Check out this Time Magazine article on the Sunday school of The Children's Program at the Humanist Community of Palo Alto, California. Here are a couple of other interesting humanist efforts in early education:
-The Ethical Community Charter Schools: charter elementary schools planning to open their doors in New York City and Jersey City in September, 2008 ("Every child will acquire the intellectual and ethical habits of mind that will foster success in education and society and the core values of ethical behavior");
-The Carl Sagan Academy: a middle school "profoundly committed to the belief that all people can, and do learn";
All of these programs had financial help from the Institute for Humanist Studies, which is the same organization that provided a grant to the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County for our very popular television commercial.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
PVHS Biology Text Book: True Science!
Ever wonder what type of science is taught in Bergen County high school biology classrooms? It was reassuring for this parent to find only science in Pearson Prentice Hall's online text book Biology: Exploring Life, which is used in the Pascack Valley Regional High School District (Montvale, Old Tappan, River Vale and Woodcliff Lake). My favorite is Unit 4: Exploring the History of Life. Check it out, if you're an evolution fan.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Obama's Race Speech
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Barack Obama was compelled to give what will go down as an historic speech on race in America as a result of the exposure of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright's, bombasts from the pulpit excoriating the racist character of American society. Political fortunes in America are lamentably made or broken by the power of sound bites, often repeated over and over again, like Big Brother's mantras chiseling into shape the consciousness of citizens who have access to no other conflicting truths.
What is clear is that Obama has attempted to soar over the issue of race in his elevating discourse of national reconciliation and striving for the common good. It is fascinating how little we have heard from the reverends Jackson and Sharpton, and we can only imagine that it is not an accident. We can suspect that the Obama camp
has worked hard to ensure that they don't wax vociferous out of fear that turning Obama into a "race candidate" will frighten white voters and ditch what has been an historic and noble effort to transform the presidency and American politics.
Whether in the absence of the Wright imbroglio, Obama would have addressed the issue of racism in America, remains, for the moment, unknown. What is certain is that having done so, Obama has furthered his reputation as a grandiloquent orator, as politically astute, indeed, as brilliant, and if this ethicist can go out on a limb, morally authentic.
As a speech, Obama's address on race was a piece of soaring rhetoric which reaches the highest circles of American political oratory. Its dialectical oscillations from the personal to the political, from the microcosmic (the finale invoking the anecdote of the 23 year-old white woman, Ashley, inspiring an elderly black man to be politically involved, could bring the most battle hardened political veteran to tears) to the macrocosmic concerns about the economy, framed the immediate and far reaching issues which have made Obama's campaign so inspiring to so many.
But Obama's speech was also an act of unmasking, and therefore approached a level of candor that politicians flee from as from poison. Not only did he condemn Jeremiah Wright's Malcolm-X style rants (he referred to him twice as his "former pastor") but he gave a long overdue frontal assault on right-wing media clowns who "built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism." Obama made explicit what everyone knows, viz., that blacks and whites when not in the company of the other will let fly racial sentiments that they would not publicly utter.
But Obama did something else which may well determine whether a great and intelligent speech (Could one imagine George W. Bush giving it?) will be politically persuasive, or remain compelling to only an elite corner of the voting public. He denounced Reverend Wright's views as being "divisive" and "distorted," while proclaiming him a beloved individual in his life. He asked his auditors to recall their loyalty to their own minister, priest or rabbi, even while dissenting from their occasional utterances. He invoked his love for his white grandmother, as he said he cringed at her occasional racist remarks. And he acknowledged the persistence of racism, while bidding his audience not to conclude that American society is static (as Wright's sermon's often implied).
In other words, Barack Obama has asked Americans to hold two contradictory ideas in their minds at the same time. Is this something that the American public, whose political sophistication has fallen beneath the bottom of the charts, can rise to entertain? If so, Barack Obama's speech may do more than nudge us beyond the "stalemate" of racial discourse to which he alludes. He may have pushed our nation ahead to a position of political seriousness.
What is clear is that Obama has attempted to soar over the issue of race in his elevating discourse of national reconciliation and striving for the common good. It is fascinating how little we have heard from the reverends Jackson and Sharpton, and we can only imagine that it is not an accident. We can suspect that the Obama camp
has worked hard to ensure that they don't wax vociferous out of fear that turning Obama into a "race candidate" will frighten white voters and ditch what has been an historic and noble effort to transform the presidency and American politics.Whether in the absence of the Wright imbroglio, Obama would have addressed the issue of racism in America, remains, for the moment, unknown. What is certain is that having done so, Obama has furthered his reputation as a grandiloquent orator, as politically astute, indeed, as brilliant, and if this ethicist can go out on a limb, morally authentic.
