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
The Communicator communicates
April 5, 2010
3 Comments | 
Education, Internet, Learning, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Education, Internet, Technology, Technology in the classroom | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Education board shames Texas: Nick Anderson’s view from 2009, part C
March 31, 2010
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
Education board shames Texas: Ben Sargent and Texas education follies, part B
March 31, 2010Ben 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
Idle thinking, among the bookporn
March 28, 2010Night 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
What social studies teachers will do for others
March 19, 2010
Social studies teacher Jeff Brazil gets his head shaved alongside Lars Schou on Thursday at Jackson Hole High School as part of St. Baldrick’s, a cancer awareness campaign and fundraiser - News&Guide Photo / Price Chambers/JACKSON HOLE DAILY
Leave a Comment » | Humor, Social Studies, Teachers | Tagged: Charities, Education, Humor, Jackson Hole, Social Studies, St. Baldrick's Day, Teachers, Wyoming | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Encore post, new coda: Worldview of Texas education policy makers
March 18, 2010From 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.
- “America. A country where people believe the moon landing is fake, but wrestling is real.”
And now we can add even more captions:
- A country where state curriculum officials go to churches that warn against belief in ghosts, but who believe Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin came back from the grave to wrestle the quill from Jefferson and write the Declaration of Independence.
[Heh. Wouldn’t you love to see Aquinas and Calvin in the same room, trying to come to agreement on anything?] - A country with Barack Obama as president and where women’s basketball is a joy to watch during March Madness thanks to the the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title IX, but Cynthia Dunbar believes the Civil Rights Act itself was a mistake.
- A country where Barbara McClintock did the research that showed how evolution works and won her a Nobel, but where Texans deny that a woman should do such work, and deny evolution.
- A capitalist nation where Jack Kilby invented the printed circuit and had a good life, but where the Texas SSOE thinks “capitalism” is a dirty word.
(No, ma’am, I couldn’t make that up. They did it. They took out the word “capitalism” because they say those “liberal economists” like Milton Friedman can’t be trusted. Seriously. No, really. Go look it up.) - Home of Thomas Jefferson, whose words in the Declaration of Independence so sting tyrants and dictators that today, in the most repressive nations, even oppressive systems must pretend to follow Jefferson — hence, the “Peoples Republic of Korea,” “the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” “Peoples Republic of China,” and the provisions of the old Soviet Union’s Constitution that “guaranteed” freedom of speech and freedom of religion; but where Thomas Jefferson is held in contempt, and John Calvin and Thomas Aquinas claimed as the authors of American freedom. [I wonder what the Society of the Cincinnati have to say about that?]
- Where Mark Twain’s profound, greatest American novel Huckleberry Finn made clear the case against racism and oppression of former slaves, but where school kids don’t read it because their misguided parents think it’s racist.
- A nation where Cynthia Dunbar thinks Thomas Jefferson gets too much credit, but Barack Obama is a foreign terrorist
- A nation where conservatives complain that the Supreme Court should never look at foreign laws for advice, wisdom, or precedent, but believe that Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar from Italy, and John Calvin, a French dissident who fled to Switzerland, pulled a religious coup d’etat and is infamous for executing people who disagreed with his religious views, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
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:
- “SSOE member Dunbar: Aquinas led American revolution, not Jefferson”
- “Sour grapes of wrath at the Texas State Board of Education”
- “Perry to Texas Education: Drop dead [again]”
- “Creationist as Texan of the Year”
- “More on McLeroy’s war on Texas English students”
Also:
- Be sure to see Cynthia Dunbar with Chris Matthews on “Hardball.” (Why is Dunbar in front of a screen that says “Cornell” on it? Does Cornell know?)
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
Happy Madison’s birthday! Nation expresses revulsion at Texas education follies, Part 1
March 17, 2010Tuesday, March 16 was the 259th anniversary of the birth of James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, the sponsor of the Bill of Rights, the life-long campaigner for good government based on knowledge of the errors of history, especially in the area of religious freedom.
