Public schools have serious problems. Regular readers here should know me as a defender of public education, especially in the Thomas Jefferson/James Madison model of a foundation stone for a free people and essential tool for good government in a democratic republic.
Can you take another view? Here’s one that should offer serious material for thought: How the Public School System Crushes Souls.
2 Comments | 
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Classroom size, Education, Education reform, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Public education, School discipline, Teaching, Technology in the classroom | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Newshounds, newsmakers and news writers ought to salivate at the idea of a grand museum to the First Amendment on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Organizers of the Newseum plan exactly that, with a grand opening in October 2007.
It promises serious analysis, not just cheerleading, for news media, according to the New York Times:
The Newseum’s goal is to present the “first rough draft of history” in all its glory and some of its shame, impressing upon visitors the importance of the First Amendment’s protections of a free press. In the glory department are Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop broadcasts from London during the Blitz; he is among the heroes of a short movie to be shown in the Newseum’s 4-D theater, where the seats will literally shake as German planes roar overhead.
The shame is evident in exhibits examining, among other things, Jayson Blair’s manufactured articles in The New York Times and Jack Kelley’s fabrications in USA Today. Videos address the use of anonymous sources and how bias can find its way into news accounts.
One of the museum’s major challenges will be to attract visitors at a time when surveys show that public respect for the news media has been ebbing. Charles L. Overby, chief executive of the Freedom Forum, the nonprofit organization that underwrites the Newseum, discussed the problem in an interview in his temporary office adjacent to the construction site.
“Our annual survey shows that 40 percent of the American public believes the press has too much freedom,” he said, adding that the museum’s job is to educate — in an engaging way.
The Newseum, he emphasized, is not meant to be a monument to the press, but to its freedom.
Because of the building’s location, one could do a tour of the FBI building, and close out the day with a tour of the Newseum, probably from the same bus stop.
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, First Amendment, History, Newspapers, Video and film, Writing history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dr. Francis Beckwith, the Baylor University professor whose writings formed much of the justification for claims that intelligent design could be taught as science in public schools (prior to the Dover decision), announced he is returning to the Catholic Church and resigning as president of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Beckwith explains his faith switch at Right Reason. Contrast comments there with the snarky, uncharitable posts from the “evangelical” side, with Constructive Curmudgeon as an example. If this is the way ID advocates (such as Doug Groothuis) treat someone who merely changes sect, what would they do to someone who became rational on science?
Beckwith’s road at Baylor has not been a smooth one. One wishes him well when brickbats are already flying his direction, for silly reasons.
Educators and scientists, including especially those of faith traditions, may wish he had left the church of intelligent design instead. Perhaps he has, or will, if the attacks from fundamentalists keep up — similar to the way such attacks on Charles Darwin encouraged him to distance himself from the church.
How does this alter the Texas biology textbook fight discussion?
4 Comments | Intelligent Design, Law, Politics, Religious Freedom, Science and faith, Texas, Textbook Selection | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Internet connections can really boost history with sound and film presentations. History is really still in infancy stages, but some sites flash through with brilliant views of what can be done.
Old Time Radio posts a wealth of sound clips from throughout radio history, coupled with essays detailing much of the history that isn’t in the soundclips. The site seems to have almost all the episodes from Captain Midnight, for example. You can also hear Terry and the Pirates, or Fred Allen or Jack Benny.
The real gems, to me, are the newscasts and the stories of the newscasters. The 1937 broadcast of the Hindenberg Disaster is available, but so are some of the later and more important, and more rare, broadcasts of World War II: the Austrian Crisis, Neville Chamberlain with Britain’s declaration of war, news bulletins of the Pearl Harbor attack, on-the-scene accounts of the D-Day invasion of Normandy (with more accounts here), the battle for Iwo Jima now famous from two Clint Eastwood films, and V-J Day (“Victory-Japan”).
Later clips make this a standout site, and tantalize us with possibilities. Ernest Hemingway’s suicide report, the 6-Day War between Israel and Egypt and Syria in 1967, and a report on the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 flesh out events that the high school history texts tend to stroll quickly over, and offer possibilities of classroom enrichment beyond the texts.
Surely more radio broadcasts exist that could be used in history classrooms. Radio and broadcast history sites like The Broadcast Archive have the history of broadcast, but few actual broadcasts. Other sites carry a few important broadcasts, but like this one, come weighted with polemics (the politics and religion on this site make it questionable for school use, though students may not think to look at the home site from the broadcast links — where did this guy get these broadcasts, and does he have the rights correctly listed?).
