Rebuttal on Education

by Disciple of Science

I agree that the current state of our public school systems is abysmal, but that is certainly not a reason to abandon public schooling in favor of charter and magnet schools. Furthermore, the Bush Administration has done wonders for these charter schools via the No Child Left Behind Act, which, as it stands, is quite evidently a loophole to funnel children out of failing public schools and into these charter schools, which have not aided anything. Moreover, the most accessible of these schools are religious, (note: I have nothing against religion,) and therefore teach creationism, which will hurt our democracy, societal progression, and scientific advancement. (When I get the time, I will compose a whole post about the Intelligent Design epidemic.) Continued: Click "Read More"

I also agree that skepticism should be taught in schools, but what must be taught alongside it is that all scientific skepticism must be based on evidence, not ideology. For instance, there was an "academic freedom" act passed in Louisiana recently that is based on the principle of skepticism, but not that of evidence. That bill even explicitly labeled unchallenged,widely accepted, and observable phenomena such as evolution via natural selection as controversial, whereas actually controversial theories such as epigenetics aiding disease and quantum mechanics went unspecified.

(I only listed quantum mechanics because Einstein opposed it and supposedly was on the verge of a "theory of everything" shortly before his death, and quantum mechanics is now being used to search for such a theory.)

You say that education is a tool, not a panacea, which might or might not be true. But, if it is just a tool, then what do you propose must be used alongside education to progress societally other than basic compassion and ethics?

Also, polls show that those who are college educated overwhelmingly support Barack Obama, unless they have corporate ties.