He’s a good man. A hard man, a lonely man, but a good man. I think, to use a term the cowhands use about some horses, he’s a stayer. He wouldn’t quit when the going got tough.”
–Louis L’Amour (Where the Long Grass Blows)
“I have chosen to be faithful; I have determined to live by your regulations.”
–Psalm 119:30 (NLT)
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Being in education for 39 years I saw it slowly begin to creep in. I spoke out against it, but to no avail. It was a subtle move, not totally wrong, but within it there is deception. That is the concept of the gods of math, science, and their religion of technology. There is nothing wrong with any of those subjects, but where are they now in the curriculum?
As a teacher and administrator I always pushed for a rigorous academic schedule, but there is a problem when the emphasis becomes math/science. I fully believe that a person with the aptitude for math and science should strive to take the tough courses, for example, calculus. But I do have a problem with calculus or even pre-calculus being required for every students. There are several things that can happen in this area. First, is that there will be a high failure rate, or second, because of the difficulty and the failure rate the tough courses will be “dumbed-down,” so few fail. What happens to those students who struggle with lower math and are thrust into the higher math?
Now, don’t give me the baloney that “another day went by and I didn’t use algebra.” I would venture to say that most days you actually will use algebra along with some geometry. Anytime you are searching for an “unknown” you are using algebra.
Oh, now comes the new cop-out phrase, “I’ll just google it.” If I don’t know it, I simply go to my technology to find the answer. That’s the reason there is no need for social studies. And, come on, what is the purpose of studying some dead guys’ writing? Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, what purpose do they serve–add along to that the Bible?
Here is the deception. Go back to the beginning of our country; the first public school law was the Ole Deluder Satan Act. The act stated that if a village had so many children there had to be a school. The main reason–to learn how to read. Reading is now one of the few things that the modern, enlightened, tech-savvy child want to do. Yet the purpose of knowing how to read is to be able to read the Bible; and the reason the Bible should be read is to understand that the great “Deluder” the great “Deceiver” is Satan. You must know your Bible to fend him off.
One more little rant before leaving you this morning. Where are the life-skills? One of the requirements, when I was an administrator, was that students had to take a course in life skills. Of course, there are now those things called “apps” so who needs to cook, just order something up, or now you can ask “Alexis”.
Oh, my, we’ve come a long way (dare I say–“baby”?).
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Ponder This: “Don’t do nothin’ too much.”