Mike Luckovich on Texas education board gutting social studies standards, March 18 or 20, 2010 - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I found this brilliant Mike Luckovich cartoon from March 18, just in time for the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, and the anniversity of Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” What will SBOE members be reading for poetry to their kids, on April 18?
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Education, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Education, History Revisionism, Mike Luckovich, Social Studies Standards, state board of education, Texas | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
April would be a great month to study the Civil War, what with all the Civil War anniversaries of high import.
April 14 is the anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. April 9 is the anniversary of Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and April 12 is the anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.
But of course, we studied the Civil War in our U.S. history classes last fall, in the first six weeks, as a review of what the students were supposed to get in 8th grade.
In your classroom, how do you deal with anniversaries when they are out of the current course of study? How have you seen it done well?
The Surrender, by Keith Rocco – image from National Park Service, via Pillar to Post
Notes:
Help others remember history:
Below the fold, the identities of the soldiers in Rocco’s painting above.
Leave a Comment » | 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Education, History | Tagged: Civil War, Classroom Schedules, Curriculum, Education, History, Lesson plans, Lincoln's Assassination | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sometimes progress is so strong that we forget to note the milestones.
I’m remembering Christa McAuliffe today.
Tomorrow, April 14, Mission Specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger is scheduled to talk with students at Eastern Guilford High School in North Carolina, and all of the 71,000 students in Eastern Guilford School District.
Caption from NASA: STS-131 Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, attired in a training version of her shuttle launch and entry suit, poses for a photo prior to the start of an ingress/egress training session in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Photo Credit: NASA
Metcalf-Lindenburger is one of three teachers selected in 2004 as astronauts. NASA is committed to help education out. After the Challenger disaster, and the death of “teacher in space” Christa McAuliffe, NASA finally determined to make teachers into astronauts rather than fly “civilians.”
Bittersweet, but there it is.
Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4997
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.govJenna Maddix
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-0185
jenna.c.maddix@nasa.govHaley Miller
Guilford Public Schools, Guilford, N.C.
336-370-3200
millerh3@gcsnc.comApril 12, 2010MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-048
Orbiting Space Shuttle Astronauts — Including Former Teacher — Call North Carolina Students
WASHINGTON — Astronauts orbiting 220 miles above Earth will speak with students in Gibsonville, N.C., on Wednesday, April 14. The call with the students and space shuttle Commander Alan Poindexter and Mission Specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Clay Anderson will take place at 1:06 p.m. EDT at Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville.
Eastern Guilford High School is hosting students from Eastern Guilford Middle School, Gibsonville Elementary, McLeansville Elementary, Rankin Elementary and Sedalia Elementary for the downlink. The school also will broadcast the event to the entire Guilford County Schools district, which serves more than 71,000 students.
The astronauts launched Monday, April 5, aboard space shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 13-day mission to the International Space Station, the crew will deliver science experiments and supplies; take three spacewalks to switch out a gyroscope on the station’s truss, or backbone; install a spare ammonia storage tank and return a used one; and retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior.
Metcalf-Lindenburger is one of three teachers selected to fly as shuttle mission specialists in the 2004 Educator Astronaut Class. She operates the shuttle’s robotic arm. Without robotics, major accomplishments like building the station, repairing satellites in space and exploring other worlds would not be possible.
Students have been preparing for the downlink by conducting NASA engineering design challenges and implementing agency robotics resources and activities into K-12 classrooms. A science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, club was organized to increase participation and interest, particularly by female students.
The school’s guidance department also is collaborating with local universities to help students investigate and explore STEM opportunities beyond graduation. During follow up in-district workshops in April and May, a NASA Aerospace Education Services Program specialist will demonstrate how to access and use NASA resources in K-12 curricula.
Eastern Guilford High School employee Michael Woods, a former Aerospace Education Services Project specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is leading the downlink effort. In December 2009, NASA awarded Guilford County Schools a two-year grant of nearly $1 million to help middle and high school teachers develop science lessons using the space agency’s content.