Some research suggests that students learn history partially through repetition, as with any other topic. The old “repeat it four times” rule gets boring in class, but can be kept alive by repetition in other media. Teachers who use the actual broadcasts of news of what are now historic events can make history speak to students. Can.
More radio broadcast history:
— BBC News historic broadcast archives (This site has broadcasts through current times, including, for example, broadcasts of Nelson Mandela’s rise to the presidency of South Africa, a much-ignored era in too many classrooms.)
— Earthstation 1 CDs and DVDs for purchase
— Timeline of radio, from the California Historical Radio Society
— Radio broadcasts 1939-1943 from the University of San Diego’s history server
— Ken Burns’ “Empire of the Air” companion site
— First commercial broadcast in the U.S., KDKA-AM, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with results of the Cox-Harding presidential election, November 2, 1920
1 Comment | 1968, Disasters, History, History audio sources, Radio, Technology, Technology in the classroom, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 6, 2007, is the 70th anniversary of the Hindenberg tragedy. Docking at its station in New Jersey, after crossing the Atlantic, a spark ignited the aluminum-based paint on the airship, and the entire craft exploded into flame.
35 people died on the airship, and one on the ground — did you know a few survived? The Associated Press interviewed a man who was 8-years old that day, and a passenger on the airship.
Werner Doehner, an 8-year-old passenger aboard the Hindenburg, saw chairs fall across the dining room door his father had walked through moments before the disaster. He would never see his father alive again.
“Just instantly, the whole place was on fire,” said Doehner, of Parachute, Colo., who is the last surviving passenger. “My mother threw me out the window. She threw my brother out. Then she threw me, but I hit something and bounced back. She caught me and threw me the second time out. My sister was just too heavy for her. My mother jumped out and fractured her pelvis. Regardless of that, she managed to walk.”
Hindenberg on fire, May 6, 1937.
The disaster erroneously condemned hydrogen in the public’s mind. Despite widespread use of hydrogen gas for cooking and some transportation during World War II (including in the U.S.), use of hydrogen as a fuel beyond that has always faced the hurdle of the “Hindenberg Syndrome,” the fear that the gas would explode. Fact is that gasoline is much more volatile, more explosive, and generally more dangerous, than hydrogen.
4 Comments | Disasters, History, Technology, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Welcome back! The Midway here at the Fiesta offers eclecticism beyond your wildest expectations, all about Texas. No sonnets, no haiku, no limericks. No faux movie themes. Nothing but Texas posts.
This is an unintentional Cinco de Mayo edition. I’m late, and I apologize to everyone who dropped by on May 2 and was disappointed.
Cinco de Mayo celebrates one of the greatest victories of the U.S. Civil War, a battle fought by neither Confederate nor Union soldiers, nor even on U.S. soil — and a battle generally omitted from Civil War accounts in U.S. history books. On May 5, 1862, the loyal Army of Mexico defeated an invading army of French and French Foreign Legionnaires, using smarter battle tactics and superb discipline. Union Gen. Phillip Sheridan rushed arms to the Mexicans to complete the expulsion of the French. Mexican patriots in this way frustrated Napoleon III’s plans to supply the Confederate States of America, giving vital time to the Union forces to muster a large army and manufacture the weapons and other machines used to defeat the South. Here is a biased account from a group in San Marcos, Texas.
Such a history is politically incorrect in an age when people think U.S. citizens should stay in the U.S., Mexican citizens should stay in Mexico, and that our fates are not intertwined in North America as they were in the 1860s. Perhaps that is why the events celebrated by Cinco de Mayo are ignored, officially.
But such disputes are what history writing and discussion is all about.
What else might we learn, politically incorrect or otherwise, from a carnival of Texas history and Texana? Let’s see, in no particular order.
P. M. Summer offers a straight ahead view of a classic Texas Stetson hat, at Pop’s! Hat! History, Texas, heritage, nostalgia and a twinge of eccentricity, all rolled into one.