Under social studies standards proposed by the Texas State Board of Education, Texas students will never study Madison’s views, or Madison’s Constitution, without intervention by their parents or good teachers who run some risk to teach the glories of American history to students.
Newspaper stories across the nation concentrated on Madison’s birthday expressed revulsion and rejection of the crabbed and cramped views of the Texas SBOE, and the cup of revulsion runneth over.
For example, the attempted evisceration and hobbling of science standards occurred last year, but the editorial cartoon in USA Today reached back to remind us just what is going on in Austin.
By Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune, for USA TODAY, March 16, 2010
More comment to come.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Christina Castillo Comer.
2 Comments | Accuracy, America's founding, American Revolution, Economics, Education, Education quality, Evolution, History, Science, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas | Tagged: Economics, Education, education standards, Evolution, History, Science, Social Studies, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Jerry Coyne in San Marcos: Why evolution is true, even if some Texans don’t think so
March 17, 2010Steve Schafersman sends along a press release; Texas college biology departments continue to advance science and education despite foggings from the State Board of Education. Odd thought: You can be relatively certain that you can avoid Don McLeroy, David Bradley or Cynthia Dunbar, by being at the Alkek Library Teaching Theatre on the evening of March 23; learning will be occurring there at that time, and so it is a cinch that the leaders of the Austin Soviet will not be there:
Evolution expert to deliver lecture at Texas State
SAN MARCOS — Jerry A. Coyne, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, will present an evening talk and book signing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, at the Alkek Library Teaching Theatre on the campus of Texas State University-San Marcos.
Jerry Coyne and friend (image stolen from Larry Moran's Sandwalk; pretty sure he won't mind)
Coyne’s presentation is titled Why Evolution is True (and why many think that it’s not) and is based on his latest similarly-titled book.
Admission is free and doors will open at 6:30 p.m. A book signing with light refreshments will take place following the lecture.
Coyne is an evolutionary biologist whose work focuses on understanding the origin of species. He has written more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers on the subject.
In addition, he is a regular contributor to The New Republic, the Times Literary Supplement, and other periodicals. He runs the popular Why Evolution is True blog, and is an internationally known defender of evolution and critic of creationism and intelligent design.
The book Why Evolution is True has received widespread praise for providing a clear explanation of evolution, while succinctly summarizing the facts supporting this revolutionary theory.
Coyne’s lecture is sponsored by the Department of Biology and the Philosophy Dialogue Series at Texas State. Contact Noland Martin (512) 245-3317 for more information. For more information about Coyne and his book, please visit his blog: http://www.jerrycoyne.uchicago.edu. [and Why Evolution is True]
This lecture is part of a larger series on philosophy and science, featuring a few lectures that appear designed solely to irritate P. Z. Myers:
Philosophy dialogue to take up evolution, identity
Texas State philosopher Jeffrey Gordon will be among the speakers at the university’s Philosophy Dialogue Series in the next two weeks. Texas State photograph.
STAFF REPORT
The Philosophy Dialogue Series at Texas State will present evolution and identity as its discussion topic for the next two weeks in Room 132 of the Psychology Building on campus.
Following is the schedule of events, giving the discussion titles, followed by the speakers.
March 16: 12:30 p.m. – Evolution and the Culture Wars, Victor Holk and Paul Valle (Dialogue students). 3:30 p.m. – Arabic Culture 101: What You Need to Know, Amjad Mohammad (Arabic Language Coordinator).
March 17: 2 p.m. – Phenomenology of Humor, Jeffrey Gordon (Philosophy)
March 18: 12:30 p.m. – Stayin’ Alive: Does the Self Survive? Blaze Bulla and Sky Rudd (Dialogue students).
March 19: 10 a.m. – Sustainability group, topic be announced, Laura Stroup (Geography). 12:30 p.m. – Talk of the Times, open forum.
March 23: 12:30 p.m. – Evolution: An Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion, Harvey Ginsberg (Psychology), Peter Hutcheson (Philosophy), Kerrie Lewis (Anthropology), Rebecca Raphael (Philosophy & Religious Studies). Special guest panelist, Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago (Evolutionary Biology). Evening lecture – Why Evolution is True, Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago, time and place to be announced.
