Posted on 12/18/2005 11:51:04 AM PST by SJackson
I see that there's a move afoot to increase the math and science requirements in our public high schools because jobs today are more high-tech and require more of those skills.
So everyone's jumping through hoops, concerned that developing countries are eating our lunch on science and math and saying it's time our kids start cracking the whip. Businesses want high school grads with those skills, and business in Wisconsin usually gets what it wants. So legislators are introducing bills that would require kids to take three years of both science and math courses in order to graduate from high school. The current requirement is two years of each.
That's all fine and dandy and, obviously, as our major industries farm out what's left of our blue-collar jobs to cheap labor abroad, there's a need for U.S. high-schoolers to be able to deal with this new computerized and technical world out there. I sometimes think I could've used that extra year of math and science just to deal with the remote control on my television.
But let me add a word of caution here.
Preparing our high school students for the rough and tumble of the job market is a noble cause, but I hope it isn't being done at the expense of making sure our graduates are prepared to do their duty as U.S. citizens, too.
It's so important that young people understand the importance of citizenship in a democracy, the need to be politically literate and involved.
High school graduates need to understand the history and workings of American government and why they need to participate in a healthy debate of ideas and beliefs if that form of government is to survive.
All too many young people don't know who their representatives are or how they got to be where they are and, frankly, couldn't care less to know.
High school students need to experience citizenship through activities in school. They need to be given opportunities to experience governance, debate and the importance of moral and social behavior and be able to understand how they all can play out in their adult lives.
If we continue to graduate young people who don't care about being citizens, who are turned off at the very thought of politics and government, then it won't do us much good to have them know everything there is to know about math and science.
They won't have a country in which to practice their technological skills.
What the hell is ancient Greek thought?
I see that you have also mastered self deception. A Republic, ha, in name only.
Well, there is that.
I would have hand back the coins and asked for a dollar, then given back the five ones and asked for a five.
Do you now pay by check? That's cheating!
The best decision I ever made in my life was to go to a liberal arts school instead of a tech school. Social interaction and clear communication and good planning has pushed me forward while many of my tech peers, too inept to get past an interview, sit at home whining about Indians.
Only by some effete standards. My life is made better by knowing the names of good mechanics, carpenters, landscapers, etc. They may not be brilliant, but they are skilled.
And I wouldn't give a nickel for some of the PhD's I know.
I respect people who contribute to society, not ones who think they are superior.
That's what graduate school is for. Not sure if I would want a dentist or a doctor who didn't know what was in the U.S. Constitution, or who didn't know the difference between a Democracy and a Republic.
And where would we be if we did not study History?
Whatever. Even a hundred of motivated monkeys with typewriters would not write "Hamlet". But maybe you could find a way of hypermotivating them. Fame and fortune awaiting you as a result are beyond imagination.
Don't make him mad at you !!
It's important to get a well-rounded education. One of my sons is inclined to math and science, but rails against history. I told him about George Sanayana, and warned him about getting stuck in an infinite recursion if he doesn't learn from history.
Or, as I'd like to say "The meek shall inherit the Earth. The strong shall bomb them from orbit."
But do you believe 1 Euclid 5?
"They are going to hate your guts for it. Thinking HURTS!"
I have been known to refer to myself as a "true sadist."
btt
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