it harkens back to one of the wisest axioms of sun tzu:

men fight hardest for an indefensible position

a "great teacher?" ugh. the guy was a literature professor. he had zero business even broaching the subject. and preaching in class? reprehensible.

what's even more ironic is that the baptists were among the most enthusiastic supporters of the separation clause. at the time of the founding the baptists were a small, fringe sect existing mainly on the frontiers (having been driven out of most civilized section due to them being intolerant assholes) they rightly envisioned that establishing a state sanctioned religion would keep them forever on the fringes.

They're back now with a vengeance.

I have really had it with these holier than thou hypocrites. So they want the student expelled and killed do they? Fine. Then they can get out. I mean it. Get the fuck out. Go join the Taliban in Afghanistan where ignorance is bliss and women are expected to perform like whores. I’m sure they’d like it fine there. Of course – they’d have to change allegiance form Jesus to Mohammed – but who cares - right? It’s the end result that matters – a theocracy. So I say lets all go to Kearny High School, pack up these assholes shit and send ‘em to the Middle East where their inflexibility and single-mindedness will be appreciated.

Actually, The Fat Lady Sings, it seems to me that the worst punishment to visit upon these mental dwarves is to force them to live in a culture where the age-old concept of liberal education is forced down their throats every day of their lives.

Lord knows, I do my part at the college level to take religionists' kids and corrupt their minds to the point where they slowly become an abomination to their parents and the culture of ignorance.

My efforts don't get results all the time, but I do get results in more than a few cases. It just delights me to no end to see my work pay off in a young person who slowly grows out of the hateful baby fat of smothering ignorance. Mom and Dad won't be pleased at all, of course; but, hey, they can register for classes, too, and get with it.

Otherwise, they can stay at home and twist their hearts out at a world moving on (and taking their kids) without them.

And as for that school, when a district gets that out of control, reputable institutions of higher learning begin to shy away from the kids: scholarships and other academic opportunities begin to dry up. Eventually, the brighter parents in the community realize that their kids can't go anywhere but to the local Bible Beater University, and the employment opportunities for grads from that place are surprisingly limited. If they've got a nearby, regional community college that has open admissions, they find out fairly quickly that "open admissions" means "we'll take your money until you flunk so many times you can't get any more student loans, and that means it's time to go to work at Taco Bell and start paying off the ones you've already accrued and have nothing to show for."

Yes, it's that harsh, and I have no problem with being a part of that long-term corrective process. Every semester, I deal with a cluster of students from a community just like the one in konagod's article, and the failure rate is nearly 100% for those kids in college classes. This has been going on for a very long time, and it's finally soaking in at school district meetings out there: something's got to give, and it isn't going to be higher education that yields. High drop-out rates; high out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates; meth abuse that's running rampant among the kids; all kinds of rumors of really weird-ass stuff going on with the teenagers and even weirder-ass stuff going on in small groups of adults in the town; and, of course, those nearly 100% failure rates at the college level.

Ouch. Yeah, something's got to give.

Eventually, deviant communities learn a modicum of self-control. If they don't, we've got plenty of kids from decent high schools who are ready to go to real colleges and then go out into the work force with real educational credentials.

That school district can put off making a serious change of course for only so long. Meanwhile, the world will move on.

The Dark Wraith bawls out, "ALL ABOARD!"

Konagod, this only shows that being an idiot requires no geographical location. They are everywhere, under the carpet, behind the door, everywhere. Sometimes I fake myself out with a kind of hope that things will get better, then I get slammed with reality. What I found in California with a population of around 30 million was that there are a damn site more hicks there than in Arkansas. Thankfully there are also a lot of great and wonderful Californians too. It seems to be the great equlizer, being stupid, requires no skill, no effort at all. It comes naturally to some. Most can get through the entire day without anything beyond a conditioned response.

And to the Dark Wraith, I had no truck at all with the thankfully few students who resisted my comments on "evilution". In the microbiologically complex environment of an activated sludge reactor with literally thousands and thousands of artificial chemicals, shit happens. Not that this is necessarily a good thing for us, but it is happening.

I see an interesting and frightening future.

Some have even called for Matthew to be suspended. He has already received a death threat.

... certain wacko fundies to want anyone who disagrees with them to... DIE.

These are Christians?? Then why don't they follow Christ's teachings?

Those fundiwackojeezicals are seeking (all politics being local) to infiltrate as many local offices as possible, including school boards, in order to push their version of religion, too. And the rest of us saner folks, who don't follow along with their twisted dogma, are going to hell, of course.

---

Good on ya, Wraith!

Dark Wraith has his head buried. What happens is not that those students can't get into a college and fail when they get there; they simply go to the fundamentalist colleges that are springing up all the time. The money is flowing toward these schools and away from educational institutions--there are enough nuts with big bank balances to found the schools, and enough of the religiously indoctrinated to keep them going. Then they get jobs in Washington. No amount of self-satisfactory dreaming by Dark Wraith or the rest of you impedes this progression one damn bit. It's time to stop ridiculing and start actively engaging the irrational forces loose in this country.

Dark Wraith has his head buried.

Aslan365, are you an idiot or a troll?

"And as for that school, when a district gets that out of control, reputable institutions of higher learning begin to shy away from the kids: scholarships and other academic opportunities begin to dry up. Eventually, the brighter parents in the community realize that their kids can't go anywhere but to the local Bible Beater University, and the employment opportunities for grads from that place are surprisingly limited."

Reading and comprehension skills don't seem to be your strong suit.

there are enough nuts with big bank balances to found the schools, and enough of the religiously indoctrinated to keep them going.Then they get jobs in Washington
Most people who get jobs in Washington have connections and came from big money to begin with, and most wealthy people still send their kids to accredited Ivy-league colleges so they'll look good on paper (like Bush's MBA from Harvard). Even if they're dumb as dirt, they can usually get a degree from big-name colleges by hiring others to write their papers for them. For the most part, Christian colleges remain an extremely expensive money-pit for reactionary parents who desperately want to "save" their kids from the evils of traditional college life- often with tragically predictable results

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