With all the Iraq/Sheehan/Robertson news that's happening, this is what everyone should read today and start to contemplate.
Conservatives have started or pushed so many wars directed at Democrats and Liberals to make us look like we are not in line with the majority of Americans - the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism, the Culture War, the War on Religion, etc. Ironically, it is the last "war" I mentioned that may have given us an opening to attack them and show why THEY are not in the mainstream with most Americans.
In a period where people are crying for Democrats to have new ideas, it's time for us to declare a real war on the propaganda and culture which robs our children of the chance at the American Dream, and diminishes their chances at a prosperous future in a much more competitive global economy. I'm talking a real culture war, and our focus and weapon should be on our children's education.
Amanda at Pandagon wrote a post that all of us should read discussing education and elitism, and why conservatives, time and time again, have sided with policies that make it harder for children to
strive and better themselves (emphasis mine):
(Conservative) educational policies are being sold to "common" people as a way to stick it to the elites. And that's effective for now, but I don't think it would be very effective in the face of the much more compelling American story of striving. Conservative educational policies are obviously geared towards keeping the little guy down, smashing social mobility and dashing people's hopes of better things for their children. The three big controversies being fought out in education right now are perfect examples of how conservatives are trying to keep your kids from bettering themselves.
No Child Left Behind, for instance, is a program that is clearly designed to shut down neighborhood schools. Their method is to set standards and penalize schools that don't make them by yanking funding, which goes against all logic, since "failing" schools are the ones that need more help, not more punishment....
ID is another attempt to make your kids uneducated so they can't better themselves. If I came in and told you that I was going to teach your kids fairy stories rather than how to read or how to do math, you'd slap me upside the head. But that's exactly what they're trying to do in biology classes--replace real knowledge with fairy stories so that your kid has trouble getting into college and getting a lucrative science or medical career where she can better herself.
And it's the same damn story with sex education in the schools. There's a reason they want your kids not to know jack shit about contraception--how better for the elites in this country to keep your smart kid from humble beginnings from bettering herself and giving their dumb but rich kids some competition in college than making it so that she doesn't know how to protect herself from pregnancy and ends up having to drop out of college, or worse, high school because she's pregnant?
For the latter point, she references this sad story:
There are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.
The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.
When this is happening in a school district whose sex education curriculum is not only not required by the county, but also "closely mirror(s) the federal definition of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs," the only thing left to hold to account is Hollywood and the video game industry. It's funny how some folks who want Intelligent Design imposed on the scientific curriculum of our schools do not want such action done as far as sex education is concerned. The difference is that while the former talks about a faith that has no real effect on current events, sex education however does, and if teenagers don't know how to protect themselves from unwanted circumstances, they will find themselves either deprived of any shot at making it in the world, or worse dead. But I digress...
Bill Maher on his return to Real Time mentioned that Intelligent Design is a teaching of faith not science, and yet people are pushing hard for this sort of teaching usually reserved for the church and home into our public school curriculums, and they expect us to still be among the best and brightest students in the world? It is our global economy which holds one of the main reasons to reject this sort of intrusion into scientific education. How does one expect to compete in, literally, the world of biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, horticulture, and other various scientific fields when your primary base of knowledge for all things scientific is ignorance with faith?
Americans, as innovative and respected as our scientific reputation has been, are but a very small percentage of the world's population, of which most focus on fact not faith in their pursuit of scientific knowledge. All these IDers must realize that if they force this upon our children's public scientific education, they may pat themselves on the back temporarily, but our children will be ignored by the world's best, and the dream of getting a prosperous and innovative scientific career will only be a dream.
And then, what solidified my argument for this new culture war was Hale Stewart's latest report on the price of higher learning:
According to the Bureau of Labor Services, the average hourly production wage increased 38% (not inflation adjusted) from January 1, 1994 to January 1, 2004. However, inflation increased 26.67% over the same time. Therefore, college tuition at a public university increased three and a half times faster than wages over the same period of time. As a result, college education is slowing moving out of reach of middle-income America.
...notice how the top schools only cater to the top quarter of society. Instead of offering opportunity to all, the top universities are simply perpetuating and maintaining a specific families standard of living. Considering the cost involved with these schools, it is no wonder. Even with the increased use of student debt, it is doubtful anyone could afford these schools.
Education is supposed to afford an opportunity to students to improve their standard of living after they graduate. However, it appears this is no longer the case.
And I ask why? Why has our government and our elected and non-elected leaders, our supposed leaders, by their actions, have stopped giving a crap about making college available to every American? Since high school diplomas are no longer applicable to a decent life, why have they stopped caring about the massive amount of debt our graduates are forced to carry in order to receive this necessary education? The answers lie in the wind of right-wing attacks on our college professors - the demand that a certain, strict view or method of thought be taught to our children, or nothing at all. Either demand reaches the same conclusion - the inability for our future citizens to be able to better themselves and realize the American Dream.
Thanks to Bush and the corrupt incompetance of our moral and political leaders, we can no longer rely on the American economy, especially since most of it is now owned by the Saudis and the Chinese. The economy of today is global, and conservatives, beginning with No Child Left Behind, and moving to Intelligent Design, are aiming to prevent our children from being able to strive in it. They are making it very hard if not impossible for them, all in the name of faith and politics. How much more should we concede to their views and desires when all we know it will do is not only rob our children of a future, but also change America from being an innovator of the world to a slave of it?
With the global economy making job and scientific competition tougher than ever, this should be the real culture war we should declare on conservatives. Let's not focus on their argument (evolution vs. ID), but rather on a broader context - the fight for our children's general education. Nothing is more important for our future.