The Crisis in the Classroom
Atheistic evolution gets another boost! It is all under the guise of a qualified science education. They have a history of deception advancing their atheistic agenda and using the public tax supported systems to achieve their ends. Under the pretext of revamping the science standards, the public is once again being duped.
Our Failing Public Educational System
It begins with an effort to correct the flawed public educational system that is miserably failing to prepare high school graduates for higher education. After going through grades K-12, our students are not being trained-up to enter an expanded competitive worldwide job market. This is a national problem that was initially addressed at the 1996 National Educational Summit. This meeting made up of the nation’s governors and business leaders resulted in the formation of a nonprofit organization called Achieve. This Washington DC-based organization’s common goal was to implement a collaborative effort involving state-to-state cooperation making a unified effort to raise academic standards for high school graduates.
Since Achieve’s inception, it has had a great impact as evidenced by its wide network touching 45 states with educational programs that strengthen core standards with focus and clarity. A central premise of American Diploma Project (ADP) developed by Achieve is that every child, no matter what state school they attend, should have an equal opportunity to achieve success in a competitive world. This program was ushered in with a small coalition of representative states in order to produce standards that are more rigorous for high school graduates. In 2005, only 13 states initially participated and now it has expanded to 35 states representing nearly 90% of all the public school students in the country. The success of this program has encouraged the establishment of Common Core Standards being lead by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
The need for these Common Core Standards was demonstrated in an extensive analysis by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. This study revealed how dismally unprepared our high schools graduates really are. It concluded that two thirds of our students are deficient in skills. They were entering college needing remedial courses, and those that chose to enter the job market had to be involved in some sort of basic training program. If the intent of the public school system is to prepare the next generation for the future, they have earned a failing grade of “F” reflecting a 33.3% success rate. In addition to this, the University’s analysis reported, that in the areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), Intel is recruiting for positions in Shanghai and India. IBM is hiring in Asia; and Microsoft is hiring 100 software engineers, mostly in China, and almost as many in India. It seems clear that many of the most successful international companies are no longer looking for employees from the United States.
Along with the increasing basic education standards in High School, Achieve was astutely aware that America was falling drastically behind the world market in science and math. “Education is the most important aspect we have for competing in the 21st century. It’s that simple,” stated Craig Barrett, the present Chairman of the Board of Achieve. “America needs a wake-up call because it is dreadfully falling behind in high tech competition.” As the former Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation, the largest and highest valued semiconductor chip company in the world, he should qualify to give an honest evaluation. Barrett continued, “that it (Intel Capital) did 90% of its investments in the US and now it’s down to 50% and the other 50% is in Asia, primarily in India and China.” He went on to state, “that his former company can be very successful not hiring another American worker because foreign workers are better trained, better educated than Americans.”
What is happening in Science Education?
The American public is aware of this problem in our science educational system. There is virtually unanimous (97%) agreement that they want to see an improvement in science education. Only then will the United States be able to compete globally in the world marketplace. According to a February 22-26, 2012 national survey sponsored by Achieve, the grade of “C” or below was given by U.S. voters at both their national and local levels with regard to their present system of science education. The survey also revealed that the majority of Americans (56%) agree that science education is falling behind other countries. An overwhelming 87% of those surveyed supported a new set of standards that would fulfill the requirements. They agreed that new standards would be “internationally-benchmarked, more challenging, and will require students to apply their science knowledge and understand how science concepts fit together.” In conclusion, Americans realize that presently science education is falling short in every way by failing to prepare the next generation to be competitive in America as well as the rest of the world.
It even gets more dismal when we look at our performance in the international testing programs. Everywhere students have been blessed with so many opportunities to achieve success, yet they have continually tested below the levels of other countries. Former United Sates Secretary of Education 1985-1988) under President Reagan, William Bennett, wrote an article for CNN’s website titled, “America U. S. Lagging in Science, Math: A Disaster in Making.” In the report, he stated:
Two indicators are particularly worrisome, especially as this country experiences greater global competition and high unemployment. American students score 23rd in math and 31st in science when compared with 65 other top industrial countries. In math, we are beaten by countries from Lichtenstein and Slovakia to the Netherlands and Singapore. In science, we are beaten by countries from New Zealand and Estonia to Finland and Hungary. For the United States, which led the way in space after Sputnik and showed the way in technological development and economic growth for the last 40 years, this is more than an embarrassment.
In this report, Bennett explains that, when it comes to math and science, only 26% of high school seniors perform at proficient levels in math and only 21% in science. And what makes this more depressing is that fewer students are majoring in STEM careers in college with at least 40% changing majors before graduating.