March 25: 12:30 p.m. – Constructing a Masculine Christian Identity: Sex, Gender, and the Female, and Martyrs of Early Christianity, L. Stephanie Cobb, Hofstra University (Religion and Women’s Studies).
March 26: 10 a.m. – Sustainability Group: Civic Ecology, and The Human Rights of Sustainability, Vince Lopes (Biology), Catherine Hawkins (Social Work). 12:30 p.m. – Talk of the Times, open forum.
Sponsors of the Philosophy Dialogue Series include: the American Democracy Project, the College of Liberal Arts, Common Experience, the Gina Weatherhead Dialogue Fund, the New York Times, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Phi Sigma Tau, University Seminar, the University Honors Program, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Vice President for Student Affairs.
For more information about this topic, contact Beverly Pairett in the Department of Philosophy at (512) 245-2285, or email philosophy@txstate.edu. A complete schedule of discussion topics and presentations can be found at http://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/dialogue-series/Dialogue-Schedule.html.
Probably can’t make it to San Marcos from Dallas on a school night. San Marcos biology and social studies students, and teachers, should plan to be there.
2 Comments | Biology, Books, Education, Evolution, Science, Science and faith, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science | Tagged: Biology, Books, Education, Evolution, Jerry Coyne, Philosophy, Science, Texas, Texas State University - San Marcos, Why Evolution Is True | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas standards for social studies — where to find them
March 11, 2010Texas Tribune quickly establishes itself as a Really Useful journal on Texas politics, especially with features like this summary of the proposed Texas social studies standards, with comments on changes and the history of the changes.
For example, explaining an insulting cut of Texas and African American heroes, Texas Tribune explains:
Tuskegee Airman Commander dumped: Board member McLeroy made the motion to pull Oveta Culp Hobby and Benjamin O. Davis from this standard. Hobby — a Houston newspaper publisher, the director the federal health department in the 1950s, and the wife of Texas Governor William P. Hobby — shows up elsewhere, in the 7th grade curriculum. Davis, however, does not. Davis was the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force and the commander of the Tuskegee Airmen in the World War II. The board did insert a phrase on the “contributions of the Tuskegee Airman” in the next section.
Straightforward explanation. If it raises your ire, it’s not because the writing is inflammatory, but because the facts are so clearly presented.
Tip of the old scrub brush to the Texas Freedom Network and their e-mail alerts.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education Administration, Education quality, Historic documents, History, History Revisionism, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Benjamin O. Davis, Education, education standards, History, Oveta Culp Hobby, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, Texas Tribune | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sour grapes of wrath at the Texas State Board of Education
March 10, 2010A couple of months can make a big difference. Can.
A difference which way?
Two months ago the Texas State Board of Education suspended its revamping of social studies standards — the efforts to grind the standards into a right-wing crutch were so controversial that hearings, discussion and amending proposed standards took up more time than allotted. SBOE delayed final votes until March 10.
Today.
Last week Texas voted in primary elections. Several board members’ terms are up. Two incumbents lost primary challenges, Don McLeroy, the Boss Tweed of the right wing cultural war ring, and Geraldine Miller, a long-term veteran from Dallas, whose very conservative views cast her as a moderate among SBOE members. Both are Republicans.
How will those primary losses affect them and their work on the board?
In addition, other members of the culture war ring are retiring, including Cynthia Dunbar. Will the lame ducks be content to vote up the changes urged by history and economic professionals and professional educators, or will they do as McLeroy suggested they need to do earlier, and fight against the recommendations of experts?
How will the lame ducks walk and quack?
Stakes are high. New York Times Magazine featured the culture wars on the cover on Valentine’s Day (you should read the article). Texas Monthly weighed in against the culture wars, too — a surprise to many Texans.
