What you don't know won't hurt you

George didn’t believe in driver’s education, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

Never mind how he learned to drive, his biggest fear was that his children would get hurt if they learned too much about it in advance, but he knew his children would one day drive a car when they reached the legal age.

Until then, he decided, his children would be allowed nowhere near his car or even see the keys, and especially not one of those rules-of-the-road books, that would be just irresponsible in the eyes of George’s community.

Mike had a safe full of guns and ammunition. He liked to target practice and hunt, but he absolutely didn’t want his children to know anything about any guns until they were old enough, but how old is old enough?

Sarah has a motorcycle but she absolutely didn’t want any of her kids to even think about riding a motorcycle, ever.

Okay, what is wrong with these people? They all use the notion of “Abstinence-Only,” which means simply “Stay away and ignore it, and maybe it will just go away.” Or “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Does it make sense? Will their children be safe from exposure to driving a car, shooting a gun, or riding a motorcycle?

The United States Federal Government seems to think so, and so do most of the state governments.

I received an email from Planned Parenthood of Illinois this morning asking me to send an e-mail to Governor Quinn stating the following: [edited for clarity]

“Reject federal funding for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage programs!

In your FY 2010 budget proposal you included a continuation federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage (AOUM) funding. I urge you to reject this federal funding. These programs do a disservice to Illinois youth.

A federally-funded, nonpartisan study of the effectiveness of AOUM programs has found these programs to have no impact on the sexual abstinence of youth. The students' AOUM education had no effect on the age of first intercourse, number of sexual partners, or condom usage. Continuing to fund ineffective AOUM programs is throwing good money after bad.

Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are important problems. Comprehensive sexual health education programs (which include information about abstinence, contraceptives, and sexually transmitted infections in addition to other key elements) are proven to delay sexual activity and prevent disease among young people. While stressing abstinence, comprehensive sex ed provides students with the information they need to stay safe and healthy.

Again, please reject the federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funding so Illinois can move forward with positive programs that protect our youth.”

The Illinois Governor has an opportunity to accept or reject funding that will go to such programs in the states, but I challenge President Barack Obama and Congress to suspend that program’s funding altogether on the grounds that it is a violation of the separation of church and state.

Science Education

The introduction in Clair T. Berube's book "The Unfinished Quest: The plight of progressive science education in the age of standards," divides students into categories of motivation. students had different reasons for working toward the goal of finishing school.

Many had been trained by modern society to seek was expected and to deliver exactly that, nothing more, nothing less. Many only wanted to know what I wanted, so they could make me "happy" and therefore acquire a good grade. Indeed, grades were what made their worlds go 'round. Sometimes I would assess their understanding with no grades attached. Most of them did not like this at all, and wanted to "get something" for their troubles, and that something was a grade. But there were also some students who argued with me, came up with new ways of solving problems, who were actually delighted when they were given something to figure out, and who displayed their teenage rebelliousness through their intellect, which is the very best kind of rebellion indeed. My goal as a science educator became then, and still is now, to uncover each student's sense of rebelliousness and authority questioning (critical thinking skills) hidden deep within them. The best scientific discoveries were achieved through this mindset, instead of the current educational sheep herding mentality, which is rewarded and is so prevalent in the United States today. Our schools reflect the society we live in, and we are being led around by our necks like sheep in the dark.

After the author divides the students into the above described categories, she divides "modern educators" into two sides of the argument that science education is going in the right direction, and those who "fear that it has gone tragically astray."

The author reaffirms my experience and suspicions about American Education.

Do we already have creative brilliant minds in America? Of course we do. Do we already have good schools that employ progressive teaching and learning pedagogy at the highest levels of learning? Yes to that also, but many of these schools are limited to the wealthiest suburbs or to private prep schools.

I can name two of them: Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois. and Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri. There are countless schools like these across the country. If you never heard of them it's because they won't advertise in your choice of reading material, television or radio.

Perhaps you should reconsider the value of your favorite newspaper, magazines, or television and radio stations.

But my personal beef is with that camp of educators who believe that science education is just fine the way it is, or they relegate it to the last item on their education budget behind sports.

Cuts in public education budgets forced many schools to seek corporate sponsorship, but corporate sponsors compete for only the most publicly visible spaces, the sports arenas.

The Unfinished Quest raises the issue of the September 11, 2001 Attack on the World Trade Center, and our lack of creative solutions to problems, instead of our current method of only reacting to crises.

Another quasi-solution was placing vending machines in the school cafeteria. What ever profits there were may go to programs, but the money would be coming from the students. A hidden form of socialized funding, because the students that can't afford anything from the vending machine would still benefit from the students who can afford to make vending purchases. Socialism disguised as free-market capitalism.

I was inspired by the article in this morning's Illinois State Journal Register

Just an FYI: This morning's headline in the State Journal Register, "High schools failing science," has been changed online to "High schools lack science equipment."

Drinking Librally Celebrates Tonight

Liberals in Springfield? Tonight at 6:30 pm Thursday at the Brewhaus, 617 E Washington. Come any time after 6:30.

I wish I could be there, but I go to work when everyone else goes home, and I can't plan anything more than three days out. I've missed countless monthly meetings with REALL (The Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land) and the Springfield Area Freethinkers.

All these groups have members that are very rare in this area and it makes me sad that I miss out on actual intelligent conversations that otherwise would only take place after paying a tuition fee at the Unversity of Illinois at Springfield.

After listening to WMAY syndicated Hate Radio last night, these groups have become more important now than ever because the Right-Wing Radical Fundamentalist Christian Terrorist Racist Bigoted Homophobes are planning political machinations in revenge for the election of Barack Obama.

You can connect with these groups through meetup.com

Job hunting.

I’ve been looking for work. Any work. I’m a college graduate. It should be easy, right? I keep my eyes and ears to the media, hoping to find something. Then I see statistics that show more high school graduates are working than college graduates.

How is that? That's easy! College graduates are not supposed to be looking for jobs. They are supposed to be making jobs. So, why are college students complaining about not finding work?

Evidently, it’s a symptom of a bigger problem, the General Requirements Curriculum. The big picture was completely missed. A plan was never formulated. In my case it’s easy because I got an Associate degree somewhere else and transferred credits, so I couldn’t even declare a minor.

My education was fractured by circumstances engineered by a capitalist society with no vision of long-term consequences, only greed at the top.

So now we have a large number of college graduates who don’t know entrepreneurship. They just try to look for work. This has been going on for a long time in the U.S. And guess what.

We have been creating our own terrorists. We have sent far too many foreign-exchange students out into the world without the crucial information needed to actually make work instead of complaining about not finding a job.

It's far too easy for zealots with money to take advantage of so many people who know just enough to make a bomb, but not enough to start a company making better mousetraps.

Here in the U.S. it's manageable because we have such a powerful and intrusive law enforcement system, and the culture is so homogeneous that volatile social cohesion is limited to urban street gangs.

Some high school teachers have caught on to this and are teaching entrepreneurship in the K-12 levels. It's too little too late because of one major obstacle, tenure.

Gee, it took me this long to figure it out? I'm in really bad shape. But at least I can see the candle in the distant window. Now I just have to find my way around the dark fjord of capitalist influence.