I can run again!

 Yesterday I got to start running again after six weeks of physical therapy.  Actually, it has been longer than that. I tore my meniscus apparently, and both my brother (who is a sports medicine doctor) and my doctor agreed on a treatment plan of a steroid injection into my knee and then physical therapy for ten weeks.  I have been doing the exercises faithfully--only missing two times, despite days spent traveling--and have noticed so much improvement. It has been long and slow, but the promise of not only moving without pain but also playing sports is a good motivation!

My brother gave me a specific plan and as I started doing them, I noticed that most of them had to do with my hips.  This was an additional blessing, because I had recently become aware that some of my physical problems were potentially linked to some kind of hip displacement that happens during and after childbearing.  And chances are, my hips are pretty displaced!  So my hips, my "sitting," my knee, and I realized even my back problems were all a part of this same problem...a problem that I finally have a solution for through these exercises. I love how connected my problems--and hence, my solution!-are.

Now, being consistent about these kind of exercises is NOT fun. I am pretty great at doing things off and on, things that are fun, and doing things that have immediate validation or reward. 

But as I ran my less than 2-mile, twenty minute route yesterday, it was worth it. 1,680 minutes for twenty minutes. And then twenty more and twenty more.  Because it has been way more minutes than that in which I didn't have the choice or ability to run. Or even go up and down stairs or even sit without pain.

Like the Gospel and so many other things, I like that life can be changed by little things. Little stretches. Little exercises. Small and simple.

And I also love that we sometime reap benefits that we don't even realize by doing the small and simple things that are so right for us.

Warning: Science as a religion

I am a scientist at heart.  I love the spirit of inquiry, the spirit of creative exploration that comes with it!  The true scientists doesn't take other people's observations at face value, but asks "how?" and "why?"

However, that is not the spirit in which science is being taught to millions of students and adults, the "congregation" of the religion of science.  Sure, to "ask questions, discover, explore!" is paid lip-service, but is that really what is being taught?

Imagine, a child sitting down to a science test in grade school, writing down the "wrong" answer, and then telling the teacher that, based on his own observations, he doesn't believe the "current interpretation of the evidence" and believes his answer could be right.

What would that child be told?  In most cases, I submit, this would be the response: "You are wrong.  It has been scientifically proven."

Don't believe me?  What would happen if you went into an elementary classroom and said that it was possible the dinosaurs did not in fact roam the earth, but that their presence in the archeaological record is due to our earth being comprised of the matter of other, extinct worlds, where dinosaurs had roamed?  Does that fly in the face of current scientific "dogma," or what has been accepted as scientifically proven?

Dangerously powerful words, "scientifically proven."  Words that teach to not question, but to accept...and to accept that which is so often proven wrong in a matter or years or even hours!

Think about it.  What happens when a "ground-breaking new idea!" comes out in the field of science?  Textbooks and tests world-wide are re-written, articles are published, and the scientific "facts" are changed...that easily.    Scientists may understand and embrace the difference between theory and law, but that is not how it is presented.  Millions accept anything "scientific" instantly as the latest "fact" in the religion of science.  The "foundations" of science are so easily changed...and so faithfully believed.

That is what happened in 1935 when Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa changed our currently accepted understanding of the atom.  He challenged, interpreted, and creatively spun a new twist on an old theory and voila! New "truth" was found and mesons became part of our current model.

In a more personal example, I remember distinctly holding my first child in my arms 17 years ago and being firmly instructed by nurse clothed in the mantle of authority that I must, for the good of my baby, be very careful to clean her umbilical cord in a specific and regular manner.

Fast forward 12 years and I found myself in the same situation: cradling a new infant in my arms and being told firmly and authoritatively that I must not touch the umbilical cord in the best interest of my child.

It had been "scientifically proven" both times.

Now, don't get me wrong.  Remember, I love science!  I love the pursuit of truths and patterns in the world around me!  However, I am concerned with how it is being taught to the public at large: theories as facts.  As a grade schooler, I was taught "facts" about dinosaurs and evolution.  In junior high and high school, the depth of indoctrination went deeper with "truths" and "facts" being taught and tested into me.

Lo and behold, I hit Yale University Evolution 260 and all of a sudden these "facts" become theories?  Why was I not taught the problems with and options to radiocarbon dating?  Why was I not clearly schooled in the difference between mirco-evolution (changes of a creature to adapt to their environment--well documented) and macro-evolution (the change from one species to another--never "documented")? How could I not see that the "evidence" for evolution of years past was the same small collection of bones, being re-discussed and re-visited with new sub-theories, with specimen so far and in between that they are individually named?

Remember, I call myself a scientist (although after reading this, I am sure some would love to differ :)...).  I love discussing evolution and other scientific theories!  I think it is exciting to consider possibilities!  However, I am frustrated that those who would like to explore all possibilities of man and his origins and explanations for the world around us are shouted down as "religionists" and figuratively burned at the stake. 

For instance, I just read the commentaries on an article titled "Creationism vs. Evolution" for a science class the other day--the commentaries, not so much of the article itself, ironically enough. Even if you don't understand everything they discuss in the commentaries, the mood is obvious. The words used to verbally attack those who tried to share the viewpoint of "creationism" (belief that God created the university) were similar to those I imagine used by the authorities of the Catholic Church who attacked Galileo and Copernicus...ironically enough.  They were attacks based largely upon belief systems and not facts, from people indoctrinated in the "authority" of the "religion of science" that is currently preached and never questioned. 

Interesting.  The beliefs of the "religion of science" are questioned, but not the authority of it.  Hmmm...an interesting riddle.  Food for thought.