The Good, Bad and the Ugly
With the prevailing need to change the current state of science education, a set of new science standards entitled, “The Next Generation Science Standards” (NGSS) was introduced to the public in its final form in April 2013. A consortium of 26 states, made up of several groups of scientists, educators, business leaders and politicians, developed these standards replacing the existing ones from 1996. National standards are not compulsory, but they act as national recommendations that have a great deal of influence on the content of science textbooks, thereby affecting what children are taught on state and local levels as well as impacting teacher training. The NGSS has the potential of becoming a national unified effort, a movement that can make an historical impact changing the way science is taught to all future generations. According to the plan, these standards would be introduced and accepted from one state school system to another. By using this “under the radar” method, they hope to build momentum so that all 50 states would get on the bandwagon before anyone really scrutinizes what they are implementing.
As the Achieve survey revealed, it is almost unanimous that our national science education program needs to be revamped, and the NGSS would promote the sharing expertise and much needed resources in a national pool. This would potentially raise America’s competitive edge in the worldwide market providing more continuity in a basic science curriculum along with a solid framework to prepare and encourage students in STEM careers. Such a program would prevent the hodgepodge of different standards from state to state, streamlining efforts so that the United States can provide a high caliber, quality national curriculum using its amalgamated resources that are already on display in China and India. Another benefit is the NGSS’s exemplary emphasis on scientific problem solving that enables students to learn in ways they can more easily relate to in their everyday lives. These standards also emphasize three themes designed to encourage scientific thinking so that students can easily get hooked in careers in science. It should be stated that the majority of the recommended standards represent an improvement from the past. It would increase accountability by evaluating these goals, thereby raising the standards on the national level and that is good.
There is, however, a bad side to the NGSS. Opportunists have jumped in with a more liberal agenda. They are pushing the politically charged topic of climate change or alleged global warming as integral part of the new science curriculum. Standards are going to introduce this controversial topic in Middle school (grades 6-8). It will also be incorporated in the three traditional high school science courses that have been entrenched as basic core foundational subjects, e.g. biology, chemistry and physics. These courses will be changed significantly, as these new standards insert environment and climate change propaganda into the curriculum. The NGSS developers are expecting challenges in this area from those academicians that have been teaching and developing materials over the years. And they should be challenged, because such changes are going to weaken the curriculum by taking from the hard-core science aspect of these courses and inserting politically correct subject matter in its place.
The NGSS takes a zealously dogmatic view of the controversial topic of global warming without giving students a complete perspective by exposing them to the opposing data. What is more perplexing is that, as more and more data is collected, the argument for global warming is getting weaker. On August 13, CNN news reported under the provocative title, “What Global Warming? 2012 Data Confirms Earth In Cooling Trend” that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released its “State of Climate in 2012.” In it, they report that 2012 was one of warmest years on record keeping company amongst the top 10 warmest years on record. The report failed to mention that it was also one of the coolest in the decade confirming that there was a climate-cooling trend taking place. Why make a non-issue, global warming, an issue when, in fact, it is not.
It gets dark and ugly when Achieve exposes an urgent need to keep America in the market place and such a noble effort is sabotaged by the secular atheists promoting evolution as early as elementary school. The NGSS depended on the National Research Council to develop the Framework for K-12 Science Education which is part of the notoriously pro-evolution National Academy of Science. Many of these scientists have influenced the standards with their inherently atheistic agenda. For example, Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famous public TV astrophysicist, science communicator and a professed atheist, in an informal discussion with a fellow atheists Lawrence Krause at the atheist sponsored 2006 conference, “Beyond Belief,” remarked, “I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.” Tyson’s eagerness to know why just 15% of the scientific community is not atheist illustrates their arrogant attitude, a completely fallacious belief that real scientists cannot acknowledge God as their Creator. Sadly, national surveys agree with Tyson. There is very small representation for God, not only in the professional science community, but also in many Academic Institutions. The NGSS has fallen into the hands of the atheistic scientists who use evolution, a fairy tale masquerading as science, to justify their arrogance towards God. Evolution will boldly move through the elementary grades where children will for the first time will be formally taught Darwin’s theory. At the upper educational levels, human evolution will be emphasized more than ever.
As witnessed in America’s failing system, there is an established need for change in science education. The Achieve survey has certainly demonstrated that the public agreed to a complete revision in curriculum raising the standards hoping to increase STEM careers in America. There was no mention in their plan to insert the teaching of global warming or evolution nor was it ever mentioned in the public survey. It appears the public has been duped through deceptive techniques. Yes, these education reformers have gone to these universities of higher learning and, have themselves, become indoctrinated through the brain washing techniques employed by arrogant elitists. The Scripture states that they love their own darkness because the light of righteousness in Jesus Christ will expose their sins. In John 3:19-20 we read, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
