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A central problem in our educational system seems to be that students are not taught to think. This problem begins in the schools and is difficult to recticfy in the colleges, especially in the state school which are the ones that most students can afford. I taught for 28 years at a state school, University of Colorado, and although there were courses in critical thinking, I had students who had difficulty in thinking critically. Although I was easy to approach, I still often felt fear emanating from them. I also taught at Naropa College, a Buddhist college, for three years as an overload, and found that there the students were very willing to engage. Things have worsened here, and in the K-12 school system, teachers are satisfied if students can read, write, and do a little math. Critical thinking is beyond the pale in the New Right government that is running everything. The New Right has devotedly taken over many school systems. The result of this is what we have recently seen in Kansas. The fundamentalists have worked their tails off to achieve what they are achieving. It as if the flat earth people had taken over. And, in fact, together whether creationism and "intelligent design" there are also the young earth people. These people are all heavily involved with geology and paleontology, do research (how I cannot imagine). There are many many fundamentalist colleges here that are producing these "thinkers". I'm glad I'm getting old and won't have to watch how this plays out. I, personally feel, that there is very little conflict between science and the spiritual but the wars are not about the spiritual but about a simple-minded, literal reading of a single text, mainly Genesis. This is a beautiful myth but nobody even knows what a myth is anymore or why we might have them. Myth has come to mean something that isn't true--and so we turn myth into rational knowledge, lose sight of the spiritual realm, and forget that the job of science is to understand the material world. Basically, spiritual people and humanists, have failed politically and the literalists and poorly educated have taken over. Sorry, but I had to say it. Judith On May 9, 2005, at 8:59 AM, Nancy Meyer wrote: > Yahoo has several groupd that purport to deal with this > issue. Most end up as raving lunatics, which is my opinion > of the creationist perspective anyway. There is a strong > tradition here of stupidity - look at our President. > --- "björn kröger" <buxcreau@gmx.de> wrote: > >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> in increasingly shorter intervals the creationism >> /anti-evolution topic >> swapped from the U.S. colleagues to us in Europe. >> >> Few years ago I was simply astonished about that >> phenomenon (I compared it >> with other strange US American oddities like e.g. >> “Wrestling” >> and “Death Rows”), later on I was somewhat >> bored about the >> ongoing discussions here at the paleonet-list, but in the >> last time I began >> to take the problem really serious. >> >> How could it be that in the US, the state of Stanford, >> Harvard, Berkeley, >> Yale etc., etc. Creationism represents not only a funny >> idea of some >> outsiders but a point of view of a considerable >> percentage of the people? >> Why in the US and not in some rural areas of the Catholic >> Bavarian Germany >> (oh benedetto..) or Sicily? For me that speaks primarily >> of a strong >> disintegration within the US society. >> >> This disintegration is a big threat not only for the US >> but for the entire >> First World. In Europe at the time we face a strong >> neoliberal >> reorganization of the educational sector that is in big >> parts oriented at US >> models. In Germany in the last years we introduced the >> bachelor and masters >> degrees at Universities with the aim to delete the >> traditional >> “Diplom”. The tendencies going toward a >> modulation of education >> in small parts that are most effective in order to >> produce flexible >> graduates. Effective, means economically effective. In >> 2004 the leading >> parties in Germany initiated a discussion toward German >> elite >> universities... >> >> My impression is that the trend toward an economically >> efficient education >> is accompanied with a strong disintegration between rich >> / poor, flexible / >> inflexible, enlightened / traditional etc. Moreover, this >> trend could be >> generally in complete contrast to an ideal of >> enlightenment. Could that be >> also a factor in the US education system that causes the >> problem >> “Creationism”? >> >> This is now my question here at paleonet: >> >> I never in my life faced a real Creationist so please >> appreciate my probably >> naive questions. >> >> How is the experience of the US paleo/geology/evolution >> teachers: where are >> the lines between Creationists and enlightened? Are they >> between classes, >> between races, between geographic areas, between >> confessions? What can we in >> Europe learn from your conflicts? >> >> Does anyone know a reference / book / paper / >> internet-forum where the >> probable connection between US educational system – >> social >> disintegration - Creationism is explicitly discussed? >> >> Thanks >> >> Björn >> >> -- >> ---------------------- >> Dr. Björn Kröger >> Museum für Naturkunde >> an der Humboldt Universität Berlin >> Invalidenstr. 43 >> D-10115 Berlin >> Germany >> http://www.museum.hu-berlin.de/home.asp >> >> +++ Lassen Sie Ihren Gedanken freien Lauf... z.B. per >> FreeSMS +++ >> GMX bietet bis zu 100 FreeSMS/Monat: >> http://www.gmx.net/de/go/mail >> >> -- >> ---------------------- >> Dr. Björn Kröger >> Museum für Naturkunde >> an der Humboldt Universität Berlin >> Invalidenstr. 43 >> D-10115 Berlin >> Germany >> http://www.museum.hu-berlin.de/home.asp >> >> +++ Lassen Sie Ihren Gedanken freien Lauf... z.B. per >> FreeSMS +++ >> GMX bietet bis zu 100 FreeSMS/Monat: >> http://www.gmx.net/de/go/mail >> >> >> > > "The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian > religion." - George Washington > > > > Discover Yahoo! > Find restaurants, movies, travel and more fun for the weekend. > Check it out! > http://discover.yahoo.com/weekend.html > > >
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