Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

House on Fire
• The teachers and curricula are 'dumbing down' to the lowest
common denominator.
• Why is the basketball coach teaching chemistry?
• Teachers are required to spend much too much time on
discipline and on 'social curricula'. There's no incentive to use
our own judgment. The 'brass' are always looking over our
shoulders.
• Abandon tenure in schools and colleges. Get rid of the
deadwood. Leave hiring and firing to principals, deans, and
superintendents.
• My joy in teaching was repeatedly thwarted by militaristic-type
principals.
• Teachers should be rewarded on the basis of performance -
especially student performance on standardized, nationwide
tests, and improvements in student performance on such tests
from one year to the next.
• Teachers are stifling our children's minds by telling them
they're not 'smart' enough - for example, for a career in
physics. Why not give the students a chance to take the course?
• My son was promoted even though he's reading two grade
levels behind the rest of his class. The reason given was social,
not educational. He'll never catch up unless he's left back.
• Science should be required in all school (and especially high
school) curricula. It should be carefully coordinated with the
math courses the students are taking at the same time.
• Most homework is 'busy work' rather than something that
makes you think.
• I think Diane Ravitch [New Republic, 6 March 1989] tells it like
it is: 'As a female student at Hunter High School in New York
City recently explained, "I make straight As, but I never talk
about it . . . It's cool to do really badly. If you are interested in
school and you show it, you're a nerd" . . . The popular culture
- through television, movies, magazines, and videos - incessantly
drums in the message to young women that it is better to
be popular, sexy, and "cool" than to be intelligent, accomplished,
and outspoken . . .'In 1986 researchers found a similar
anti-academic ethos among both high school and female students
in Washington, D.C. They noted that able students faced
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