Cynicism is difficult to swim against. I expect McLeroy to try as best he can to make social studies standards a monument to right wing bigotry and craziness. We’ve already seen SBOE vote to delete a wonderful children’s book from even being mentioned because the text author shares a name with a guy who wrote a book on socialism earlier.
Most of us watching from outside of Austin (somebody has to stay back and grade the papers and teach to the test . . .) expect embarrassments. On English and science standards before, the culture war ring tactics were to make a flurry of last-minute, unprinted and undiscussed, unannounced amendments apparently conspired to gut the standards of accuracy (which would not make the right wing political statements they want) and, too often, rigor. Moderates on the board have not had the support mechanisms to combat these tactics successfully — secret e-mail and telephone-available friends standing by to lend advice and language on amendments. In at least two votes opponents of the culture war voted with the ring, not knowing that innocent-sounding amendments came loaded.
In a test of the No True Scotsman argument, religious people will be praying for Texas kids and Texas education. Meanwhile, culture warriors at SBOE will work to frustrate those prayers.
Oy.
Thomas Jefferson toyed with the idea of amendment the U.S. Constitution to provide a formal role for the federal government in guaranteeing education, which he regarded as the cornerstone of freedom and a free, democratic-style republic. Instead, American primary and secondary education are governed by more than 15,000 locally-elected school boards with no guidance from the national government on what should be taught. Alone among the industrial and free nations of the world, the U.S. has no mechanism for rigorous national standards on what should be taught.
For well over a century a combined commitment to educating kids better than their parents helped keep standards high and achievement rising. Public education got the nation through two world wars, and created a workforce that could perform without peer on Earth in producing a vibrant and strong economy.
That shared commitment to quality education now appears lost. Instead we have culture warriors hammering teachers and administrators, insisting that inaccurate views of Jefferson and history be taught to children, perhaps to prevent them from ever understanding what the drive for education meant to freedom, but surely to end Jeffersonian-style influences in the future.
Texas’s SBOE may make the case today that states cannot be trusted with our children’s future, and that we need a national body to create academic rigor to preserve our freedom. Or they will do the right thing.
Voters last week expressed their views that SBOE can’t be trusted to do the right thing. We’re only waiting to see how hard McLeroy is willing to work to put his thumb in the eye of Big Tex.
More:
- Steve Schafersman will live blog the meeting today at http://www.texasobserver.org/stevenschafersman/ . Social studies agenda doesn’t start until 11:00 a.m. Central
- Curricublog from Tony Whitson discusses Texas’s sorry standards, and how the right spins them. Watch this blog generally for good and incisive comments from the meeting; Tony often follows the webcasts, and his writings are always, always informative.
- Texas Freedom Network gives you the background; watch TFN’s blog, TFN Insider, for more timely updates (heck, head over there now and learn a lot about today’s meeting). When you read the New York Times piece, you noted incisive comments by Kathy Miller — she’s the director of TFN. TFN is the tape that has held together the good parts of education standards so far, against the swords of the culture warriors. TFN’s blog will probably be updated through the meeting.
- National Center for Science Education is the always stalwart, working-for-the-good organization on Texas education standards — alas, we’re talking social studies now
- Paul Burka’s story on the culture war, at Texas Monthly
- Fox News’s Shannon Bream cites Jay Sekulow of the Pat Robertson forces urging more cultural war before the will of Texas voters can change things.
- McLeroy won the first annual UpChucky Award from NCSE
- The new, online newspaper, Texas Tribune, covers SBOE very well; watch that space
- Kelly Shackleford’s religious issues group will live blog at their site
1 Comment | Cargo Cults, Economics, Education, Education quality, Education reform, Government, History, History Revisionism, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo history, War on Education | Tagged: Culture Wars, Don McLeroy, Economics, Education, Education reform, Government, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Diane Ravitch’s “U-turn”: The teachers were right
March 4, 2010Were I to advise Diane Ravitch right now, I’d tell her to change all her computer passwords and redouble the security on her servers. Why? After what happened to the scientists who study global warming, I expect many of the same wackoes are working right now to get her e-mails, knowing that the mere act of stealing them will be enough to indict her change of heart on education in America.
