:) we are just wrestling and rolling around all over the threads, aren't we? :)
I went and read the national Rep platform on education and found nothing about teaching creationism in the schools. As Tim points out, that those advocating it are mostly Rep does not mean that most Rep advocate it. (I think that's one of those if A then B and B is C then A is C kind of errors) None of our conservative acquaintances would want it, but then they are educated and understand the difference between religion and science.
Your opinion of religious schools is faulty. We used an Episcopalian school for the boys in Dallas that did no indoctrination (unless you count the morning chapel- which I loved since it gave them a sort of quiet intro to the day) and gave them an excellent academic foundation. Sadly much better than they had started out getting in the public schools in Dallas- which is why we changed. We wanted to use public, but frankly we were unwilling to sacrifice our children's education for a principle.
As I read the Rep education platform as you suggested, I found I was in agreement with much of what they said! I am a strong believer in parental rights, which leaves me a bit on the fence with vouchers. We are asked to pay high taxes for public education, but that education fails us at times. Should parents be penalized because they want more or better or different, but only the rich can afford it? Republicans sneered at Obama for putting his girls in private school. Security aside, do you really think he would have put them in a public school in DC? He didn't in Chicago. Where's the equality in that? The rich can do what they want, while forcing the poor to do as they say without options?
The only thing I disagreed with was the abstinence stand in sex ed- which is just silly. But I strongly strongly agreed with their opinion on the schools' role in areas outside academics- like providing clinics or abortion counseling. I am about information, not enabling.
I am not religious, but find your dichotomy of "primitive dogma" and "being taught a wide range of wisdom, knowledge, poetry" just really strange, as if they were mutually exclusive. Plenty of religious people, as I seem to be reiterating a lot, are very very widely read and well-educated. They just happen to believe in God. I did too for many of my years. It didn't change my education, my personality, my knowledge of science or poetry.
IN fact, I never knew science, and I still don't. Becoming an agnostic didn't suddenly bestow on me special scientific abilities, sadly.
I think you will find Texas and many parts of the central US still strongly conservative, not just Appalachia, though they may hold out the longest. If the party can separate itself from the strong religious right influence, and become once again more about small govt and fiscal repsonsibility, it will regain many of its lost votes from this election. On the other hand, if Obama governs from the center and has some success, the Dems can hang in there for a long time. |
