David Irving out of jail – no longer denies Holocaust

December 21, 2006

Former historian David Irving was released from jail in Austria early, on December 21. Irving claims that he no longer denies the Holocaust.

Former historian David Irving, in handcuffs, released from Austrian jail. Reuters photoDetails are in the Daily Telegraph from England.

In several European nations, including Austria, denial of the Holocaust not only is historical error, it’s also against criminal law.

He was arrested in November 2005 on charges related to two speeches and a newspaper interview he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he called the gas chambers a “fairy tale” and claimed that Hitler had no role in the Holocaust, even “offering his hand to protect the Jews”.

The charges covered statements he had made, such as questioning the accepted version of the Holocaust. He argued that “millions of people were led to believe” an “absolute absurdity”. A jury found him guilty of denying the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes.

Irving had appealed his 3-year sentence as too long. He serves the rest on probation.

Irving earlier sued U.S. historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel, in London, after she had called him a Holocaust denier. In a long and famous trial, she was found not to have libeled Irving, though under British law, truth is not a defense as it is in the U.S.

While it offends my First Amendment sensibilities to criminalize the making of such claims, one wonders about the intelligence or goals of people who deny the Holocaust.

Under California law, judicial note has been taken that the Holocaust occurred. It is a fact of history. U.S. law allows more robust, and offensive, discussion of the topic.

But in the end, the Holocaust is a fact. It’s an ugly, brutal and regrettable fact. Denying it occurred at all, or to the scope and degree it occurred, is only an odd form of denial of reality.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Accuracy, Bogus history, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Holocaust, Holocaust denial | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More atomic history: Uranium tailings

December 20, 2006

DOE installs permeable reactive barrier in MonticelloPhoto at left shows work to install a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) to help clean up contamination from arsenic, molybdenum, nitrate, vanadium and uranium wastes at an EPA Superfund Site managed by the U.S. Department of Energy near Monticello, Utah. The cleanup was done under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law better known as Superfund. (DOE photo)

GOAT, the blog of High Country News, carried a short story that brought me nasty flashbacks.

Families in Monticello, Utah, wonder whether there is a connection between local clusters of leukemia the old, abandoned uranium works at the edge of town.

“Each depth had its own color. If the sun was just right, it was really pretty.” That’s how Steve Pehrson described the ponds he and his friends swam in as kids, as told to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. He and other Monticello, Utah, kids commonly cooled off in the tailings ponds at the uranium mill that sat on the edge of town. The kids also dug into the tailings piles, and the tailings were used in gardens and even sandboxes. Now, people in Monticello are looking into the link between these habits and cases of leukemia and other diseases that have cropped up amongst the citizenry.

If you follow that link to the Grand Junction (Colorado) Daily Sentinel, you find more stories, and more horrifying stories. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Atomic Bomb, Boy Scouts of America, Cold War, Current History, Environmental protection, History, Public health, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“Revolutionary call for education reform”

December 18, 2006

Reaction to the report of the Skills Commission is most interesting.  Is it just because it’s the end of the year, and politicians think few people are watching?  Reaction is completely on the positive side. One bellwether:  U.S. News and World Report, usually the more conservative of the three big news magazines, calls it a “revolutionary call for education reform” in the headline of a mostly positive piece.

Potential for controversy remains, though.  That article highlights what is probably the most vociferous complaint about the report so far.

The revolutionary calls from a decidedly establishment group. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce includes two former education secretaries, two former labor secretaries, and education officials from Massachusetts, New York City, and California. Nevertheless, opposition surfaced as soon as the report was issued.The American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the National School Boards Association rushed out statements lambasting key ideas–like, for instance, the way the report “basically blows up the governance structure,” explains Antonia Cortese, AFT’s executive vice president.

Leave a Comment » | Curricula, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Public education, School vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Perhaps trivial, but history education is dead in England

December 17, 2006

History education is dead in England. British kids don’t know enough history, so the makers of the board game, Trivial Pursuit, have modified the history questions, dumbing them down to meet the lowered expectations of failed history teaching.

The Sunday Telegraph’s on-line edition has the story.