It’s much the same mob crowd in both cases. [I’m hopeful it’s not a mob.]
Dr. Ravitch thinks big thoughts about education. She stands in the vanguard of those people who are both academically astute in education, and who can make a case that appeals to policy makers. Working under Checker Finn at the old Office of Educational Research and Improvement, we quickly got familiar with Ravitch’s works and views. Finn and Ravitch, good friends and like-minded in education issues, were the running backs and sticky-handed receivers for any conservative education quarterback, back in the Day.
Finn was Assistant Secretary of Education for Research under Bill Bennett. Ravitch succeeded Finn, under Lamar Alexander. While Bennett and Alexander took troubling turns to the right, and Finn stayed much where he was, Ravitch has been looking hard at what’s working in schools today.
Ravitch doesn’t like the conservative revolution’s results in education. She’s changed her views. Says one of the better stories about her changing views, in The New York Times:
Once outspoken about the power of standardized testing, charter schools and free markets to improve schools, Dr. Ravitch is now caustically critical. She underwent an intellectual crisis, she says, discovering that these strategies, which she now calls faddish trends, were undermining public education. She resigned last year from the boards of two conservative research groups.
“School reform today is like a freight train, and I’m out on the tracks saying, ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ ” Dr. Ravitch said in an interview.
This is big stuff, and good news to teachers who, since I was at Education in 1987, have been telling policy makers the same things Ravitch is saying now.
David Gardner and Milton Goldberg wrote in the report of the Excellence in Education Commission in 1983 that America faces a “rising tide of mediocrity” because of bad decisions. That’s true of much education reform today, too.
Gardner and Goldberg also said that, had a foreign nation done that damage to us, we’d regard it as an act of war.
Maybe Ravitch’s turn can help mediate an end to the Right’s War on Education and pogroms against teachers.
Here in Texas the conservatives on the Texas State Board of Education didn’t like Ravitch’s views when she was in the conservative camp, so Texas has started, finally, to vote out commissioners who don’t get it, who prefer a state of war on Texas’s children to promoting public education
Let’s hope more people listen to Ravitch now.
More:
Be sure to listen to the NPR interview from Morning Edition, yesterday (you can read it, too).
And, in next Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, a story about how to build a better teacher; do you know the difference between testing and teaching?
2 Comments | Education, Education assessment, Education quality, Education reform, Education spending, Education success, History, No Child Left Behind Act, Teachers, Teaching, TEKS, Testing | Tagged: Diane Ravitch, Education, Education reform, History, NCLB, Testing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Hope in Texas: McLeroy voted off of state school board
March 3, 2010Two earthquakes ravage American nations, tsunamis, freakishly large snowstorms, still trouble in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran in turmoil and ruled by some sort of crazy, North Koreans still starve so the nation can make a nuclear sabre to rattle.
Good news?
Texas State Board of Education member Don McLeroy lost a primary election challenge to attorney Tom Ratliff, representing the area around Beaumont, Texas. The news is that McLeroy is out — notice that the Texas Tribune doesn’t name the winner until the seventh paragraph.
Another prominent, but much more reasonable Republican member of the SBOE also lost: Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, in Dallas. Miller was so expected to win that race that almost no one was watching, and little is in public about the winner of the race.
Election results from Tuesday’s primary election in Texas mean that the State Board of Education will change dramatically. It would be almost impossible for any of the changes to be bad ones. McLeroy led the anti-evolution force on the board. McLeroy was the ringleader to gut and racialize English standards earlier, and he’s been the point man in the attempt to gut and de-secularize social studies standards.
Board member Cynthia Dunbar, another “social conservative,” did not run for re-election.
In the governor’s race, anti-education, anti-science Gov. Rick Perry won big over the state’s popular Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Hutchison. Third place in that race went to the Teabagger candidate.
No Teabagger won any race in Texas.
