{"id":234,"date":"2009-09-07T09:43:44","date_gmt":"2009-09-07T15:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=234"},"modified":"2010-05-08T11:43:07","modified_gmt":"2010-05-08T17:43:07","slug":"divinely-inspired-get-a-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2009\/09\/07\/divinely-inspired-get-a-grip\/","title":{"rendered":"Divinely inspired? Get a grip&#8230;."},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p>I have often suspected that many Americans see their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/index.html\">Constitution <\/a>as a &#8216;sacred&#8217; document, written by &#8216;prophets&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>I have now seen it admitted on a semi-public social site &#8211; this person said they had always believed the founding fathers to be <em>divinely inspired<\/em>. To be fair, this person re-defined &#8220;divinely inspired&#8221; to simply mean &#8220;idealistic&#8221;, but there is no denying that many Americans have an idolized (and pathological) attachment to their Constitution, Founding Fathers, and The Office of The President (and with it, the White House).<\/p>\n<p>What about separation of church and state? Don&#8217;t you believe in that too? That seems to be a concept either lost or forgotten for at least some (a very vocal some, it seems). Those of us who are not American see a different perspective: I daresay all the other free countries have no such reverence for their governments. A healthy skepticism is a good thing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Newsflash: the US Constitution is NOT sacred. The founding fathers were HUMAN.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Granted, collectively, they were pretty bright, but the constitution would never have seen the light of day if it had been created in any kind of democratic way. It was written by a group of like-minded men. For a country of 13 states.<\/p>\n<p>The world was a different place then.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here are just a few examples:<\/p>\n<p>In 1776-1800:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>NO telegraph (invented in 1831)<\/li>\n<li>NO refrigeration (invented in 1805)<\/li>\n<li>NO sewing machines (1833, meaning all clothes were made by hand)<\/li>\n<li>Single shot firearms (revolver invented in 1836). Think about THAT in the context of the implications for the 2nd amendment &#8211; what the FF might have thought about firearms in 1791 and what they would see today.)<\/li>\n<li>NO baseball (I don&#8217;t get it myself, but it seems to be important to many Americans)<\/li>\n<li>NO phonographs or radios<\/li>\n<li>NO cars or telephones.<\/li>\n<li>Oh yeah, and there was still SLAVERY (not abolished until nearly 100 years later)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In 1776, people were <em><strong>&#8220;making a new life in a country with no infrastructure&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> &#8211; this is key.<\/p>\n<p>A Constitution is not a sacred document. It *should* be a living document that gets re-examined and adjusted to match the times. The US Constitution was an amazing document in its time, but a lot has changed in the more than 200 years since it&#8217;s inception.<\/p>\n<p>Now, to be fair, there have been 27 amendments since 1776, BUT:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>11 of them were put in place by the first government (the Bill of Rights)<\/li>\n<li>many of the rest have to do with the running of the government as opposed to anything to do with the people they are governing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The American obsession with its Constitution and Founding Fathers is one of the things keeping them from developing into a civilized country.<\/p>\n<p>Any notion that either of these things is somehow sacred (or divinely inspired) puts you in the same category as many of the people you claim are evil. They think theirs is sacred too.<\/p>\n<div class='wp_likes' id='wp_likes_post-234'><a class='like' href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(234);\" title='' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-likes\/images\/like.png\" alt='' border='0'\/><\/a><span class='text'>Be the first to like.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='like' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(234);\">Like<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='unlike' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.unlike(234);\">Unlike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>I have often suspected that many Americans see their Constitution as a &#8216;sacred&#8217; document, written by &#8216;prophets&#8217;. I have now seen it admitted on a semi-public social site &#8211; this person said they had always believed the founding fathers to &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2009\/09\/07\/divinely-inspired-get-a-grip\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsb6-3M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6265,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2016\/07\/18\/worth-sharing-teaching-by-numbers-learning-reimagined-medium\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":0},"title":"Worth Sharing: Teaching by Numbers \u2014 Learning {Re}imagined \u2014 Medium","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"July 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A curious thing has been happening in UK education and it\u2019s a trend that\u2019s occurring globally as the craft of teaching is being transformed into a \u201cscience\u201d. The Economist recently published an article titled \u201cHow to make a good teacher\u201d that proclaimed: \u201cThe premise that teaching ability is something you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1810,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2011\/08\/02\/instruction-makes-student-attitudes-on-computational-modeling-worse-caballero-thesis-part-3-%c2%ab-computing-education-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":1},"title":"On Mark Guzdial&#8217;s Post: Instruction makes student attitudes on computational modeling worse.","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"August 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Mark Guzdial's Blog today: Instruction makes student attitudes on computational modeling worse: Caballero thesis part 3 \u00ab Computing Education Blog. I think this is pretty interesting but I can't say I'm surprised. My reaction: Given the experiences I've had with what the majority of CS professors\/instructors teach, my first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1119,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2010\/09\/24\/comments-on-the-overblown-crisis-in-american-education-in-the-new-yorker\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":2},"title":"Comments on &#8220;The overblown crisis in American education&#8221; in The New Yorker","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"September 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The overblown crisis in American education : The New Yorker. The author is claiming that things aren't that bad. More people are going to school than they did 100 years ago and there are lots more wanting to get in. Sadly, more is not better. The fact that a greater\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1926,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2011\/12\/31\/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success-anu-partanen-national-the-atlantic\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":3},"title":"What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland&#8217;s School Success &#8211; Anu Partanen &#8211; National &#8211; The Atlantic","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"American public education is like WAL-MART. What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National - The Atlantic. Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model -- long hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization -- Finland's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2013\/02\/27\/why-americans-are-the-weirdest-people-in-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":4},"title":"Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"February 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World. the \u201cweird\u201d Western mind is the most self-aggrandizing and egotistical on the planet: we are more likely to promote ourselves as individuals versus advancing as a group. Fascinating. Greedy and selfish. In the end they titled their paper \u201cThe Weirdest People\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Games&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Games","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4146,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2014\/07\/31\/america-shows-us-again-how-not-to-do-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":234,"position":5},"title":"America shows us, again, how NOT to do Education.","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"July 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In an era of high-stakes testing, a struggling school made a shocking choice. Wrong Answer By Rachel Aviv Annals of Education July 21, 2014 Issue Really, the choice is hardly shocking. This is a story about how a bunch of caring, dedicated teachers resorted to cheating in order to keep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"s-p-04-03-05-2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/s-p-04-03-05-2-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}