[thechat] P.o.Ws - Thought this was interesting...

[Ben Dyer]

On 04:04 PM 1/28/2002, Judah McAuley said to me:
>>It's sort of a Catch-22 because as a whole, we're a pretty uneducated
>>nation, and so I'm not sure whether democratizing our foreign policy
>>would do much good.  This is a society built on self-righteousness &
>>might makes right.
>
>Actually, we are a pretty well educated country (in terms of basic
>literacy, basic math skills, etc).  But we do a lousy job (at the high
>school level) of teaching history and civics.  We also do a pretty lousy
>job teaching natural history/biology.  I wonder if they are related?  It
>seems like we have the hardest time teaching the things that are closest to
>us: our recent history and what is going on in the world around us.

We do a *very* lousy job of teaching anything outside of reading, writing
or arithmetic.  As Americans, we tend to place higher value on the
immediate.  On (almost) a daily basis, we need reading, writing and
arithmetic.  But we tend not to see the immediate value of the historical
purpose of the Magna Carta or the Federalist Papers, or the understanding
of noble gases or covalent bonds.

We only get moderate *American* cultural education, and only when people
complain.  When I was in elementary school, we were just getting textbooks
that went into detail about black history.  By the time I was in high
school, we were just getting textbooks that went into detail about latino
history.

And world culture?  Fuhgeddaboutit.  The history books I had focused on how
cultures were different from ours.  (Wow, in Japan, people wear
kimonos!  Wow, lots of windmills in Holland!)

>>Critical thinking is not something that is encouraged of the
>>populace.  Critical thinking would interfere with our voluntary
>>enslavement to the shitstem.
>
>I would agree with that 100%.

As would I.

Can't tell ya anything about Chemistry, but, darn it, I know the periodic
table...Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen,
Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, etc., etc., etc.

--Ben

Ben Dyer, Senior Internet Developer, Imaginuity Interactive
http://www.imaginuity.com/

     If you save the world too often, it begins to expect it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
   http://members.evolt.org/OKolzig37/     http://www.evolt.org/