I’d always thought the Republicans would love to roll back history to the Middle Ages, but who’d have thought they’d set their sights on returning to the Carboniferous?
— P.Z. Myers
Myers is, as Murphy was, an optimist.
Quote of the day . . . “Carboniferous!”
September 15, 2006
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Ann Richards, you warned us
September 14, 2006
Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, and a sample of a Texas barbecue rib. Photo by Elecro-Fish Media (Austin, Texas)
Ann Richards died yesterday. It’s sad for me to think what might have been, had she been able to hold off one more charge by the Texas Republicans, had she defeated George Bush in her second campaign for governor of Texas.
Gov. Richards was a gracious and graceful woman who was simply fun to know — while quietly and forcefully inspiring others to do good deeds. In a former time, a candidate who defeated someone like Richards would have the good sense to keep her in government in some capacity, just for her wisdom and experience. It will be a tribute to Richards when civility is returned to politics.
Ann Richards was a public school teacher, clearly of the highest caliber. We can only hope there are more like her teaching in Texas schools today.
Update, September 17, 2006: Molly Ivins, perhaps America’s best political columnist, was a close friend of Ann Richards. Her column well reflects the special qualities of Richards, why we will miss her so badly, and why we should worry that there are so few like her around today.
1 Comment | Heroes, History, Leadership, Politics, Teaching, Texas | Tagged: Ann Richards, Biography, Heroes, History, Leadership, Molly Ivins, Politics, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Hot dog- and freak show-free: 84th Carnival of Education
September 14, 2006Carnival of Education 84 is up at Current Events in Education, with great stuff, as usual. Colleagues in Irving ISD, in Irving, Texas: Be sure to catch the post on the value of computer use in education, from Steve Hargadon.
School is clearly back in for everyone. This is a fine collection of blog posts — high value.
1 Comment | Curricula, Education blogs, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Public education, State school boards | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
One-room schools and national memory
September 13, 2006Speaking of Jim Bencivenga — I did, here — he was the education reporter for the Christian Science Monitor prior to his time at the U.S. Department of Education, where he was my predecessor as director of Information Services in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) (a long title that means “the office that’s looking for good stuff and new stuff”).
A Google search revealed that Bencivenga is cited in a book of quotations for an article he wrote on one-room schools.
The single-room worlds remain strong icons at the heart of our national memory, permanent as any church spire piercing the New England sky.
On country schools, Christian Science Monitor 13 Feb 85
In my family, childbearing has been put off to later than average for a couple of generations. So I heard stories of the old one-room schools from those who experienced them. The memory of one-room schools was with my parents, and my maternal grandparents (I did not get a chance to meet my paternal grandparents). There are, in 2006, a few one-room schoolhouses remaining — in Maine, California, Nebraska, Hawaii, and other places. NPR featured a series on them this past year.
One-room schools seem awfully quaint, and perhaps wholly obsolete in times when some school districts give every student a laptop computer to get schoolwork done. The values taught in those schools should be preserved, however: Love of education, seeking of wisdom, cross-generational learning, respect for people of differing ages, and a reliance on living the golden rule, among other things.
The U.S was once a nation of mostly one-room schoolhouses. Change isn’t always completely for the better, even when it is mostly so. We struggle to keep good values in changing times.
We still don’t have a magic formula for how people learn, or how education should work; it remains true that in education, one-size fits few.
1 Comment | Good Quotes, History, Pedagogy, Public education, Teaching, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Other September 11ths, other battles
September 13, 2006Okay, it’s too late for this year’s commemorations. It’s never too late to get accurate and relevant history.
WordPress’s feature that leads to posts with similar tags pointed me to a couple of posts that mention the Siege of Vienna of 1683, another September 11 conflict between nations chiefly Moslem on one side, with nations chiefly Christian on the other. Is it a great revelation that the study of European history is weak in U.S. schools, generally, and that many Americans have no clue about such events?
My old friend Jim Bencivenga and I spent a few lunches (a couple? They stuck with me, anyway) discussing those battles that were great turning points in history — battles where, had they gone the other way, the whole of history would have been quite different. The Siege of Vienna is one such history-turning incident, and those sites will introduce you to it well.
Nota bene: A reader alerted me to some questionable material in the blogs I had originally linked to. I’ve replaced those links with a link to the Wikipedia article on the battle, at least until I further check out the blogs.
3 Comments | History, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Contrary view from Kansas
September 11, 2006I stumbled into a blog on education in Kansas. While I don’t take serious and violent exception to every post, let me say I found almost every post’s conclusion different from the conclusion I would have made. Should I add it to the blogroll?
Go take a look at Kansas Education, and let me know your opinion.
2 Comments | Education spending, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
History revisionism in China
September 11, 2006Over the past 40 years China has complained that Japanese history textbooks play down the brutal occupation of China, by Japan, during World War II. Japanese history texts have struggled with how to present World War II since the 1950s — generally coming donw on the side of ignoring most of the nastier history.
Oh, irony! China is now revising its own texts, and leaving out much of the history of modern communism in China that many communists would like to forget ever happened. This comes when China is financing classes for U.S. kids, classes that paint a too-rosy picture, some argue.
History revisionism is alive and well, around the world.
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Current History, History Revisionism, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Jargon – fuzzifying the facts, fuzzifying history
September 11, 2006Jargon is the death of many a useful idea in large organizations. Good writers try to avoid jargon, trying instead to provide language that will be readily understood by the reader or listener, and language that is clear and precise in its meaning.