My purpose in writing this is to hopefully wake people up to what they are being taught through media and in the academic world, subconsciously and religiously: that science can prove anything and is the ultimate source of truth...science, which is built upon the observations and limited perception of imperfect people like you and I. 

I celebrate science and what that field has discovered and how it has blessed my life.  However, I do not believe everything that is "scientifically proven" at face value.   Nor should we complacently accept what modern science demands of our children and the public at large: childlike faith and belief in anything it offers.

Education vs. Conditioning

Common Core is an interesting topic.  My husband asks me why I care since I homeschool, not out of any apathy on his part, but out of genuine interest in my motive.

Quite simply: it is because the way the youth are educated determines the future of a nation.

 

I have been a little wary of the extreme sensationalism and fanaticism I have seen opposing Common Core.  While I respect fiery determination to right the wrongs of this world, as found in Samual Adams and Patrick Henry, I am also mindful of the mindless passion that led many of the people of France to bring friends and family to the guillotine. I am also mindful of how easily "facts" can be misrepresented and fabricated.

And yet, I have also been a little puzzled at the relatively silent and steady (even secretive?) movement forward of the implementation of Common Core and the fear that I sense that seems to be enabling it.  For instance, the other day at Pack Meeting, a dear friend shared with me some of her concerns.  She has all of her children in mainstream public school for she felt that is the right path for her children.  (I heartily believe in and support the right of the parent to know what is best for their child!)  However, as she shared just two examples of her concern and her feelings that went along with it, I became alarmed.

Example 1: One of the test questions given to one of her children went to the effect of "In which of the following situations would you steal?"  Six options were given and not one was "I would not steal" or "none of the above."  Think of what is happening with this one simple question: you have a trusting, impressionable young student who has been taught culturally and in his home that tests are meant to be passed.  They are presented with only options that violate his core beliefs.  His "only option" to "succeed" in this question is to rationalize each of these situations in his mind, justifying the response of stealing to feel if any of them would be acceptable.

In six different ways he tries to feel out if he could justify stealing, all with the idea in his head that one of the answers must be right.  What if none of them are?  What is this doing to the moral foundation in this child?  Depending upon the home, it could be starting beliefs that run completely counter to the parents' core belief.  Regardless of the parent's belief or lack thereof, it could be running against God's eternal truths, indoctrinating them in the "religion" of moral relativism and secular humanism.

Another follow-up question in this example was raised in one of her children's classrooms: "Who knows what is best for you, the government or your family?"  What child understands that question?  What child  understands even what government means?  True government in the democratic republic our Founding Fathers created is a representation of the people, in which case the question is irrelevant.  Who is even asking this question? And more importantly, why?

Example 2:  In some testing situations, children have headphones put on their heads.  If they respond "incorrectly" to an answer, they hear a buzzing in their ear to let them know they were wrong.  This is conditioning-- creating instinctive, automatic responses to certain questions.  Pavlov did it with rats.  It has also been performed on people.

Do we know what is on these tests that are being used to create generated responses?  Answers I have received from teachers and parents alike is that none of them are permitted to know what is on these tests.  The potential for wide-spread conditioning to specific ideas is huge.  And what if those questions they are being "conditioned to" are the ones I mentioned above?  And what if, morally and religiously, I am completely opposed to the "correct response?

I bring up all this from a first-hand account of my dear friend in the public school system.  She is trying to make it work, because she feels that is where they need to be. However, as she considers "opting out" of the testing, she hears from another friend who experienced first hand the negative effects on her top-scholar son's academic record: he was labeled as a "non-performing" student. My friend fears the negative repercussions that could come from refusing to have this testing done.

Another lady I met yesterday who recently went through this process of "opting out" experienced the same things for her sons,...in fact, the principal at first refused to even take her "opt-out" papers, assuring her of the negative impact it would have on her sons' academic records. Her friends in her community, who actually inspired her to do it in response to their own outrage over Common Core, all feared to do the same and opt their children out, and she ended up being the only one to opt out.

My purpose in bringing this up is not to incite fear, but rather to provoke questions.
*Do we know what our children are learning, both ours and their peers?
*Are we, as parents, truly mindful that we are primarily responsible for the education--spirtual, moral and secular--of our children?

*If we have a system that is steeped in secrecy and generates fear, what is our role in identifying what is happening?
*How can we find the facts amidst the sensational?
*Are we allowing our fears to govern our actions, rather than our sense of right and wrong?
*How can we rise above our fears of "what will this do to the social standing of my child" and do what we feel is morally right?

Those last couple questions are what bother me the most right now, I think.  I see so many people feeling and knowing that they need to do something different, but are being immobilized by fear: fear of academic labels of their children, fear of peer exclusion, fear of "what might happen"?  That is what scares me the most.  Does it truly matter more how the mysterious entity of "the government" labels our children than how they and we stand in doing the right thing before God?  Are we so frightened of peer pressure that we are allowing tyranny to spread in our midst?

Historically, I saw these same fears paralyze Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Mao Ze Dong's China.  It is horrible,...it is horrific.  We must start today to stand for what we believe is not only "the best" for our families and our country. More importantly, we must simply stand for what is right.

If people geniunely feel Common Core is right for their child, I respect their right to choose that for their education.  However, I feel that if a parent feels it is wrong, that, too, needs to be respected and honored, and neither the parent nor the students should be made to fear or shunned, as if it was morally wrong to opt out of a government-generated educational program.

Conditioning scares me.  It creates responses based upon systems of belief that may be false and may have the same results we saw in Germany, Russia, and China. May we learn from history so we will not be doomed to repeat it.  It all starts with one person doing the right thing and others being inspired to do the same.  May we each be the one to make a stand and our influence will be great!