Politics and law: The Lege is still in session, and unfortunately Molly Ivins has not risen that we know of. Making sense of the Texas Legislature is an art generally beyond my ken. Others make a good stab, though. Capitol Annex explains the odd bill proposed to make it legal for kids to show their religion in public schools. It’s an odd bill because it grants no new rights, nothing in it is not already legal under state and federal laws, unless there is a hidden clause for proselytizing. Can you find such a clause? The bill has been delayed — stay tuned to see whether it passes, and in what form.
Here’s another view of the bill from South Texas Chisme.
Over at Kissmybigbluebutt, we get the modern lowdown on another Texas tradition, the unconcealed carry. Check the date — there is no such thing as “May Fool’s,” right?
Grits for Breakfast found a bright spot at the Texas Youth Commission, the bunch that runs the “camps” for youth offenders where allegations of abuse have mushroomed in the past year, and which has been forced to release many kids. This is about the only bright spot in this long, sad saga (see this post, and follow links, from DallasSouthBlog, for example).
Education: TexasEd is a site by a Texas home schooler, but which spends a lot of time looking at education policy in Texas, generally — a good site during a legislative session, as demonstrated by this short post on attempts by private schools to get the state to pay for athletic championship series by private schools.
Run, Rick! Run! — Pink Dome found this photo of Texas Gov. Rick Perry. In the red shirt.
Preventing abuse of the Texas flag: It’s nice to discover another group concerned about flag etiquette. I’m pleased to refer questions about Texas flag etiquette to another blog — The Daily Flag. (I also note some history posts from this site, below.)
Real story, real immigrant, real lawyer: Dallas is a wilderness? Perhaps to an immigrant, it may appear unfriendly. Wilderness in the City featured a short story about a lawyer getting a favorable result in an immigration case. Check your stereotypes at the courtroom door.
SMU professors stood up for science, but the “conference” on intelligent design proceeded anyway. Texas physician and blogger Dr. Zach attended and reported on the events. This will figure into the textbook adoption process in Texas, for biology text books, mark my words. At Goosing the Antithesis, Dr. Zack covered the event in a series of posts: Michael Behe, Lee Strobel, Jay Richards, Stephen Meyer, Q&A session, and Dr. Zach’s final thoughts.
Texas defined, perhaps ambiguously: Georgia O’Keefe meets the Beverly Hillbillies, at Chatoyance. (I’m assuming the photo was taken in Texas.)
Kay Bell is at it again at Don’t Mess With Taxes. Her San Jacinto Day post on April 21, “Texas Triumphant,” lays out the story of the battle that won Texas independence from Mexico — the Texians lost the Battle of the Alamo, remember, and then surrendered and were slaughtered at Goliad. San Jacinto was the place Sam Houston got the drop on Santa Anna and the larger force, the great Army of Mexico. It was the place, Kay might say, where “Don’t Mess With Texas” first got meaning. In past years, Texas seriously celebrated the day, before Texas high school history standards downplayed the Texas Revolution.
The Daily Flag has a series on the Battle of San Jacinto, with several photos of this year’s re-enactment. Here is the last of the series, with links to the others.
Is it fair to point to a podcast? Let’s see if anyone complains. Over at The Texana Review, Ed Blackburn has a podcast interview with William Keller, the director of the Houston History Project. This couples two of my favorite causes, local history, and pushing technology. If you haven’t listened to podcasts, it’s time to start — do it here and now. Especially if you’re a high school teacher of history, economics, geography, government or some other topic, you need to be using podcasts. No, not just listening to them — using them. What do you think all those iPods are for?
While you’re at The Texana Review, you may want to check out Blackburn’s podcasts on the history of the Texas Rangers, focusing on Joaquin Jackson’s book, One Ranger: A Memoir. Even 7th grade students can get interested in the history of the Rangers.
Kicks on Route 66: One of my favorite blogs is Route 66 News, because it’s well done, tightly focused on Route 66, current and informative. Not every post interests me, but I always find something. Here Route 66 News talks about a photo shoot at the famous Cadillac Ranch in West Texas, to promote seatbelt use in Texas — a photo shoot sent awry by a hungry llama. This is Texas — no, no one could make this stuff up if it weren’t true.
There were complaints (well, at least one) that we didn’t cover Janis Joplin enough in the last carnival. Well, I didn’t find much new out in blogdom this time, either — so I may as well include my own post here, noting the creation of a self-guided Janis Joplin tour of Port Arthur, Texas, her home town. Texas music continues to be under-covered by blogs. I’m probably missing some good ones, but there could be a lot more, especially with an eye to what could be used in a Texas history classroom. (Hint: Send me notes on good posts you find!)