Where once there were puzzles to stretch most players’ general knowledge across a range of subjects, now they appear to have come straight out of the pages of Heat or Hello! magazines.

Questions such as, “Who heckled Madonna at an awards ceremony for miming in her concerts?” and “What is Prince Charles’s nickname for Camilla?” are no longer confined to the entertainment category, but now count as history. (The answers are “Elton John” and “Gladys” respectively.)

Questions that tested the knowledge of players in science and history, especially, have been downgraded.

The Sunday Telegraph analysis of a random 100 question cards from the latest box of Trivial Pursuit revealed that one in 10 of the science and nature category were celebrity or popular culture-based, compared to one in a whole box of question cards from 1992.

In the history category, 62 questions in the latest version of the board game related to events in the past 10 years, compared to only 30 questions in the earlier edition.

In times gone by, in the U.S. people would work to gain the sort of knowledge that would allow them to answer the tougher questions in the old “College Bowl” quiz program. Now we lower the bar, and make the questions more trivial.

Would that explain why the U.S. and Britain both have such difficulty applying the lessons of Vietnam, or Korea, or even Gulf War I?  People simply don’t know the lessons.  And so it is that our education systems condemn us to repeat the mistakes of Vietnam, Korea, and Gulf War I.

 

 

 

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bogus history, Current History, Education, Education reform, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

First woman Scoutmaster, Catherine Pollard

December 16, 2006

Catherine Pollard died in Largo, Florida last week. She was 88. Catherine Pollard volunteered to be Scoutmaster for Milford, Connecticut Boy Scout Troop 13 from 1973 to 1975, when no one else would volunteer. Scout officials refused to accept her application at the time, citing a perceived need for male role models for boys. Eventually the troop dissolved when no one else stepped up as Scoutmaster.

In 1988 Boy Scouts of America abolished gender requirements on all volunteer positions, and made Ms. Pollard the first woman Scoutmaster.

A funeral service is set in Milford for Monday, December 18. Her casket will be carried on a fire truck from the Milford Fire Department, for whom she volunteered in different positions for years. When the ban on female Scout volunteers was lifted, it was the Milford FD that sponsored a troop so Pollard could be Scoutmaster. Read the rest of this entry »

52 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Civil Rights, Current History, Leadership, Women's rights | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Still in coma, Papert to be flown to U.S.

December 16, 2006

Seymour Papert remains in a coma following surgery for a head injury suffered when he was struck by a motorcycle in Hanoi. Latest news is that he was to be flown to the U.S. on Saturday, December 16. Papert, a professor at MIT, is known as a creative thinker in technology and education. He is credited with the $100 laptop idea.

Ironically, he was discussing computer models of Hanoi’s out-of-control traffic at the time he was struck, according to his colleague Uri Wilensky of Northwestern University.

Update Sunday morning: The Boston Globe has a longer story on Papert’s contributions and how his work could help understand Hanoi’s traffic difficulties.

Update December 22: This group came up with the idea of sending the largest virtual bouquet ever to Dr. Papert. You may join to send a virtual flower; instructions are here: http://www.flowersforseymour.com/en/index.php.

Leave a Comment » | Classroom technology, Education, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Finn of Fordham: Read the commission report

December 16, 2006

I’m a bit surprised.  Chester Finn, president of the Fordham Foundation, recommends we read and take seriously the recommendations of the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce.  I had thought he’d be a lot more skeptical a lot earlier.

Which means a couple of things:  One, we ought to read and take seriously the report, as Finn urges; two, Finn continues to think originally about problems of education, and can’t be pigeon-holed into positions that he personally finds difficult to defend on the evidence, or into positions that others “think” he ought to have.

Leave a Comment » | Books, Curricula, Education, Education blogs, Education reform, Education spending, History, Teacher Pay, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

School reform over: Try something new

December 15, 2006

If we continue to get education wrong, a new report argues, America’s decline will follow.  So, the report urges radical changes in U.S. education.

