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In <3.0.32.19961205212336.006a520c@netcom14.netcom.com>, on 12/05/96
at 09:24 PM, Lucky Green said:
::At 07:08 PM 12/5/96 -0800, Steve Schear wrote:
::>This has all vanished is our zeal
::>to protect youth and society from any activity which might lead
::>injury or misuse. I can't even find a place to buy a niece a real
::>chemistry set as tort laws have forced them from the market. When
::>considering the plummeting >interest and achievement of our youth in
::> math and science we look no further for a reason.
::When Wernher von Braun (if the reader doesn't know who von Braun was,
::shame on your teachers. Hint: first human on the Moon.) first became
::interested in rocketry, he was a student of music. Classical piano, to
::be exact. He got his hands on a book about using rockets for space
::exploration. To his dismay, the book was full of mathematical
::equations. He went to his math teacher, asking him for help with the
::equations. The teacher must have been of help, since von Braun went on
::to become the single most knowledgable person in his field. And no, it
::wasn't piano playing.
::There is nothing like some real life challenges to spark a young
::person's mind. Today, conducting the experiments that fueled von
::Braun's imagination would be a felony. The mere possession of the
::chemicals he used in his early twenties is illegal.
::This country has set out on a project to dumb the minds of its young.
::With great success.
bingo! and, how. they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams!
I had a roommate at Harvard (late fifties) who had incredibly deep
pockets. his mother died his freshman year, leaving him her estate
on the tip of Fisher's Island, including the costal defense battery
positions and bunkers.
he had an Apache twin for which I managed to get a license including
instrument very quickly --we then went to FI for weekends and
built and fired everything you can imagine. only a few curious
paid us any mind as the closest estate to hers was at least 1/2
mile.
can you imagine that today? --the tip guards the entrance to
the New London pig boat pens and the LI sound!
there were still plenty of professors with both knowledge on the
early rockets, and open enough to "private" teach. My advisor was a
Nobel prize winner, very accessible, and provided both help and
introductions to men most never knew even existed in the vast
science complex north of the yard. most were in the same old
building (Pierce) with the RF screens on the outside walls to
shield against the primitive radar --long dark and narrow halls.
It is a whole different ball game in academia. men whom I have
recently met are nothing like their predecessors who were open and
warm --everyone is so "professional" and they are _cold_.
sad story in general.
some bright spots though, I guess. I was rather surprised by
experiments and their depths in AP Chemistry offered my third son
by St George's Dixie High School --impressive and not the usual
restrictions on "oh, poor Johnny might hurt himself while clowning
...err learning." a) we have better discipline which works; and
b) we don't put up with those silly whiners (so far).
but the future does not speak well with declining tests scores
which, for instance, require the SATs to be watered 20-30% so the
median would still be 500! to think that the pair of 800s I
received in the 50s can be acquired by someone scoring less than
650s --what value has the US placed on education? enough so our
students now rank well down in the second 10 on international
tests! what makes that worse is the _majority_ of Korean
students can perform --the lower 1/3 of our students have already
dropped out of school, and the second third are too uneducated
to participate. junior colleges are graduating students who
would not have passed out of tenth grade 20-30 years ago.
and, the government wants more mind control --even Bitch's "It
Takes a Global Village." at least it's fat chance out here in
the high desert.
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