And this one just under the wire: Tom Michael lives near that far west Texas town of Marfa, city of lights, so to speak, and near the some-might-think-oddly-named Texas city of Alpine. He’s been guest blogging on a blog out of North Carolina called MisterSugar, and he has a post that captures the Texas spirit amazingly well, showing Texas pride bordering on hubris, love of religion beyond the point of rationality, willingness to change, and just old Texas orneriness: “Texas.”
That’ll wrap it up for this edition of the Fiesta de Tejas!, a blog carnival of Texas history and Texana. Please send nominations for posts for the next Fiesta to me, or better, to the Blog Carnival site set up for the purpose: Nominate a blog post to the Fiesta de Tejas! (that’s http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_1298.html)
We still need a logo.
I’d be happy to turn hosting opportunities over to anyone who’d like to take a stab.
The next edition is planned for June 2, 2007, with entries due at midnight your time on May 31, 2007. Remember you may nominate the posts of others — please do!
Technorati tags:
fiesta de tejas!, blog carnival.
5 Comments | Education, Education blogs, Fiesta de Tejas!, Flag etiquette, Politics, Texas history, Texas Lege, Texas Music, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fiesta de Tejas #2 is coming, I promise. It’s not being easy, though. A bit behind, last night we got hit with a string of powerful thunderstorms. Bathtub Son #1 got stuck as a wall cloud descended on one of Dallas’s major freeways, and people headed for any shelter they could find. We waited for him at the Myerson Concert Hall, where the ushers eventually shooed us all inside to take advantage of the concrete roof of the performance hall, over the glass of the rest of the building — rain was absolutely horizontal, and so were most of the local trees.
We lost only a small branch on our great red oak, at home — but the power went out, and it took down our network. We’re sorta back, but limping. Please keep your feeds on.
1 Comment | Administrivia, Fiesta de Tejas! | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Hurry over the New York Times site before the article goes into the “gotta-pay-to-see” bin, and read the story by Patricia Cohen about other stories beyond the classic race confrontations, from the South, during the Civil Rights Movement: “Interpreting Some Overlooked Stories from the South.”
A new generation of historians is exploring some of the untold stories of the civil rights movement and its legacies: the experiences not of heroes or murderous villains, but of ordinary Southern whites. And their research is challenging some long-held beliefs about the nation’s political realignment and the origins of modern conservatism.
“You want to pry below these great narratives of good and evil and black and white,” said Jason Sokol, 29, who wrote “There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975” (Alfred A. Knopf). “For those of us who didn’t live through it, there’s more of an effort to not simply celebrate the civil rights movement and how extraordinary it was, but to place it within the broader arc of the 20th century.”
Much history of the era remains to be written, especially local histories that students in high schools could get from local newspaper archives, from interviews, and other local sources.
This new wave of historians, many of them young, believe that one cannot understand today’s housing, schooling, economic development or political patterns without understanding the mostly apolitical white Southerners of that era. None of these scholars play down the inbred racism of the region, but they argue that the focus on race can obscure broader economic and demographic changes, like the dizzying corporate growth, the migration of white Northerners to the South and the shifting emphasis on class interests after legal segregation ended.
1 Comment | Capturing history, Civil Rights, Education, History, Writing history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Point of personal privilege: I have delayed posting the second Fiesta de Tejas! until at least later today. Work pileups and a few unexpected occurrences — “check engine” light on the car we just bought? — contributed to the delay.
Oh, and the handbell clinic and festival on Saturday, and a few hours with Mrs. Bathtub and the two little Bathtubs (one home from college, but you get the idea) to celebrate the superannuated anniversary of my own natal day — they contributed.
Stay tuned, please — same Tejas channel, same Tejas station . . .
1 Comment | Administrivia, Fiesta de Tejas! | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.
— James Madison in a letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822
1 Comment | Accuracy, Education, Famous quotes, First Amendment, James Madison, Journalism, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This news can fit into curricula in several ways, in several courses: Insects have already evolved in response to climate shifts due to global warming.
The Boston Globe has a series on global warming, and a recent article detailed how mosquitoes on the Maine frontier have already changed their breeding seasons in response to warming weather.
