March 14, 1794: Eli Whitney receives a patent for his flesh-eating robotcotton gin.
LEARN MORE.
(NOTE FOR MOST GRADUATES OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM: The cotton gin was not a new kind of drink. The word "gin" in this case is short for "engine." It was a "cotton engine"–get it?)
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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Sorry, did you say “cotton engine” or “cotton Injun”? 😛
Jimmy,
Did you have a really bad experience with public school? (you have made several comments lately)
I realize you prefer home schooling, but I usually equate the preferance with moral issues, not one of knowledge.
I think I made it through public school with out too much permanant damage, and I actually did learn a few facts along the way.
Rick K
Not to get too far off topic… but I believe those comments are referring to the *abysmal* standardized test scores resulting from public education, especially when compared internationally. People can argue in circles about the validity of those comparisons. We can also argue whether it’s an isolated problem, or if it’s a symptom of the health of our overall culture. But, one way or another, the job isn’t getting done.
Jimmy, perhaps your thoughts on the state of American education would make for a good blog post. 🙂
I second your comments, RickK. I’m a big fan of yours, Jimmy, but the “public school graduate” refrain is a little off-putting and almost has the feel of an ad hominem jab.
I second your comments, RickK. I’m a big fan of yours, Jimmy, but the “public school graduate” refrain is a little off-putting and almost has the feel of an ad hominem jab.
Then again, I may have just demonstrated the point by making a duplicate posting. D’oh!
The public school comment seems ironic to me, as Eli Whitney and the cotton gin is the only fact I do remember from public school, though I may have learned it from Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit.
Just because we went to Public School doesn’t mean we’re DUM!
Public school graduate from CA and I knew what it was (and from a school that only cared about football at that). Granted, that isn’t thanks to the public education system, as I always learned stuff long before we covered it in class, but oh well.
Personally, I would never send my children to public school unless I had no alternative.
No Alternative defined as: I would first sell my house, car, and even (shudder) my computer. I would empty the savings account. I would beg and borrow (but not steal). Only when we were in some, probably non-existent, situation where the choice was to either go to public school or live on the street; then and only then would the kids go to public school. Living on the street is still marginally worse environment than the public school system. At least at present.
To be fair, it depends on the public school. My town used to have very good public schools. I was proud to graduate from our system.
Unfortunately, ten years ago, the school system brought in a horrific curriculum director who dumbed everything down, in a town where at least 3/4 of the kids were college-bound. They also hired a treasurer who got the school system several million dollars into debt, allegedly without noticing the slight discrepancy in the accounts. Finally, most of the old teachers have retired, and many of the new teachers are not particularly competent. (There are some shining exceptions, of course.) When this is paired with the decrease in teaching kids useful stuff at home (like discipline), the increase in Prozac use and oppressive security measures, and the pressure from the current crop of parents for inflated grades and no discipline for their precious darlings….
Well, I’m glad my cousin can spend his senior high school year taking classes at the community college. He’s wasting a lot less time.
Mind you, the fact that community college classes are pretty much the same as high school ones used to be is disturbing in itself….
Thank you Mr. Whitney. I was so kindly allowed to gin cotten by hand once to see the difference it made in lives…Don’t try it, not fun 🙂
I would argue , in many cases, Catholic grade schools are worse than public schools today.
Many of the Catholic schools are populated with embittered ex-nuns who are hired as principals, teachers and adult/religious ed teachers.
Some of the teachers are ex-pirests.
What is sick about this, is that these wolves are prohibited from teaching in Catholics schools, according to the Catholic Church, but
bishops do not care and allow it !
This lets them teach;
all nice people go to heaven.
Catholics are not the only folks in Heaven.
Abortion is ok, sometimes; you pick the
‘ sometimes’.
Homosexuality is something folks are born with and we need to love and accept them as any other person.
The bible is just a bunch of stories. some more true than others.