The report of the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce departs from other recent reports in a number of interesting ways, including advocating a national system of teachers, with higher pay.  It urges abandoning requirements for four years of high school, moving instead to a more European model where students may leave after 10 years for junior college.  It is titled Tough Choices or Tough Times, published by Jossey-Bass for $19.95.

An earlier commission in 1990 issued a report titled  High Skills or Low Wages.  The new report continues in that vein, warning that international competition and automation threaten all low skill jobs in the U.S.

This commission was assembled with funding from the Gates Foundation and other sources.

Some details are available in The New York Times.   A longer, much different view in in the Chicago Tribune.  From the Tribune’s summary of how testing would allow 10th graders to get out of high school early:

How the testing would work

PASS

In 10th grade, students would take a rigorous test.

With a passing grade, the student and parents would choose between two options:

OPTION 1: Stay in high school for junior and senior years to prepare for elite 4-year university or to enter state university with college credit.

OPTION 2: Enroll at community college with possibility of moving on to 4-year university.

FAIL

If the student fails, he or she would stay in high school to take remedial courses and retake test until he/she passes it.

The executive summary is available here in 28 pages.  The report is the cover story for the December 18 edition of Time magazine.  You’ll probably see it in your local newspaper today.

More to come, surely.

3 Comments | Curricula, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Teacher Pay, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Bogus claims for intelligent design legal analysis exposed

December 14, 2006

I noted yesterday that the Discovery Institute was banking on ignorance in a recent press release. Such banking can be dangerous — it appears they were overdrawn.

Ed Brayton at Dispatches on the Culture Wars has a thorough Fisking of the Discovery Institute claims today. Also be sure to see this article by Timothy Sandefur, at Panda’s Thumb.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bogus history, Creationism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Jurisprudence, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Sources for Japanese internment history

December 14, 2006

A reader graciously pointed the way to a very good source of information about the Japanese internment, especially on video, in comments to my earlier post about the book on Dorothea Lange’s photos of internment events.

Shay Witt suggested we look to the Japanese American National Museum.  In addition to exhibits, the museum store offers several VHS and DVD products that should be good for classroom use.  Witt specifically mentioned the award-winning documentary “Something Strong Within.”  That film is now available on DVD, in a compilation disc.

Tests tend to show that students are unfamiliar with this history.  It is particularly salient today, with our nation once again at war and imprisoning people unaccused of any particular acts.

Leave a Comment » | Civil Rights, History, Japanese American internment, Lesson plans, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Intelligent design advocates bank on ignorance

December 13, 2006

In the later years of his life, after he was elected a Member of Congress from Florida in 1963, Claude Pepper’s appearances on Capitol Hill always generated memories from politicos attending, of the 1950 campaign that took away his U.S. Senate seat a decade earlier. It was a nasty campaign. Because he had actually met Joseph Stalin, Pepper, a Democrat, was called “Red Pepper” by his opponent George Smathers, a moniker designed to produce a particular reaction in Florida’s conservative but uneducated voters. Smathers never hesitated to point out that Harvard-educated Pepper had learned “under the Harvard Crimson.” But that was just the start.

There are a few recordings of the breathless claims against Pepper by campaign stumpers, and they are fantastic. Pepper’s family morality was impugned — the speaker notes that Pepper’s sister was a “well-known thespian” as if it were some sort of a sin to be an actor. Pepper himself was accused of “matriculating in public” all through his college career. It would seem normal that a college student would enroll for classes, no?

Of course, the speaker was hoping the audience wouldn’t know the meaning of those large words, and might confuse them for something else less savory. Pepper’s opponent banked on the ignorance of a large portion of voters — and won.

Do campaigns on ignorance work today?

The Discovery Institute comes now with a press release that announces, in rather breathless fashion, that Judge John Jones used the plaintiff’s suggested findings of fact in his decision against intelligent design in schools, in Pennsylvania a year ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bogus history, Evolution, History Revisionism, Intelligent Design, Law, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Holocaust denial conference in Tehran

December 12, 2006

Some subjects do not lend themselves well to parody.  Either the subject is itself so repulsive that parody is unsavory, or it is impossible to tell parody from reality because the reality is so bizarre.  As Mark Twain noted, fiction writing is more difficult because it must stick to possibilities, while non-fiction doesn’t.  As Dave Barry noted, “I can’t make this stuff up.”