It’s not that Texas has suddenly gained reason. The dissension on the SBOE, demonstrated by the Texas Senate’s rejection of McLeroy’s renomination to be chairman of the body, just got to be too much. Texans like their crazies to be sane enough to get things done, and not so noisily crazy as to attract attention to the state’s shared insanity.
Sunlight cast on the actions of the board, especially by groups like the Texas Freedom Network, informed Texans. And now the people of Texas have spoken.
More:
- “McLeroy, Miller upset in SBOE elections,” Austin American-Statesman
- “Social conservatives could lose grip on state board,” Houston Chronicle
- Previous posts featuring McLeroy at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
5 Comments | Education, Education quality, Evolution, literacy, Literature, State school boards, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Texas history | Tagged: Biology, Don McLeroy, Education, Evolution, Science, Social Studies, Texas Freedom Network, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What’s gone wrong in Washington?
February 22, 2010
Image by Derek Bacon, copyright The Economist 2010
Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, Illinois, on ground often trod by Abraham Lincoln. As did Teddy Roosevelt, Obama studies Lincoln’s life and career, and presidency. We know he devoured Team of Rivals, Doris Kearn Goodwin’s detailed history of Lincoln’s high-powered cabinet, all of who came to respect his leadership, and most to call him friend.
The Economist scores with another astonishing graphic for the cover of the print edition covering the week of February 18 — Lincoln’s exasperation apparent (image at right).
Is that all?
Again I lament not having an AP government class at the moment. What an opening for discussion we have in Washington follies of the moment. The story accompanying the graphic, plus an editorial that takes the Milquetoast way out — ‘Obama needs to try harder’ — poses questions we do need to explore, and which would be great in an AP classroom.
ACCORDING to Paul Krugman, the winner of a Nobel prize for economics and a columnist for the New York Times, modern America is much like 18th-century Poland. On his telling, Poland was rendered largely ungovernable by the parliament’s requirement for unanimity, and disappeared as a country for more than a century. James Fallows, after several years in China as a writer for the Atlantic Monthly, wrote on his return that he found in America a vital and self-renewing culture that attracts the world’s talent and “a governing system that increasingly looks like a joke”. Tom Friedman, another columnist for the New York Times, reported from the annual World Economic Forum in Davos last month that he had never before heard people abroad talking about “political instability” in America. But these days he did.
The growing idea among influential pundits that America is “ungovernable” is being driven in large part by Barack Obama’s failure so far to pass some of the main laws he wants to. And it is, indeed, a puzzle. Here, after all, is a president who only just over a year ago won a handsome mandate: 53% of the popular vote and big majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He bounded into office with a mountainous agenda, including plans to overhaul America’s health-care system and cut its greenhouse emissions. He seemed until quite recently to be doing reasonably well. In a folksy December interview with Oprah Winfrey he awarded himself “a good, solid B-plus”.
Is America now ungovernable? What are the limits of a federal system, and have the states capitulated too much power to Washington? Is anything else feasible with our economy in the mess it’s in?
I can imagine a discussion of the limits of the Articles of Confederation to start, noting the requirement of unanimity from the states to do anything major — and how that hamstrung the growth of America until George Washington pushed Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to change things. Washington’s goals were only partly noble, to see a new, unified nation. That unified nation he saw as necessary to open settlement of the Ohio Valley, where Washington had several thousand acres of land he couldn’t sell until settlers moved in.
How does the current set of impasses affect business? Consider any small business, or big business, which offers health care plans to its employees. Health reform is stalled — a Blue Cross affiliate in California raised rates by nearly 40%. Health care is the one section of the economy where growth — meaning costs — grew through the depths of our financial difficulties in 2008 and 2009. The need should be clear, but there are blocks to getting anything done about fixing the system.
Or consider international affairs. Pentagon analysts worry about governmental instability created by the effects of global warming — drought, weather disaster, shifting crop yields (up in a few places, dramatically down where a few billion people live). Thieves stole e-mails from the scientists studying the issue, and subsequent propaganda based on the theft alone has stalled climate talks, worldwide, giving a huge economic advantage to China and India.
