A "Dead Poets Society" Kind of Moment

Maybe I'm not the guy to talk about this.

I mean, in high school, for me, a science experiment involved hooking the Bunson burner "accidentally" to the water valve instead of the gas valve. Or it might take the form of adding the acids and bases in the opposite order of the teacher's instructions.

Let's just say that I made decent grades in all my high school math classes, but that was because of a little grace-oriented teacher invention called "extra credit." One time I actually passed Mrs. Truss' algebra class because I put an Iron Maiden album cover that had Satan on it (after meticulously enlarging it by the use of an "opaque projector" I checked out of the school library) on the bulletin board with the phrase "Don't let your grades go to the DEVIL." I added flames to the word "devil" because I thought it would help. It did.

It's safe to say that neither math nor science were my baliwicks.

Which is what allowed me to flourish at the university level. When you can choose a major that allows you to graduate by substitute 10 hours of philosophy for math courses and my lab science requirement was fulfilled by geology (a.k.a. "Rocks for Jocks"), well, I was going to graduate in liberal arts no matter what.

So, you can tell that I get amused when I read a headline like "Math and Science Add Up To Our Future" on the Op/Ed page. The article goes on to talk about some group that is trying to push all these objectives and incentives through Congress in order to ensure our students get the jump on the rest of the world:

...keep our edge in a global economy...

blah blah blah

...the sky is falling...

blah blah blah

...space race made us a world leader...

blah blah blah

...push our children educationally...

blah blah blah

...you get the idea.

Anyway, let me save you chaps pushing the agenda some time. It isn't about pushing educational goals downward it's about challenging students to go upward. See, it's an easy political move to create standards and objectives with math and science. For all the reasons you mentioned in the article. People applaud and how can anybody be negative about something like that?

But what made the space race in the 1960's so influential? I mean, it worked.

It was an government-driven mandate/objective. Beat the Russians to the moon. Nothing short of an American flag put in the dirt first is acceptable.

That's what drove the engineers and scientists and math-oriented folks. A challenge. An incentive. Something of significance to attain to...and our citizens responded to the challenge. Americans tend to do that.

So, instead of a new set of mandates and objectives that will get parents to applaud at the middle school open house when the teacher says, "We know have 45 additional minutes a day of math and 25 additional minutes of science," (to which your wife will tell you it's okay to go home after that session when you respond a little to loudly with "Why would grown-ups applaud THAT?")...

...how about giving us a new challenge to excel and put the same amount of energy and resources toward whatever that is?

You know, like developing a comprehensive public transportation system (both civic and federal)--man, I hear the Japanese are developing trains that run on freakin' magnets and go 200 miles an hour. Or maybe developing solar technology to run cars or whatever--you know that ideas for flux capacitors and stuff like that might really get things cranked up. Anything to get rid of our dependence and consumption of oil, both foreign and domestic--

--and you know how many other problems get solved?

Just think about it.

Just promise me you'll think about it.

Challenge our young people. Don't give them hoops to jump through. That's the best thing you could do.