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News & ArtsThursday, August 12, 2010
History / Media Hate Registration: Charity 102 at Beck University
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Yet again, this class had absolutely nothing to do with charity. It was basically a civics class on separation of powers, and it didn't really touch on anything having to do with small government, as Beck promised it would in his introduction to the class. It did possibly set the stage for the final Charity class. Stoner spent a good amount of time talking about the Necessary and Proper Clause in the Constitution, which is kind of the negative capability of Constitution wonks. You can kind of make anything you want out of the Necessary and Proper Clause, and Stoner chooses to interpret it as being for small government.
Stoner talked a lot about Congress and the Supreme Court and checks and balances. He actually appealed to our better natures, suggesting that the populace wants to "elect, they hope, someone a little bit better than themselves, but like themselves.” He said that we would be “changing the whole structure of Federalism” if we look to the government to solve our problems. And he talked about bureaucracy, but he made clear that not all bureaucracy is a bad thing. He said it was a great thing that "Social Security checks come out when they’re supposed to come out, month after month after month," for example. You can almost picture Glenn Beck's head exploding in the background. Stoner even called the Constitution "resilient," countering Beck's own claims that Obama is about to override the Constitution and hand us over to the socialists wholesale. So there was no hilarity to be had in what Stoner said. Instead, I had to amuse myself with the misspellings in the title cards:
And in the post-class chatroom:
[Comment From TLT1: ]
Hello...you educated freaks!
[Comment From Michele - Texas: ]
It's because of you - we will be able to keep this alive for generations to come. Thank you Prof Stoner
[Comment From JACK (GA): ]
NEED TO REPEAL THE 16 AND 17 AMENDMENT
James Stoner:
Lots of you are asking about the Seventeenth Amendment, making Senators directly elected. I think a number of states were effectively doing that already, and I don't think that an amendment that seems to reverse something that made the Constitution more democratic is likely to succeed. Put your efforts into electing the best people to the Senate, I would say.
[Comment From Ed S: ]
Beck U is the best in higher education
[Comment From KrisK: ]
It's a pity the Constitution isn't taught this way in our public schools. I don't even remember it being mentioned in my history classes.
[Comment From JACK (GA.): ]
I LOVE TO LEARN ABOUT OUR CONSTITUTION
But I'm going from Beck U's best professor to its worst: Next Wednesday is the Faith 103 class. I'm already dreading it.
1
It's a pity the Constitution isn't taught this way in our public schools. I don't even remember it being mentioned in my history classes.
Homeschooling is weird that way.
2
@1 I know right? In my high school U.S. Gov class I had to memorize not only good portions of the constitution but also landmark supreme court cases. This was in one of the worst school systems in the US - Memphis City Schools.
3
More of these people who are like "why didn't I learn this in school?" Really? If you don't remember the Constitution being mentioned in history class it's because you weren't paying attention and/or you thought school was stoopid.
Christ on a pony.
Christ on a pony.
4
when i was a kid, like 8 or 10, i used to read an encyclopedia of American History FOR FUN, you stupid dropout mouthbreathers. when i took US History and Government in 10th grade, i watched you dumb ass 11th graders pass notes and pick your butts in class.
just admit that you have no fucking clue, go back to jet skiing and drinking bud lite, and let the adults run the place for a change?
just admit that you have no fucking clue, go back to jet skiing and drinking bud lite, and let the adults run the place for a change?
5
You know, the first universities were created by the Roman Catholic Church, for their usual motives. Power. Control. Managing dissent. Winning the intellectual arms race. They didn't really want or expect free inquiry or to increase the sum total of human knowledge available to all.
Yet we all know how that turned out. And of course so many of the institutions created by religious or political zealots in the centuries since have ended up nothing like the narrow and closed worlds the founders wanted them to be.
It just seems to be that once you set up even third rate pseudo-scholars and tell them to start reading and talking, they can't help but knock down walls and start blowing minds. You might laugh, but some day in the future, the likes of Bob Jones U and Beck's little toy school here will very likely make something of themselves.
Yet we all know how that turned out. And of course so many of the institutions created by religious or political zealots in the centuries since have ended up nothing like the narrow and closed worlds the founders wanted them to be.
It just seems to be that once you set up even third rate pseudo-scholars and tell them to start reading and talking, they can't help but knock down walls and start blowing minds. You might laugh, but some day in the future, the likes of Bob Jones U and Beck's little toy school here will very likely make something of themselves.
6
And Urgutha Forka, I don't blame you for never having personally gotten to know any home schooled kids, but you could at least do some reading on the subject.
