RE: paleonet US education/creationism

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I think this quote about sums it up.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
     Isaac Asimov, column in Newsweek (21 January 1980)


-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On
Behalf Of Nancy Meyer
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 10:00 AM
To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
Subject: Re: paleonet US education/creationism


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


		
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