[Taxacom] botany removed from highschool curriculum in USA

[Robin Leech]

Ken,

The breeding may be faster in the main centres of thought and influence,
but the real evolution occurs on the margins where conditions for survival
are at a minimum, and small populations have to change.and/or evolve at
a faster rate in order to survive.

We find this true of governments and big business, too.  And when they
fail, they fail big, leaving all those at the margins to carry on - and they 
do!

Robin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth Kinman" <kennethkinman at webtv.net>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:03 PM
Subject: [Taxacom] botany removed from highschool curriculum in USA


> Dear All,
>     Whether this concerns regular national standards in general or
> Advanced Placement standards (which should presumably be more strict),
> restricting the study of plants or photosynthesis in any way seems
> absurd.  If it weren't for plants and their photosynethic energy supply,
> our early metazoan ancestors would pretty much have died off millions or
> even billions of years ago.
>       That places like California should be dictating such standards is
> even more problematic, given their virtual bankruptcy economically and
> their large role in the whole nation's present economic problems, that
> they should dictate such standards is laughable.  I wouldn't put a lot
> of trust in Texas either.  Perhaps it is time to rebel against the
> bullying of the bulls in the china closet, and curbing their blind faith
> in molecular research alone (but I 'm a little surprise that I just said
> that).
>      Trouble is that in spite of the advances made by molecular
> biology, some people are just a little too enamoured with those advances
> and frankly ignorant of the occasional shortcomings.   Not to minimize
> the influence of New York City in their contributions to our problems,
> both economic and biologically (overly phylogenetic).  In some ways, New
> York City is the epicenter of a wide variety of problems.  Frankly big
> population centers might attract a lot of talent, but a lot of such
> talent seems to be subsequently corrupted by the national funding that
> such centers are able to monopolize.  Whether  such centers (economic
> "black holes") cause more harm than good is debatable (and frankly
> variable from one discipline to another).  The same could be said for
> Washington, D.C.  Probably a mixed bag of excellence in some cases and
> pouring resources down a rat hole in others.  But then again, California
> and Texas have tapped into a big chunk of pouring such funding down rat
> holes as well.
>     This seems to be the mixed bag of urban centers in general, able to
> econonically attract both the best of the best and even more so the
> worst of the worst.  That New York publishers should be dictating how
> our students should be educated is a little disturbing.  Most of them
> are probably about as removed from the natural world as humans can get.
> Seems like New York City is perhaps even better able to breed even more
> horrible parasites as they are real contributors to the betterment of
> humanity.  Urban centers in California perhaps rellect the same
> combination, and in time the greedy tends to overwhelm the good.
>       -------Ken Kinman
>
> ***************************************************
> Dick Jensen wrote:
>     While Dave Schindel is right about no national standards, we know
> that if two or three states, say Texas and California, change their
> standards, the rest of the nation is almost forced to accept those
> changes.  The states with really large public school systems can
> virtually dictate to publishers what the content will be.
> Could this be part of the concern?
>
>
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