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In January 2001, the Associated Press reported that "Twelve of the most
popular science textbooks used at middle schools nationwide are riddled with
errors, a new study has found." The study compiled 500 pages of errors!
"These are terrible books, and they're probably a strong component of why we
do so poorly in science," said John Hubisz, the North Carolina State
University physics professor who led the two-year study. He estimated that
85% of the nation's school children used the textbooks examined.
In November 2001, USA Today headlined an article, "Tests show US Students are
weaklings in science." It was the usual litany of statistics adding up to
the fact that about two-thirds of US students have "a basic understanding of
grade-level science, but only one-third or less can be considered
proficient." This is a nice way of saying that, as in every other area of
academics, the US educational system is failing to teach yet another
generation anything of value regarding science.
Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education, noted this abysmal level of science
education undermines America's economic strength and security. "Instead of
improving our own science education, we have been relying on the education of
other countries provide to their citizens." In other words, the United
States of America is forced to import our scientists, engineers and doctors.
I recently received a rant about a Ford Motor Company program that supports
good science in the classroom. Ford had previously tried to ingratiate itself
with the environmental movement. Belatedly realizing it had allied itself
with people who hated cars, trucks and anything else that utilized petroleum
products, Ford came to its senses. One can only wish other US corporations
would as well.
When John F. Borowski, a marine and environmental science teacher, emailed me
his screed denouncing the Ford Motor Company for donating $1.5 million to
underwrite a program called "Provider Pals", offering information about the
way American industries extract natural resources or provide food, his name
rang a bell.
On August 21, 1999, Borowksi had an opinion editorial published in The New
York Times titled "Schools with a Slant". He decried "corporatism" claiming
that public schools "are ripe for exploitation via dubious 'educational
materials'" adding that it was not environmental groups that were intent on
creating "ecowarriors", but rather it was "the business world that was "eager
to turn our children into the ultimate consumers." Apparently, it has yet to
have dawned on him that we live in a consumer society and that goods and the
money spent on them have given us our extraordinary lifestyle, affording us
the longest life expectancy in our nation's history.
Let us understand that people who harbor a hatred for corporations are, quite
simply, socialists or even communists. It is corporate America, along with
our countless small businesses, that generate the trillions that make our
economy the greatest in the history of mankind. Where socialism exists,
economies falter and stagnate, and people suffer.
In his latest diatribe, titled "Bastion of Ecological Literacy Under Siege:
Our Public Schools", Borowski rants about Bruce Vincent, "an outspoken
defender of logging, mining, and grazing on public lands" for creating a
program that explains the role that loggers, miners, and ranchers play in
providing the most essential resources this nation and its people require.
"It was the likes of Boise Cascade and Weyerhaeuser who butchered millions of
acres of watersheds," says Borowski. No, it was the unrelenting refusal of
environmental groups to permit the proper management of our national forests
that led to the catastrophic loss by fire of millions of acres of timber.
Starting with the Spotted Owl hoax and then suing every time a strand of
forest was to be culled properly, the eco-maniacs like Borowski did more
damage than all the timber companies combined.
Scott Blandish is an environmental science teacher in suburban Spokane,
Washington who has written on the politicization of environmental curricula.
"Kids are being terrorized in school every day with environmental nightmare
stories about global warming, rising seas, desertification, (and) killer
smog", Blandish told CNSnews.com in May 2000.
There are good science teachers and then there are the Borowski's whose only
reason for teaching is the indoctrination of their students, filling their
heads with environmental mush while fulminating against the evil
"corporations" of America. As he says, "Corporate America knows as long as
students have literacy in environmental issues, there will always be Rachel
Carson and Cesar Chavez.
Thanks to Carson, millions have died from malaria, deprived of the protection
DDT once provided. Strange heroes for a world that must feed six billion
people and protect them from Nature's predators.
Every Sunday, my local daily newspaper publishes letters from school children
throughout northern New Jersey and, every week for years, some child is
worried about global warming, forests, water, oil, the ozone layer,
endangered species.
These children and millions of others who have passed through the schools of
our nation have had their perceptions of the real world, of Nature, perverted
by the textbooks and curricula of their so-called science classes.
In science classes, in courses about history, civics, and throughout the
perverted curriculum of our nation's schools, our children are being
indoctrinated, not educated, to hate America, its economic system, and its
values.
Alan Caruba is the author of "The United Nations Vs. The United States", for sale from the Internet site of The National Anxiety
Center, a clearinghouse for information about scare campaigns at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2002
Published by permission.
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