The event is part of a series with educational organizations in the U.S. and abroad to improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The in-orbit call is part of Teaching From Space, a NASA project that uses the unique environment of human spaceflight to promote learning opportunities and build partnerships with the kindergarten through 12th grade education community.
NASA Television will air video of the astronauts during the downlink. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:
Even Bob Park will pipe down for a day for this (though he’s right, you know).
2 Comments | Education, History, Science, Social Studies, Space exploration, Teachers, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Christa McAuliffe, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Eastern Guilford High School, Education, Gibsonville North Carolina, Lesson plans, NASA, Science, Space exploration, Space Shuttle, Teacher in Space, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Here’s another opportunity to put real, cutting edge technology in your classroom. In fact, your kids could probably invent all sorts of new uses for it.
Have you even heard of this stuff? Can you use it, live, with the equipment you’ve got?
Blaise Aguera y Arcas of MicroSoft demonstrated augmented-reality maps using the power of Bing maps, Flickr, Worldwide Telescope, Video overlays and Photosynth, to an appreciative and wowed audience at TEDS:
My prediction: One more advance in computer technology that classrooms will not see in a timely or useful manner.
But have you figured out how to use this stuff in your geography, history, economics or government classes? Please tell us about it in comments. Give examples and links, please.
1 Comment | Classroom technology, Economics, Education, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, geology, History, Science, Social Studies, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Classroom technology, Economics, Education, geography, Government, History, Lesson plans, Photosynth, Technology, TEDS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Toles in the Washington Post, March 19, 2010
It’s pretty embarrassing when the State Board of Education’s actions leave Texas open to jokes about whether Texans remember the Alamo. Remembering the Alamo is as much a Texas monument or icon as anything else — maybe moreso.
Tom Toles demonstrates why Texas should be embarrassed by the Texas State Board of Education’s work on social studies standards.
1 Comment | Cartoons, Education, Education assessment, History, Political cartoons, Politics, State school boards, TAKS, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Cartoons, Education, History, Political cartoons, Politics, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, Tom Toles | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times-Free Press, March 16, 2010
Bennett remains one of my favorite cartoonists today. His work is incisive, intelligent, and persuasive to the side of reason and light almost all of the time. Why hasn’t he won a Pulitzer yet?
Bennett is generally a powerful supporter of U.S. education; see the two other recent cartoons, below the fold.
3 Comments | Cartoons, Economics, Education, Education reform, History, Political cartoons, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Chattanooga Times-Free Press, Clay Bennett, Economics, Education, History, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nick Anderson in Houston Chronicle, April 2, 2010
1 Comment | Education, Education quality, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Thomas Jefferson | Tagged: Education, education standards, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What can students do with the web?
What could those students do with a history class? Geography? Literature? Mathematics?
Photo illustrating story at on-line version of the student publication Communicator, Ann Arbor, Michigan
3 Comments | Education, Internet, Learning, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Education, Internet, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle on Texas SBOE social studies standards, in 2009
2 Comments | Accuracy, Cartoons, Economics, Education, Education quality, History, Political cartoons, Politics, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Accuracy, Cartoons, Education, education standards, History, Houston Chronicle, Nick Anderson, Political cartoons, Politics, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman (GoComics) March 17, 2010
(I first saw a Ben Sargent cartoon published in the Daily Utah Chronicle in about 1974. 35 years of great stuff from that guy. He officially retired from the Austin American-Statesman in 2009, running one cartoon a week now.)
Tip of the old scrub brush, again, to Steven Schafersman and What Would Jack Do.
Also note this January cartoon from Sargent:
Texas State Board of Education social studies curricula - Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman, January 24, 2010
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education quality, History, History Revisionism, Political cartoons, Politics, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Ben Sargent, Education, education standards, Political cartoons, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
No Recess Today, from Flickr files of BamaWester
Trends to less recess only get more complicated.
