mr-damon

"I was almost 8 years old [when Sputnik was launched], and I remember the Five O'Clock Hop being interrupted on TV with a news flash, urging citizens to go outside and see the tangible symbol of the Red Menace go beeping and blinking overhead. Americans were terrified, and education changed overnight, with math, science, and engineering majors replacing the humanities and the arts for millions of American students...

"Since Sputnik, the cons and the neo-cons have repeatedly used the same tactic to drive school reform further and further backwards. Reagan exploited fear of the Japanese economic engine, now sputtering, and Bush used fear of Chinese and Indian educational and technological gains. Meanwhile, the real advantages that Americans have always had, which include an understanding of living free and creative lives capable of solving problems and introducing innovation, is put at risk by antiquarian reforms that push us further and further behind the curve in solving real world problems that cannot wait for some future generation to deal with, once the dunces and Duncans in charge have been shown to be prostituted fools they are."