What should be the role of government regulation for clean air? Is the Clean Air Act sufficient? (Texas initiated suit against the federal government last week, claiming that the science behind reducing air pollution is wrong, a suit given as a gift to Texas’s major industries, some of which depend on the ability to dump garbage in the air with impunity.)
Is the problem more organically rooted in our inability to defeat incumbents in Congress? 2010 is a Census year — we count Americans to see how many representatives there should be for each state in the House of Represtentatives. The bitter redistricting fights will come in state legislatures next year. Can we save the system when politicians design seats more to secure a safe majority for their own party, rather than to see that every American is adequately represented?
What about media? Traditionally newspapers, aided by television, played the watchdog role on Washington politicians. Americans aren’t reading newspapers much, anymore. News holes shrink, and serious reporting on issues goes away. Can an open democracy survive without healthy newspapers? And if not, who can do what about it?
Go to The Economist and check out the stories (better if you’re a subscriber — the stories usually go away for non-paying browsers after a few days). What can you do with them in the classroom?
What do you think? What’s gone wrong in Washington?
1 Comment | Government, History, Learning, Learning styles, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Classroom Discussions, Education, Federalism, History, Learning, Politics, President Obama, Washington | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore’s dollar picks up steam?
February 18, 2010Oh, yeah, I forgot: The U.S. Mint is giving away dollars to kids. Free money.
Look at all the grousing about it in comments at Buffalo Rising. Some people are never happy. Not even with free money for the kids.
1 Comment | Education, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Buffalo New York, Education, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents, U.S. Mint | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fillmore dollar: Restoring Millard’s place in history?
February 15, 2010
Millard Fillmore dollar, scheduled to be released to the public on February 18, 2010, at Fillmore's birthplace, Moravia, New York
A golden-hued dollar coin honoring our 13th president, Millard Fillmore, will be released to the public by the U.S. Mint this week. A ceremony at Moravia Central School officially released the coin, in Moravia, New York, Fillmore’s birthplace.
The dollar makes no mention of H. L. Mencken nor Mencken’s hoax that has eclipsed Fillmore’s reputation for 93 years. Can the dollar’s own shine do anything to improve the lustre of Fillmore’s reputation?
History teacher MCs ceremony
CoinNews.net reports that a local teacher of history will help with the unveiling in Moravia:
Fillmore was born only five miles east of Moravia. He served as the 13th President of the United States from 1850-1853 after assuming the office when President Zachary Taylor passed away. These were tremulous times for the country which was already on the verge of a civil war, postponed by the Compromise of 1850. Fillmore is credited with the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa effectively ending the isolationism of Japan.
US Mint Deputy Director Andrew Brunhart will present the new dollar at the ceremony. Master of Ceremonies will be local history teacher John Haight. Sheila Tucker, Cayuga County historian, is scheduled to speak.
Children 18 and under will receive a free Fillmore dollar while others may exchange dollar bills for the new coins. The Mint will also offer 25-coin rolls for $35.95 from either Philadelphia or Denver that may be ordered directly from its Web site (http://www.usmint.gov/.)
Don Everhart designed the portrait of Millard Fillmore that is featured on the obverse or heads side. It also includes the inscriptions “MILLARD FILLMORE,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” “13TH PRESIDENT” and “1850-1853.”
Much of the ceremony is fitting. Fillmore himself helped organize local historical societies and promote education — he was the first president of the Erie County Historical Association, and he is celebrated as the founder of the University of Buffalo.
Reverse view of the 2010 Millard Fillmore U.S. dollar. Don Everhart designed both sides of the coin.
Coin information
Golden coloring of the coin comes from the alloyed metals that comprise the coin. It is 77% copper, 12% zinc, 7% manganese, and 4% nickel. Coins will be struck at all three coin minting plants, in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco.
Coins can be ordered from the U.S. Mint.
Resources:
2 Comments | Education, History, History and art, Millard Fillmore, Politics | Tagged: Education, Fillmore Dollar, History, Millard Fillmore, Numismatics, Politics, U.S. Mint | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 