Religion & Law

Blinded By the Light

By John Pieret

The Carnival of Elitist Bastards Partie Douze is up at Slobber And Spittle.

For a real stunner,¹ there is this:

Science education was - how to put this gently - pretty weak at our kids' school. There was the teacher who informed the class that the reason it was warmer in Summer is that the Earth is closer to the sun. There was the textbook that, in the glossary section, defined "extinction" as "when an animal is dead". Or the teacher who downgraded one of my kids' science projects because "the Van Allen belts didn't have anything to do with space". The one who ridiculed one of my kids for not being creative enough to write about a triangular planet. (Unlike his teacher, my son was well aware that planets can really only be more or less spherical.) The one who just couldn't believe that the child had read a book by Arthur C. Clarke called "Dolphin Island". (No, that's not right; are you sure it wasn't "Island Of The Blue Dolphins"?)

But, worst of all, there was a total eclipse of the sun and the school decided to ignore it instead of making it a (literally) once in a lifetime educational experience.

Sometimes it's not easy being an elitist bastard and having to contemplate such stupidity.

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¹ At Decrepit Old Fool
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Full post as published by Thoughts in a Haystack on April 25, 2009 (boomark / email).