David Elkind of Tufts wrote in the New York Times about the trend to getting recess coaches. It’s probably much better than killing recess altogether, but still problematic, don’t you think? Elkind said:
We have to adapt to childhood as it is today, not as we knew it or would like it to be. The question isn’t whether recess coaches are good or bad — they seem to be with us to stay — but whether they help students form the age-old bonds of childhood. To the extent that the coaches focus on play, give children freedom of choice about what they want to do, and stay out of the way as much as possible, they are likely a good influence.
In any case, recess coaching is a vastly better solution than eliminating recess in favor of more academics. Not only does recess aid personal development, but studies have found that children who are most physically fit tend to score highest on tests of reading, math and science.
Earlier at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
Other sources:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Night out for the boys — well, for Kenny and me — while Kathryn had some of the girls over.
Kenny introduced me to a Dallas sushi venue, Asian Mint. His appearing-to-be deep-fried Texas Roll was a pleasant, crunchy blend of oriental and Texas. The mango sauce added a sweet smoothness. My more standard tuna came with a little internal heat — the wasabi perfectly blended (Kenny is the one who doesn’t like horseradish heat, having somehow missed that gene from my grandfather).
Asian Mint is a Dallas hit (“Asian fusion”). It’s not Salt Lake City’s Takashi, but for 1,000 miles from the Wasatch Front, it’s a good place for Saturday night. We got there early. Families were lined up waiting when we left.
We closed off the night at Half-Price Books, at the store on Northwest Highway fans and employees fondly deem “the mother ship.” (Years ago, across the street to the east, the store was in an old, converted restaurant which had a pirate’s ship inside; the store kept the ship as a kids’ reading area. Was that the origin of “mother ship?”)
Books? Today?
I don’t read enough. 20 years ago I found a study that said if you read one book a month, 12 books a year, you’re in the 99th percentile of readers.
The coffee mug with Einstein on it says “Coffee makes me smart.” Kenny, our family’s most-tech savvy early-adopter — a high commendation in a family where Mom and Dad have been in computers since mainframes were the way to go — agreed that it’s more likely books that make us smart. We don’t read enough, but we stay in the 99th percentile.
What an easy, easy way to get ahead! Get a book: Read it.
Michael D. Green, the real estate impresario for Murray Hill who formerly headed the Louis August Jonas Foundation when I had so much fun there, used to say that he was not educated, but he read the book reviews. Reading the book reviews would be better than not knowing. At a Manhattan cocktail party he could hold his ground with just about anyone. I’ve never found a topic on which he didn’t know something, usually cutting-edge. His book recommendations are always epiphanies.
Bookstores are full of them, epiphanies.
So are libraries. Idle Think’s “bookporn” series cheers me up enormously, most of the time.
2 Comments | Books, Education, Food history, How do we know what we know, knowledge, Learning, Libraries | Tagged: Asian Mint, Books, Education, knowledge, Libraries, Sushi, Takashi | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
George Clayton pulled a dramatic upset in the March primary elections, for one of Dallas’s two seats on the Texas State Board of Education. He defeated incumbent, long-time conservative-but-not-always-crazily-so Geraldine Miller.
With no Democratic opposition in November, he just has to wait until January to take his seat.
He’s promising change in the sharp political divisiveness that has marked board actions over the past decade, according to the Texas Tribune.
Unfortunately, the surgery-without-anesthetic on the state’s social studies standards is still scheduled for May 2010.
Leave a Comment » | Curricula, Education, Politics, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Curricula, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Tony Whitson from Curricublog made the killing observation:
BookTV [C-SPAN] this weekend has Steve Forbes talking about his new book,
With these new Social Studies TEKS, TX students won’t know what such a
book is about.
Small bit of humor from a truly sad situation. One of the leaders of the Texas State Soviet of Education defended the evisceration and defenestration of social studies standards saying they didn’t need to listen to liberal college professors.
