affirmations which we believe the facts of our contemporary life demonstrate. There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identification of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always been means for realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been accomplished through the interpretation of the total environing situation (theology or world view), the sense of values resulting therefrom (goal or ideal), and the technique (cult), established for realizing the satisfactory life. A change in any of these factors results in alteration of the outward forms of religion. This fact explains the changefulness of religions through the centuries. But through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life. Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following: FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created. So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task. [EDITOR'S NOTE: There were 34 signers of this document, including Anton J. Carlson, John Dewey, John H. Dietrich, R. Lester Mondale, Charles Francis Potter, Curtis W. Reese, and Edwin H. Wilson.] Copyright © 1973 by the American Humanist Association
Permission to reproduce this material in toto in electronic or printout form is hereby granted free of charge by the copyright holder. Free permission to reprint the essay is granted to nonprofit Humanist and Freethought publications. |
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But... do you forgive him?
(The other three didn't care that there wasn't 'background information'?)
:"Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances!"
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