As a speech, Obama's address on race was a piece of soaring rhetoric which reaches the highest circles of American political oratory. Its dialectical oscillations from the personal to the political, from the microcosmic (the finale invoking the anecdote of the 23 year-old white woman, Ashley, inspiring an elderly black man to be politically involved, could bring the most battle hardened political veteran to tears) to the macrocosmic concerns about the economy, framed the immediate and far reaching issues which have made Obama's campaign so inspiring to so many.
But Obama's speech was also an act of unmasking, and therefore approached a level of candor that politicians flee from as from poison. Not only did he condemn Jeremiah Wright's Malcolm-X style rants (he referred to him twice as his "former pastor") but he gave a long overdue frontal assault on right-wing media clowns who "built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism." Obama made explicit what everyone knows, viz., that blacks and whites when not in the company of the other will let fly racial sentiments that they would not publicly utter.But Obama did something else which may well determine whether a great and intelligent speech (Could one imagine George W. Bush giving it?) will be politically persuasive, or remain compelling to only an elite corner of the voting public. He denounced Reverend Wright's views as being "divisive" and "distorted," while proclaiming him a beloved individual in his life. He asked his auditors to recall their loyalty to their own minister, priest or rabbi, even while dissenting from their occasional utterances. He invoked his love for his white grandmother, as he said he cringed at her occasional racist remarks. And he acknowledged the persistence of racism, while bidding his audience not to conclude that American society is static (as Wright's sermon's often implied).
In other words, Barack Obama has asked Americans to hold two contradictory ideas in their minds at the same time. Is this something that the American public, whose political sophistication has fallen beneath the bottom of the charts, can rise to entertain? If so, Barack Obama's speech may do more than nudge us beyond the "stalemate" of racial discourse to which he alludes. He may have pushed our nation ahead to a position of political seriousness.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Richard Dawkins to Lecture at New York Society
Renowned scientist and "new atheist" Richard Dawkins will lecture at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on Saturday, March 15, 2008. The event is sponsored in part by the New York Society. Read about it here.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Ethical Society Without Walls
Of the more than 25 Ethical Culture Societies listed on the AEU website, The Ethical Society Without Walls is surely the most unique. This "virtual society" is for those who pine for an Ethical Culture Society but don't live near one, although all are welcome. Here you can participate in online discussions and courses, read Platforms, blogs and news, and even download early learning curricula, all from within the Ethical Culture fold.
This reporter participated in an ESWoW teleconference (a toll free number is available). The number of callers was not great, but it lasted as long as a
brick-and-mortar Platform and included participants from places like Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Leader Susan Rose lead a discussion on the pending addition of the AEU to the Secular Coalition for America (see earlier article on this blog), which occasionally digressed into pleasant anecdotes from all online. It felt good to participate and I had stuff to talk to others about after the phone call had ended.
Check it out this virtual Society. You won't be sorry.
This reporter participated in an ESWoW teleconference (a toll free number is available). The number of callers was not great, but it lasted as long as a
brick-and-mortar Platform and included participants from places like Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Leader Susan Rose lead a discussion on the pending addition of the AEU to the Secular Coalition for America (see earlier article on this blog), which occasionally digressed into pleasant anecdotes from all online. It felt good to participate and I had stuff to talk to others about after the phone call had ended.
Check it out this virtual Society. You won't be sorry.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Perfect Together?
An invitation has been extended from the Secular Coalition for America to the AEU (the parent organization of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County) for the AEU to become a member organization of the SCA. These are the member organizations of the SCA:- American Humanist Association
- Atheist Alliance International
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- Institute for Humanist Studies
- Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers
- Secular Student Alliance
- Secular Web / Internet Infidels
- Society for Humanistic Judaism
And among the SCA Advisory Board members are these movement luminaries:
- Richard Dawkins, D.Sc., FRS
- Sam Harris
- Christopher Hitchens
- Michael Newdow, M.D.
- Massimo Pigliucci, Ph.D.
- Salman Rushdie
- Ellery Schempp, Ph.D.
- Julia Sweeney
Make no mistake about it, this move would increase Ethical Culture's national visibility. If properly leveraged by the AEU and its member Societies, it seems likely this move would help interested humanists find their way to our doors. Click here to read more about it (you will need to register for free with the Ethical Society without Walls (ESWoW).
If you are a member of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, or any other chapter, this affects you. Click Comments (below) to let us know your thoughts.
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