In the new era that has been brought to us by the Clinton Administration and its predecessor, scientific truth is determined by polling data. The Administration and its retainers are now in full swing with their propaganda campaign to make polling data conform to the global warming treaty that is to be signed in December. Meanwhile, the United States Senate, comprehending little beyond the politics of envy, has proclaimed that our country will not perform partial technological suicide on the sword of hydrocarbon rationing unless enough other countries agree to do so also. All that stands now between the Republic and a giant global warming step downward toward an abyss of irrational mysticism and mass murder (if energy rationing is instituted, a
One example is the General Educational Development (GED) Exam that is passed by 500,000 Americans each year. Passage provides a High School Equivalency Certificate which is equivalent to a High School Diploma. Some colleges require this examination for admission of home schooled students. Noah Robinson recently took the 1992 exam for practice and then the 1997 exam.
The GED informational materials state that the science exam consists of 66 questions, of which 50% are "Biology'' and 50% are "Physical Sciences: Earth, Physics, and Chemistry.'' Earth? The NEA has created a new "physical science'' that supersedes physics and chemistry and is called "Earth.'' The 1997 exam consists (by Noah's estimate) of about 56 questions on biology and "earth'' and about 10 on physics and chemistry. The risk that the student will actually have independent knowledge concerning these subjects is eliminated by the test. Fewer than 10 % of the 66 questions require any prior knowledge by the student other than the ability to read. The answers are clearly given in the reading passages preceding the questions.
In order to pass, the student must give politically correct answers concerning rain forests and other "earth'' matters including the looming shortage of hydrocarbons. (This last indicates that the NEA is still fighting the previous propaganda war. The free market long ago drove a stake through the heart of the 1970s "shortage'' myth. Global warming was then invented to take its place.) These required, politically correct answers are clearly stated prior to the questions, so a reading student knows exactly what to say.
In keeping with the ongoing NEA lowering of American educational standards, the 1992 exam was more difficult than the 1997 exam. Noah found that he could work the 90 minute mathematics exam for 1992 in 60 minutes - in his head with no use of pencil or paper. The 1997 exam required only 40 minutes. Too much knowledge is, however, dangerous.
Noah managed to give a "wrong'' answer to one of the math questions. The question involved a hexagon (a polygon of six angles and, therefore, six sides). Unless one assumed that all of the angles and sides were equal - a regular hexagon ("regular'' was not stated in the problem) - the only correct answer was "cannot be determined from the given information.'' This answer was counted wrong. The mathematicians and astrologers of the NEA no longer distinguish between hexagons and regular hexagons, so all hexagons are supposed to be assumed to have equal angles and sides.
Those who end their education with the GED or its inferior equivalent - 12 years in a tax-financed NEA propaganda mill - only comprise, however, 75% of the American population. The other 25% goes on to college. Many colleges offer satisfactory educations in physical science. For example, Zachary Robinson recently graduated with a BS in chemistry from Oregon State University - where he received an excellent education in chemistry from very good chemistry professors. He was one of seven students of chemistry in his graduating class - out of 14,000 students at Oregon State. If we add physics and mathematics and allow for four classes, the total is less than 1%.
What are the other 99% of the "students'' studying in college? Most of them are in the clutches of humanities faculties that are churning out degrees that have essentially negative value to those interested in facts and independent, truthful rational thought. Even the science students are forced to take some of these ridiculous courses -many of which are little more than sick humor for a well-prepared mind. The required "health'' class at Oregon State became so obscene that many students simply walked out in the middle of some of the raw lectures that were being given by a woman professor.
In any case, it is clear that the future of America is being determined by an electorate wherein most of the voters have little or no knowledge of science or engineering beyond that learned between the ages of six and eighteen. In the tax-financed schools, this usually means "earth'' and "biology'' (more enviro propaganda) with mathematics, physics, and chemistry reduced in importance except for a small minority of students. (The success of a few, regardless of adversity, keeps hope alive in the hearts of the diminishing number of dedicated teachers of science.) In this vacuum of knowledge, telling the people what to "think'' and then polling them to see if they think it yet is perfectly sensible even if it is morally and ethically bankrupt.
These are the reasons that the 1.5 million home schooled children (soon to be 3 million at current growth rates) are so important to the future of American science and technology and to freedom. These children are all outside of the NEA propaganda mills. They are free to learn mathematics (the language of science) properly and then go on to first-rate science texts. Every one of them, even the least talented, can be taught to properly read a graph of atmospheric temperature or atmospheric ozone concentration vs. time and to draw an individual, independently determined conclusion.
"Earth'' is not a physical science; wrong answers in mathematics are not made right by "good reasoning'' or group consensus; atmospheric chemistry is not determined by polls of television viewers; and there are plenty of people in the world ready to take America's place as a leader of science, technology, and free enterprise, if American minds continue to be destroyed by tax-guzzling propagandists.
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Vol. 25, No. 1
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 25, No. 1 Date: September 01, 1997 02:39 PM Title: Earth, Physics, and Chemistry
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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