Domestic Terrorism?

[vakkotaur]

In the 1980s, as I recall, there was a report on the state of education in the USA which commented or lead to the comment that had such a dismal situation been foisted on us by another country, we would consider it an act of war.

Foreign powers and shady underground groups need not waste their time attacking the US. Why should they, when the US does such a dandy job of attacking itself?

Recall the "Class II" books? You won't find those in the modern classroom. Any information that might be "dangerous" is expunged, lest there be a lawsuit if little Johnny gets himself trouble when Ma & Pa ain't watchin'. Go to the library? Good luck. That text was considered obsolete. Or a chapter was ripped out, just in case someone might read it.

The modern chemistry set is a sad shadow of the old versions. Even the rather pitiful version I had would likely be impossible to find now. If you look, you'll find things for environmental testing and that's about all. Nothing that could remotely cause any trouble. Well meaning, but ultimately boring. It's not it should be dangerous, but that the interesting stuff involves things that need some caution. Remove the "dangerous" stuff and the you removed the interesting things that can be done.

I was looking for optical grinding and polish stuff last night. Nothing remotely nasty. What could be more harmless than homemade optics? Did you hear of a horrible lens or mirror disaster at Riverside? Does Stellafane ring any alarm bells? Of course not! But there were warnings "See Material Safety Data Sheet" Yes, there is a chance of irritation.. if you're so daft as to eat grinding grit or a make big cloud of it and breathe it - repeatedly! To put it bluntly, to hurt yourself with this stuff you have to be INCREDIBLY STUPID! Not careless. Not accident prone. STUPID! The warnings about adult supervision, fine. There should always be that. But you know what? A kid, preteen, raised decent, could be trusted with this stuff.

But it gets worse. In a slashdot article reviewing the book "Uncle Tungsten" by Oliver Sacks (a good book, by the way, I own a copy) there is a followup pointing this out. Again, well meaning, but the result is an idiotic overkill. I fear such regulations are disgustingly common.

The disappearing Class II books, disappearing tools, and the watering down of anything left, makes it that much harder to learn despite school. Predictions of doom are almost invariably wrong, but this sort of thing doesn't make me very hopeful for the future.

Comments

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Ooog!

Hmmm I think I have a test tube in a box somewhere... eek don't tell the government!

(Oh and guess where I got the test tube?
From school! Chemistry class. A long time ago when I was a kid.)