Feb. 11, 2006 - 20:27 MST

THEY AIN'T CHICKEN LITTLE

Seems to me that the super smart and intelligent folks talk and yet nobody appears to pay a bit of attention. There is an article in the Rocky Mountain News today by Jim Erickson of that paper about some of these people talking. Wonder who will listen and actually do somthing to further their objectives ? Parentheticals mine. In full then:

PHYSICIST DECLARES WAR ON 'SCIENTIFIC IGNORANCE'

Other nations gain ground on U.S., experts tell board

BOULDER (Colorado)-- "America's longstanding global superiority in science and technology is threatened by failures in the U.S. education system and challenges from other nations, a group of teachers, lawmakers, researchers and high-tech executives told federal officials Friday."

"There is no question that many countries in the world are hungry, and they want and believe they can have the prosperity we have," University of Colorado President Hank Brown told the National Science board."

"Our edge in science and research educations is quickly being diminished as other cultures and other countries understand our secrets and move forward with them," Brown said."

"The National Science Board advises the president and Congress on policy issues related to science and engineering research and education. It also oversees the National Science Foundation, a federal funding agency."

"Friday's meeting at CU (Colorado University) was the second of three planned U.S. hearings to discuss problems with science, mathematics and technology education. About 70 people attended."

"This is a war on ignorance, a war on scientific ignorance," said physicist and Nobel laureate Leon Lederman."

"U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs (Colorado), said Congress and the White House are finally getting the message that improving science and math education is vital to the nation's future. Despite tight budgets, the federal government appears poised to help fund "a renaissance, if you will, a reinvigoration and reinvestment in this area."

"Udall voiced support for President Bush's plan, mentioned last week in his State of the Union address, to boost U.S. competitiveness by doubling government funding for basic research in the physical sciences."

"This is not just a matter of economic health," Udall said Friday. "It's a matter of national security."

"After decades of unrivaled leadership in science and technology the United States is facing challenges from countries duch as China, South Korea and India. The shrinking gap has been blamed on declining U.S. government and industry investment in reseaarch, as well as poor math and science performance in elementary school and high school."

"One key to improved elementary and high school science and math education is to substantially increase teacher pay, said Randy DeHoff of the Colorado State Board of Education."

"You are not going to get many math and science majors who are going to opt for teaching careers when they can, make three times as much just walking in the door at an aerospace company," DeHoff said."

"CU physicist and Nobel laureate Carl Wieman said effort to retool U.S. science and math education should begin with college undergraduates."

"The majority of college students are gaining little understanding of science," Wieman said." "And the student population with the least understanding of how science works is the elementary school eduction students. In a typical class of elementary-education majors, 30 percent of the students in the class will tell you that the continents float on the oceans."

In my point of view these men are talking every day, modern common sense ideas. Better foresight than hindsight, hindsight can be so difficult for starving people, which is where we might be if our country as a whole doesn't wake up and get with it.

I don't think this is a recent problem either, I think it is one a building for many years. Teachers who didn't like children and were only interested in a pay check. I myself encountered them in Junior High School. I started there about 1933 - it was a slap in the face to encounter that. Made me think that perhaps we kids weren't worth much of anything.

Parents who felt school was just a babysitting facility and expected the teachers to instill ethics and honesty and love of hard work in their children when the teachers were overwhelmed with the undisciplined horde of uninterested children, those teachers had no support or backing from administration either. A thing which led my son to quit teaching public school and work in construction for a long time.

Political infighting and school boards that had no idea of much of anything but sports.

Flow of money to schools in the rich districts requiring the sacrifice of textbooks and other necessities by the schools in the poorer districts, plus not being able to attract good teachers.

Doesn't look like that will change any time soon either.

These men are the super-intelligent folks of our country - - - and by golly THEY AIN'T CHICKEN LITTLE . . . . . . . . . .

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