Unless your cheap stereotyping is supposed to be some kind of ironic imitation of the Teabaggers' style. Could be I just don't get the joke here.
Unless your cheap stereotyping is supposed to be some kind of ironic imitation of the Teabaggers' style. Could be I just don't get the joke here.
7
@6 I home schooled for 2 years in 1999-2000, from 6th to 7th grade and completely admit I didn't learn shit. My mom bought my school books from some super huge home school book company called gateway and they were all shit christian books that tried to tell me that evolution was bullshit. I read through the non science ones and they were a rehash of what I had learned in 5th grade. The amazing thing is when I went back to regular school in 8th I was ahead, due to Wikipedia and my own curiosity.
8
For people who say they love our constitution so much, they sure spend a lot of time trying to destroy it.
9
You gotta wonder how the view that the Constitution should be taught in our schools squares with the idea that public education is nothing more than Socialist indoctrination and instead of funding it we should give some more tax breaks to the wealthiest tax bracket.
12
"Next Wednesday is the Faith 103 class."
Dear god on a bicycle, that's the most horrific phrase I've heard since "rainy day recess." I wish you strength, my friend, you're going to need it. *shudder*
Dear god on a bicycle, that's the most horrific phrase I've heard since "rainy day recess." I wish you strength, my friend, you're going to need it. *shudder*
14
@10: I'm right there with you. Wonkette posted a picture a few days ago of a banner from the "Maine Teaparty Movment" that asked "Have you had enough yet?" More than the egregious "Teaparty" or the "Movment," my first response was to be impressed that they spelled "enough" correctly. I think they're successfully lowering the bar for themselves.
15
I have to say I kinda do hope that the Tea Party movement does indeed turn into a movement solely dedicated to repealing the 17th amendment.
17
@16
Um, were you stoned 1999–2000? That could account for the spotty recollections. I don't believe there's any evidence that home schooling has a magic cure for that. Interestingly, Wikipedia (or some such online encyclopedia -- Encyclopedia Galactica maybe?) does cite a significant body of work showing that home schooling does not "blow". They have articles on anecdotal evidence and hasty generalization, too.
Um, were you stoned 1999–2000? That could account for the spotty recollections. I don't believe there's any evidence that home schooling has a magic cure for that. Interestingly, Wikipedia (or some such online encyclopedia -- Encyclopedia Galactica maybe?) does cite a significant body of work showing that home schooling does not "blow". They have articles on anecdotal evidence and hasty generalization, too.
18
Good job. I gave a quick anecdote from my childhood experience and because I don't have a perfect memory of it I must have been stoned at the age of 12. But I've never touched the stuff at all actually. Or any drug at all.
I'm sure home schooling is fine if your parent is actually intelligent but my mother was already having me proof read her letters at that point and she couldn't balance her own check book. I grew up in TN and saw many terrible parents pull their kids out of school for the sake of teaching them in a christian environment. After my own experience with christian home school books, even if the kids are interested in reading and learning on their own, I can't say it would have been a very good experience. Have you ever tried searching for a full home school curriculum that doesn't center around christ? It is damn hard to find them. I suppose you could make your own curriculum but it takes good teachers years to make lesson plans that they feel comfortable with.
anyway, just an anecdote.
I'm sure home schooling is fine if your parent is actually intelligent but my mother was already having me proof read her letters at that point and she couldn't balance her own check book. I grew up in TN and saw many terrible parents pull their kids out of school for the sake of teaching them in a christian environment. After my own experience with christian home school books, even if the kids are interested in reading and learning on their own, I can't say it would have been a very good experience. Have you ever tried searching for a full home school curriculum that doesn't center around christ? It is damn hard to find them. I suppose you could make your own curriculum but it takes good teachers years to make lesson plans that they feel comfortable with.
anyway, just an anecdote.
19
Have you ever tried searching for a full home school curriculum that doesn't center around christ? It is damn hard to find them.Yes, I have. Hundreds of thousands of others have too, and they found such curricula in something like 0.2 seconds. It is trivially simple.
You are a bullshitter. You are utterly, utterly fully of shit. I'm sorry your life has damaged you. I'm sorry. But you're a bullshitter and you need to stop. You're not even good at bullshit. You need to start telling the truth, if for no other reason than your lies suck.
20
@18: I homeschooled for two grades in elementary and came out just fine. I'd put that down either to my parents (one of whom is a teacher) being educated professionals, or to the fact that we're Jewish and therefore protected from the Jesus-centric curricula.
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