I wonder if we are going like sheep or like lions? So far, its lambs by a mile. No politician seems to care. They pay lip service to our faltering public educational system, while our kids are forced to learn basic science from a poster without the benefit of hands on learning. No wonder kids don’t like science. The politicians in DC continue to fiddle while Rome burns around them. I really hope that this changes around. I hope enough people realize that 2010 is pivotal and vote accordingly. Meanwhile, no opposition group has been able to make headway against those politicians.
with all due respect don’t wait till 2010 start when your kids get home from school asked them what they learned today talk to the teachers the principal (yes i know we can sit and bitch about the teachers union till we are all dead but that will not get anything done)
Just another blow against science education, which has been going down the tubes for a long time. Because of liability concerns, schools don’t let students do a lot of hands-on science. That’s why I started a science club for kids to do hands-on stuff before they permanently get the impression that science is boring.
I had to make up my own lesson plans because when I went to find lesson plans online, all the ones I could find were really lame– like demonstrating a block of pulleys by lifting a spool of thread using paper clips as pulleys. That sure wouldn’t have given as big an impression as the plan I made, which included a toddler lifting a jug of water twice as heavy as himself using a block of pulleys. But I can see why they wouldn’t have done that at a school– the jug might land on somebody’s head and generate 500 or more pages of paperwork. Better to let the kids think science is lame and doom our nation to a second-rate future, I guess, than bring down all that hassle and expense.
I am surprised the totally out of control hyper-regulation totalitarians in Washington have not eliminated all contact by children with the outside world, i.e. nature.
By God, there are traces of lead everywhere in the natural world. The spirit of CPSIA compliance mandates that kids never leave their houses into the untested environment.
Our local BSA council is opening a new nature center at camp. Cub Scouts and younger Boy Scouts will be touching all sorts of stuff đŸ™‚ Every nature center in the country ought to know about this–get the environmentalists who supported this craziness to get us out of it.
The county park system also has nature centers and kids dissect owl pellets and dip nets and pick up rocks . . . might have to ban gravel driveways too if you have children. (EPA is already banning them in our area but not due to lead)
I taught chemistry for 17 years in a California School district. By the time the district’s risk management office was done I was down to doing kitchen chemistry experiments suitable for elementary schools. CPSIA is just another nail in the coffin. OSHA/CalOSHA laws being applied as risk factors in science education started this slide in the 90’s.
8 Comments
I wonder if we are going like sheep or like lions? So far, its lambs by a mile. No politician seems to care. They pay lip service to our faltering public educational system, while our kids are forced to learn basic science from a poster without the benefit of hands on learning. No wonder kids don’t like science. The politicians in DC continue to fiddle while Rome burns around them. I really hope that this changes around. I hope enough people realize that 2010 is pivotal and vote accordingly. Meanwhile, no opposition group has been able to make headway against those politicians.
with all due respect don’t wait till 2010 start when your kids get home from school asked them what they learned today talk to the teachers the principal (yes i know we can sit and bitch about the teachers union till we are all dead but that will not get anything done)
Just another blow against science education, which has been going down the tubes for a long time. Because of liability concerns, schools don’t let students do a lot of hands-on science. That’s why I started a science club for kids to do hands-on stuff before they permanently get the impression that science is boring.
I had to make up my own lesson plans because when I went to find lesson plans online, all the ones I could find were really lame– like demonstrating a block of pulleys by lifting a spool of thread using paper clips as pulleys. That sure wouldn’t have given as big an impression as the plan I made, which included a toddler lifting a jug of water twice as heavy as himself using a block of pulleys. But I can see why they wouldn’t have done that at a school– the jug might land on somebody’s head and generate 500 or more pages of paperwork. Better to let the kids think science is lame and doom our nation to a second-rate future, I guess, than bring down all that hassle and expense.
matt is right. Start now. Challenge everything in public school. Get their refusals in writing. Publicize this.
I am surprised the totally out of control hyper-regulation totalitarians in Washington have not eliminated all contact by children with the outside world, i.e. nature.
By God, there are traces of lead everywhere in the natural world. The spirit of CPSIA compliance mandates that kids never leave their houses into the untested environment.
Our local BSA council is opening a new nature center at camp. Cub Scouts and younger Boy Scouts will be touching all sorts of stuff đŸ™‚ Every nature center in the country ought to know about this–get the environmentalists who supported this craziness to get us out of it.
The county park system also has nature centers and kids dissect owl pellets and dip nets and pick up rocks . . . might have to ban gravel driveways too if you have children. (EPA is already banning them in our area but not due to lead)
[…] Overlawyered) Posted by Darleen @ 9:44 pm | Trackback SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Who is really anti-science? […]
I taught chemistry for 17 years in a California School district. By the time the district’s risk management office was done I was down to doing kitchen chemistry experiments suitable for elementary schools. CPSIA is just another nail in the coffin. OSHA/CalOSHA laws being applied as risk factors in science education started this slide in the 90’s.