In history, jargon and buzzwords tend to obscure what is going on. Phrases like “collateral damage” are much less graphic, and useful, than phrases like “civilian casualties.” Jargon can make history a difficult task — I’m thinking of some of the documents from the Pentagon during the Vietnam War, just for example.
In a post titled “Buzzword Blingo,” Aphra Behn – Danger of Eclectic Shock has some fun with jargon, and helpfully includes links to several sites that deal with the crippling effects of jargon on learning and plain old conversation.
3 Comments | Accuracy, Business, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Hoaxing goes into orbit, shoots for Mars
September 10, 2006My undergraduate alma mater, the University of Utah, had an interesting fellow in the English department who collected stories that people swore were true, but were not. He invented a term for them: “Urban legends.” Jan Brunvand paid due academic attention to the folklore aspects of the stories, especially in his books, such as The Choking Doberman and The Vanishing Hitchhiker. (Alas, no, I never took a class with him.) I hope he copyrighted and trademarked the phrase, though I doubt he did. Brunvand was the first in what is now a minor industry in debunking bad information — see Snopes.com, for example.
Were I a young graduate student in folklore, I’d be collecting internet hoaxes the same way, and seeking a term to describe them that would be the label for the next round. Or, perhaps, Dr. Brunvand is still collecting them on his ski or fly-fishing trips.
In a post I just found from August 6, Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomer debunked, for the third time, an internet hoax about Mars. No kidding. “Mars will look as big as the Moon!” the e-mail exclaims.
No, it won’t.
Leave a Comment » | Hoaxes, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Today’s civil war in the U.S.: Homeschooling
September 9, 2006Noting only that there is a vicious fight going on below the waterline at the moment, below the fold I offer two press releases about recent California legislation boosting pre-school programs for at-risk kids. Without my telling you, and without the numbers on the bills being the same, would you know these people are talking about the same bill?
Please, offer your own opinions in comments.
Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Current History, Curricula, Education spending, First Amendment, Freedom - Political, Homeschooling, Public education, School vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Test today: Bogus science? Bogus history?
September 8, 2006Several weeks ago I noted Bob Park’s characteristics of Bogus Science, and then, based on his work, I listed some characteristics of bogus history, here in Bogus History 1, and here in Bogus History 2.
Here’s a test, more of the Bogus Science than Bogus History, but still a test: Almost-creationist astronomer Hugh Ross claims to have a hypothesis of creation that is not Darwin, that is testable, and which will be published shortly in his new book.
Do you see any of the warning signs of “bogus” yet? (Some answers suggested at the end, below the fold.)
Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Accuracy, Bogus history, Creationism, Intelligent Design, Public education, Religious Freedom, Texas Freedom Network | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
83rd Carnival of Education
September 7, 2006Action in education these days is so hot and heavy that there is need for a carnival every blasted week!
The 83rd Carnival of Education is up at Get on the Bus. That blog is interesting in itself because it’s the project of Scott Elliott, the education reporter for the Dayton Daily News, in Ohio.
Leave a Comment » | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Map projection lesson planning material
September 6, 2006Ooooh. I love maps. I like teaching about them. Projection is an issue for middle schoolers, though — they seem not quite to grasp why it’s important to show Greenland smaller than Australia.
Well, that’s an issue I have not reconciled.
But I did stumble across some cool animations on the Fuller Projection, such as that shown below.
Go see. And see an animation here.
Update: In comments, spatulated at A Bit Tasty lists a source for a poster of the Earth done in Fuller Projection.
2 Comments | Geography - Physical, Lesson plans, Maps, TEKS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Topaz – monument to lack of civil rights
September 6, 2006National history standards for high school U.S. history courses say kids should demonstrate knowledge about the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II, under Executive Order 9066 in February 1942. Results from Texas’ TAKS test show that most students are not meeting the standards of knowledge.
I found an interesting presentation of photographs and audio interviews hidden away at the Salt Lake Tribune’s website. It is simply titled “Topaz” after the name of the internment camp outside of Delta, Utah.
My mother’s family lived outside of Delta, in Hinckley, Utah, for several years before 1930. It is not a pleasant place to be held captive, she said.
Utah’s Japanese population is quite large, now, and held considerable influence in the 1970s and 1980s when I was active in politics in Utah. Utah’s Japanese community sought the support of Sen. Orrin Hatch for an investigation into the violation of the civil rights of people interned during World War II, and Hatch cosponsored the bill to investigate, and then to pay reparations to victims and survivors of victims.
Some wag at the copy desk of the Provo Daily Herald took sport with our press releases; whenever we’d put “internment” in a headline, they would change it to “burial,” so that “Hatch supports probe of Japanese internment” became “Hatch supports Japanese burial probe.” I didn’t see significant humor in it, but the jest continued through the life of the investigation.
Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 appropriating money to compensate victims. President Bill Clinton signed the official apology from the United States on October 1, 1993.
2 Comments | Civil Rights, History, Japanese American internment, TAKS, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Classroom tip: Marines, piracy and terrorism
September 6, 2006How does a teacher make history interesting, especially to elementary school students? Here’s one way to make a lively discussion, from History is Elementary. You don’t need to mention Gomer Pyle.
1 Comment | Current History, History, Lesson plans, Pedagogy, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 