Re: Education Initiatives

["Steve Gill" <hydrohead69@hotmail.com>]

>From: Robert Probasco


"About six years ago, I was conversing with Moscow's school 
superintendent when he claimed he was powerless to correct some inanity 
because of state regulations.  I asked for chapter and verse of the 
regs, as I was sure our local legislators would be willing to spearhead 
the necessary corrections. The super became mumble-mouthed, and changed 
the subject.  
Conclusion:there were no confining regs, just a knee-jerk reaction to 
blame the problem he did not want to address on Big Brother.  Taking 
action requires changing the status quo, thereby disturbing some 
complacent persons."

This scenario is all too common throughout the corridors of our state 
and federal governmental agencies: the great regulatory myth.  Similar 
to urban myths [i.e. Sasquatch, UFO's] the regulatory myth begins with 
an incorrect assumption [usually by one's direct supervisor] in a 
meeting or informal conversation.  Human nature being what it is, the 
supervisor not wanting to appear unknowing [often referred to as the 
"Wizard of Oz" syndrome] when pressed with a question to which they have 
no answer will often assuredly site an obscure and false regulatory 
hurdle [the birth of the regulatory myth].  

The problem seems to stem from boundless indifference by many 
individuals in governmental jobs.  With no incentive to dispute 
regulatory myths or to take on the difficult task of tracking down the 
correct repository containing the mythical regulation, the individual 
finds it much easier to perpetuate the regulatory myth.   

Today, we as a society are supposedly on the verge of the "information 
age" with nearly every state and federal regulation posted on the Web.  
There is still the problem of finding the time to track down these 
regulatory myths; however, it is much easier to do with this tool.



Steve Gill
Email: hydrohead69@hotmail.com

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's 
time when, clutching our crystals and consulting our horoscopes, our 
critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels 
good and what's 
true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition. 
We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly 
depend on science and technology.  We have also arranged things so that 
almost no one understands science and technology.  We might get away 
with it for a while, but eventually this combustible mixture of 
ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.							Carl Sagan 
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