Tehran, Iran, is hosting a Holocaust denial conference. 

“Revisionist fringe,” says the headline in the online Independent.   Analysis from The Jerusalem Post says it’s mainly the same old stuff, including the denials that the denial of the Holocaust is anti-Semitic.  Iranian students protested the stuff — so often it is the students who seriously read history, now, who see what is going on and what is wrong with it — but the story from the online Times of London also carries the photo of the fringe ultra-orthodox Jewish group who showed up at the conference just to voice their opposition to the creation of Israel.  A sub-headline in the Times  is “‘Nazis and racists’ gather in Tehran.”

One would be much more comfortable were there a floating picture of MAD Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman coming across these stories on-line.  But it’s not humor, it’s not parody.  It’s really happening.

The ghost of Santayana rests uneasily today.

4 Comments | Bogus history, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Voodoo history, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Reversing Brown v. Topeka Board of Education

December 10, 2006

Is the Supreme Court getting ready to reverse the most significant civil rights case in the past 200 years?  Interesting, thought provoking stuff from a blog, Marisacat.

Here is a more cool-headed view of the case (though, perhaps not different).  And here’s more.  Here’s a longer discussion.

The two cases are:  Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, and Meredith vs. Jefferson County Board of Education.

1 Comment | Civil Rights, Current History, Desegregation, Education reform | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Hall of Fame: Debunking the Moon landing hoax hoax

December 10, 2006

Apollo 14 on the moon - Alan Shepard?

Photo from Apollo 14 Moon Mission

 

In a classroom discussion of “how do we know what we know” about history, another student brought up the allegations that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) faked the manned Moon landings. That makes about a dozen times this year a kid has mentioned this claim (who thinks to start counting these things?). The kid was pretty unshakable in his convictions — after all, he said, how can a flag wave in a vacuum?

I usually mention a couple of things that the fake claimers leave out — that dozens, if not hundreds, of amateur astronomers tracked the astronauts on their way to the Moon, that many people intercepted the radio transmissions from the Moon, that one mission retrieved debris from an earlier unmanned landing, etc. Younger students who lack experience in serious critical thinking have difficulty with these concepts. They also lack the historic background — the last manned Moon landing occurred when their parents were kids, perhaps. They didn’t grow up with NASA launches on television, and the whole world holding its breath to see what wonders would be found in space.

Phil Plait runs a fine blog called Bad Astronomy. Five years ago he got fed up with the Fox Television program claiming the Moon landings were hoaxes, and he made a significant reply that should be in some hall of fame for debunking hoaxes. Since the claim that the Moon landings were hoaxes is, itself, a hoax, I have titled this “Debunking the Moon landing hoax hoax.”

In any case, if you’re wondering about whether the Moon landings were hoaxes, you need to see Phil Plait’s post. Phil writes:

From the very first moment to the very last, the program is loaded with bad thinking, ridiculous suppositions and utterly wrong science. I was able to get a copy of the show in advance, and although I was expecting it to be bad, I was still surprised and how awful it was. I took four pages of notes. I won’t subject you to all of that here; it would take hours to write. I’ll only go over some of the major points of the show, and explain briefly why they are wrong.

Also, consider these chunks of evidence, which Phil does not mention so far as I know:

First, the first Moon landing left a mirror on the surface, off of which Earth-bound astronomers may bounce laser transmissions in order to measure exactly the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Read the rest of this entry »

20 Comments | Accuracy, Astronomy, History, Hoaxes, How do we know what we know, Moon, Reason, Science, Space exploration, Space Race, War on Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Seymour Papert gravely injured

December 9, 2006

Details here, at Andy Carvin’s Waste of Bandwidth.

Seymour Papert is one of those Renaissance people whose very existence seems to brighten the world, and in this case, the world of education. He has made significant contributions to thinking about the use of computers in education, including the famous $100 laptop ideas.

Hope and/or pray for the best.

Other sources:

Seymour Papert

1 Comment | Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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