In economics, the professor was a conservative, well-respected economics professor from Texas A&M University, one of the most conservative state universities in the nation (with a Corps of Cadets numbering in the thousands and tradition deeper than Palo Duro Canyon and broader than the Gulf of Mexico). Calling these people “liberal” is tantamount to complaining about the communism espoused by Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower — that is, it demonstrates a divorce from reality and rationality.
In the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge problem, but it’s more than a trifle. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fully comprehend market economics in the U.S. without understanding what capitalism is, and how it works. Teachers will be left to find their own materials to explain “free enterprise” and, if the students ever make it into a real economics course in college, they will discover “free enterprise” is a quaint, political term that is not discussed in serious economics circles. Texas students will, once again, be pushed to the hindmost by Don McLeroy’s odd views of America and what he doesn’t want Americans to know.
For example, look at the Council for Economic Education — while “capitalism” is not the only word they use for market-based economies, you’ll have a tougher time finding any definition of “free enterprise.” Or, more telling, look at the Advanced Placement courses, or the International Baccalaureate courses. AP and IB courses are the most academically rigorous courses offered in American high schools. The Texas TEKS step away from such rigor, however (while the Texas Education Agency rides Texas schools to add rigor — go figure). IB courses talk a lot about enterprise, but they don’t censor “capitalism,” nor do they pretend it’s not an important concept.
At the very conservative and very good Library of Economics and Liberty (which every social studies teacher should have bookmarked and should use extensively), a search for “free enterprise” produces 77 entries (today). “Capitalism” produces almost ten times as much, with more than 750 listings.
Which phrase do you think is more useful in studying American economics, history and politics?
Teachers will deal with it. It’s one more hurdle to overcome on the path to trying to educate Texas students. It’s one more roadblock to their learning what they need to keep the freedom in America.
Capitalism - Warren Buffett - BusinessWeek image
Free Enterprise - Bernie Madoff
The real difference? Literature on capitalism frequently address the issue of moral investments, and the need for some regulation to bolster the Invisible Hand in producing discipline to steer markets from immoral and harmful investments. The essential history politics economic question of the 20th and 21st centuries is, can economic freedom exist without political freedom, and which one is more crucial to the other? We know from every period of chaos in history when governments did not function well, but bandits did, that free enterprise can exist without either political freedom or economic freedom. I think of it like this:
Capitalism |
Free Enterprise |
| Adam Smith | Blackbeard the Pirate |
| Warren Buffett | Bernie Madoff |
| Investing | Spending |
| Building institutions | Taking profits |
| Retail | Robbery |
| Wholesale | Extortion |
| Save for a rainy day | debt-equity swap |
| Antitrust enforcement to keep markets fair | Don’t get caught, hope for acquittal |
| Milton Friedman | P. T. Barnum |
| Ludwig von Mises | Charles Ponzi |
| Friedrich von Hayek | Richard Cheney, “deficits don’t matter” |
| Paul Krugman | Kato Kaelin |
| Stockholders | Victims and suckers |
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Business, Business Ethics, Capitalism, Economics, Education, Education reform, Freedom - Economic, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Capitalism, Economics, Free Enterprise, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From a post many weeks ago, “Speaking of Texas education policy,” made more salient by events of the past month:
from Funnyjunk
This is a troubling piece of humor. From Funnyjunk.
And now we can add even more captions:
I’ll wager there are more, more annoying, more inaccurate statements from the Texas SSOE members in the Texas Education Follies, which will make much briefer complaints and better bumper stickers.
Other posts at the Bathtub you should read, mostly featuring Ms. Dunbar:
Also:
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education quality, First Amendment, Historic documents, History, History Revisionism, State school boards, Texas, U.S. Constitution, War on Education, War on the Constitution | Tagged: Aquinas, Cynthia Dunbar, Education, History Revisionism, John Calvin, Rampant stupidity, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Constitution, Voodoo history, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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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 