From kfoster@rainbow.rmii.com Mon Apr  1 10:46:26 CST 1996
From: kfoster@rainbow.rmii.com (Kurt Foster)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Latest education reform effort
Date: 31 Mar 1996 16:08:39 GMT

     The latest effort by Republicans to influence school curricula has not
received much publicity, due to the busy legislative agenda just before the
adjournment of Congress.  The following excerpt from a recent speech by
Senator Jesse Helms (R - N. Carolina) may therefore be of some interest
to readers of this group.

"... but not only has the abolition of prayer in our classrooms led to the
decline of morals in our youth.  We have failed, and failed miserably, to
let the next generation enjoy the benefits of the technology which the
current generation has worked so hard to achieve."
"    Is there anyone here who does not recall the boredom, the absolute
mind-numbing and soul-destroying tedium, of having to read and reread their
math lessons, to leaf through their notes and flip through their books,
trying to find some definition just so they could read through the
problem?"
"    Or how about the endless revisions and rewriting of essays and term
papers, just because the teacher said there were spelling errors or the
grammar wasn't right?"
"    And as if all that weren't bad enough, who among us wasn't made sick
to our stomachs by having to plow through our science texts, and read about
how a bunch of `observations' and `experiments' and `evidence' were
supposed to `prove' how the world worked?"
"    Who made up all the rules of `critical thinking' and `valid arguments'
and `logic' and `syllogisms' anyway?  The rules that make certain that
THEIR version of `reality', and ONLY their version, is taught in our
science classes?  The same godless liberal secular humanists who made up
all those spelling rules.  And grammar rules.  And math definitions.  
That's who!"
"    And the worst part of it is, our students are STILL being subjected to
this torture, even though NOBODY has to suffer through trying to `learn' or
`understand' ANY of these things anymore."
"    With our advanced computers and software technology, the spelling and
grammar of any document can be checked automatically, with the press of a
key.  Any definition can be supplied with the click of a mouse button.
There are programs in common use, RIGHT NOW, which can do algebra and
calculus better than people can!  And as to logic, why, what could be MORE
logical than a computer?"
"    The liberal secular humanists keep telling us that computers can't
think.  In that case, I ask them, if computers can do all these things
better than people can, where do you get off saying that today's students
have to struggle through them so THEY can learn how to think?"
"    When Congress reconvenes, we will propose the Education Improvement
Act.  It will mandate that ALL material dealing with grammar, math, science
and `critical thinking', be put on computers, so the students can download
the material at home, under parental supervision of course.  Classroom
lessons will be devoted to the moral teachings and beliefs on which this
great nation was founded.  I know that I can count on each and every one of
you here to write the President and their Representatives in support of
this bill.  Thank you!" 

==============================================================================
[I almost hate to add this...  -- djr]
==============================================================================

>Subject:          Jesse Helms "speech" a fake!                                >Author:           Kurt Foster
>Email:            kfoster@rainbow.rmii.com
>Date:             1996/04/05
>Forums:           sci.math 
>Message-ID:       <4k23pp$ac2@natasha.rmii.com>
>Organization:     Rocky Mountain Internet Inc. 
>
>
>     This pertains to my recent posting "Latest Education Reform 
>Effort".  I posted this "mea culpa" in the thread on the 2nd, but I just 
>checked, and found subsequent postings dated as late as today, the 4th, 
>which indicates the need to repost this separately.
>
>Allen Adler (adler@pulsar.wku.edu) wrote:
>
>: Actually, this stuff about Helms was posted in time for April Fools
>: Day. So maybe it is a hoax. Is it possible to examine the
>: Congressional Record online? Much as I dislike the senator,
>: it is important to maintain the distinction between what he
>: would say and what he did say.
>:
>     It looks like David Ullrich wins the prize for first suspecting the 
>thing was a fake, and Allen Adler wins the prize for stating the idea of 
>its being an April Fool's Day joke.  That it was.  The whole "excerpt" is 
>a complete fraud.  I made it up out of whole cloth for April Fool's Day.
>     I tried to make the proposal in the "speech" as ridiculous and 
>idiotic as possible, in the hopes that it would be seen immediately as a 
>joke.  I guess the Senator's long record of remarkable public utterances 
>made the thing a bit more plausible that I thought it would be.  Recent 
>public acts by a certain State legislature, and statements by a certain 
>presidential candidate, concerning the teaching of evolution, may also 
>have made it harder to be sure the thing was a fake.
>     I hope everybody had a happy April Fool's Day!