A mosquito that can barely fly is one of only five known species that scientists say have already evolved because of global warming. The unobtrusive mosquito’s story illustrates a sobering consequence of climate change: The species best suited to adapting may not be the ones people want to survive.
Such news enhances biology studies of genetics and insects, geography studies of climate, animal dispersal patterns and disease and pest ranges (a subject more technically known as biogeography), and the articles lend urgency to studies of how governments react to natural crises, a topic suitable for government classes, economics, and U.S. and world history.
Click on the thumbnail to see four examples of genetic change credited to global warming. (Graphic by David Butler of the Boston Globe staff.) Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Current History, Disasters, Economics, Education, Environmental protection, Evolution, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Lesson plans, Natural history, Politics, Science, Teaching, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Not only is John Starling back, he’s got his old colleagues from the original Seldom Scene with him, Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray (Ben Eldridge continues to hold down the fort with the new casts of players in the Scene).
“Sliding Home,” 2007 album from John Starling and Carolina Star, featuring a lot of Starling’s friends as guests (and great musicians), including from Seldom Scene.
John Starling and Carolina Star have a new CD out, “Slidin’ Home.” 
The seeds for this reunion were planted in 2005 at a benefit concert for Eddie Adcock in Washington D.C. “I knew they (Auldridge and Gray) were going to be there, and I called Ben, and he came, and Larry Stephenson was there,” Starling recalls. “We just went up there, Larry sang tenor and the other four of us were original members of Seldom Scene, just went up and did a show. We worked it up backstage, and next thing you know, we had so much fun, we decided to do another couple of shows.”
With encouragement from Massenburg and an attentive audience base, Starling, Auldridge and Gray decided to go into the studio and record a few songs to see how things went. “We liked it and decided to come back to Washington and put together a group that would go out and play it and decided to take a couple of Beltway bandits, Jimmy Gaudreau and Richie Simpkins, who also live in the Washington area and went back and finished the album with that group,” he says.
Rebel Records has a setup to allow listening to the album, at Rebel Records’ site.
1 Comment | Bluegrass, Music, Music education | Tagged: Bluegrass, John Starling, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From an editorial in the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner:
Inmates who receive a degree while in prison have very low recidivism rates. Utah State University’s prison-degree program for inmates underscores that success. In the past 20 years, 91 inmates have received degrees from USU. … not one of the graduates has re-offended.
The editorial urges the Utah Legislature to continue the program. Without legislative action, the program ends in the autumn.
Tip of the old scrub brush to LaVarr Webb’s Utah Policy Daily, May 1, 2007.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Founders Hall, Girard College, Philadelphia. This is the school for Philadelphia’s underprivileged children, established by the will of Stephen Girard, the man who bore the cost of the War of 1812 personally, when the U.S. Treasury was exhausted.
The Carnival of Education, coming regularly on Wednesdays, reminds us to pay attention to others. Notably, the Carnival of the Liberals, which comes monthly, is also available for our edification.
Compilations you should visit:
Soon enough, a new Fiesta de Tejas!
1 Comment | Education, History, Politics, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This typewriter, a Corona (before the merger made Smith-Corona), belonged to Ernie Pyle, the columnist famous for traveling with the the foot soldiers of all services in World War II. Pyle won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his columns in 1943, published collectively in the books Here is Your War and Brave Men. Pyle was killed covering the end of World War II in the Pacific, on an island named Ie Shima, on April 18, 1945.
The typewriter rests in the Albuquerque Museum. It comes with a story.
From the Albuquerque Museum’s exhibit, “America’s Most Loved Reporter”:
[Quote] Ernie Pyle interviewed Sergeant Don Bell, a rodeo rider, in June or July 1944 outside of St. Lo, France. Bell recalled that the foxhole they shared caved in during German shelling. Pyle said, “I have my notes, but my little portable typewriter is buried in that hole.” They hurriedly abandoned the foxhole, leaving the typewriter behind.
Sgt. Bell later salvaged it, kept it through the war, and donated it to the Museum in 1990. A photograph of Pyle in Normandy, typing on an Underwood, may have been taken after this event.
Bell recalled the interview as comforting. He wrote, “…Ernie had taken my ma’s wisdom and turned it into a soldier’s lesson: to find strength in battle you take hold of strength you’ve known at home…and of the faith that underlies it.” [End quote]
1 Comment | Capturing history, Famous Battles, History, Journalism, Newspapers, Technology, War, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for the year 2007.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
