September 6, 2009
Just learned of the passing of an old friend last December, Jim Riley. Jim was a Ph.D. student and one of the assistant debate coaches of the great University of Utah debate teams of the middle 1970s.
He was also the guy who taught me how to properly light and smoke a cigar after we nearly won the Western Speech Association Debate Tournament at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque (1974?). Lighting a cigar properly is a skill every gentleman should have, even those who do not smoke. He was a great friend, a wonderful life advisor, and a normal guy in a time and place when normalcy was a rare virtue.
Riley invented the famous Riley Extension as a debater for Washburn University. The Riley Extension is an argument towards significance of an affirmative case, usually, and is boiled down to two simple questions: “So what? Who cares?”
The Riley Extension is now a featured piece of analysis in many Advanced Placement courses in social studies, especially history where the answering of the two questions tends to make for much better essay answers.
Here’s the memoriam note from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. Jim retired from Northwest in 2005, and held the position Emeritus Professor:
Jim Riley
August 18, 1943 — December 26, 2008
James Whitcomb Riley Jr., 65, died Friday, Dec. 26, in Wellington, Kans.
Services were held Friday, Jan. 2, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Auditorium at Northwest College.
Jim Riley, 1943-2008
James W. Riley Jr. was born Aug. 18, 1943, the son of Dr. James Whitcomb Riley Sr. and Carolyn Crenshaw Riley in Oklahoma City, Okla. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Washburn University in Topeka, Kans. He attended three years of Law School at Washburn before being drafted into the U.S. Army. He served as a military policeman in Germany and Vietnam.
Jim returned to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, to earn his Master’s degree in Speech Communication where he also taught and coached forensics. Jim furthered his education at the University of Utah while continuing to coach. Jim later taught and coached forensics and debate at the University of Nevada Reno and Boise State University. In 1977, Jim began teaching at Northwest College in Powell.
On May 4, 1991, he was united in marriage with Laura (Barker) Hagerman. Jim retired from teaching at Northwest College in 2005 and later received the status of Professor Emeritus in the spring of 2008.
Jim was an avid outdoorsman. He had a passion for hunting, camping, cutting firewood and river rafting. His fondest outdoor adventure took him down the Grand Canyon with friends, family, and colleagues. Jim also enjoyed teaching, reading and spending time with family, friends and the family’s two dogs.
Surviving to honor his memory are his father, Dr. James W. Riley Sr. of Wellington, Kans.; wife, Laura Riley of Powell; daughter, Mallory Riley of Powell; sons Daniel Hagerman and his wife Abbey Hagerman of Laramie, Jeremy Hagerman and his wife Kelly Shriver of Olympia, Wash., Nathan Hagerman and his wife Melissa Hagerman of Anchorage, Alaska, and Taylor Riley of Powell; and three grandchildren, Mikayla Hagerman, Natalie Hagerman and Collin Poe.
Preceding him in death was his mother, Carolyn Crenshaw Riley, on Jan. 2, 2006.
In Jim’s honor, the James W. Riley Communications Scholarship fund was established to help provide quality, affordable education for students majoring in Communications at Northwest College. Applicants must have a minimum 3.5 high school GPA and must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA while attending NWC. Donations to the James W. Riley Scholarship can be made here .
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
6 Comments | 
College, Education, Forensics, Higher education, Life, Rhetoric, Speech | Tagged: Debate, Education, Forensics, Higher education, James Whitcomb Riley, Jim Riley, Northwest College, Rhetoric, University of Utah | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
September 3, 2009
Looney Tunes should sue to get back the good name of “looney.”
1. Neil Simpson at Eternity Matters continues to court anti-socialism. No, not “contrary to socialism”, but “anti-social” raised to the maximum. Now Simpson disavows education quality and Boy Scout-style citizenship, all in a whiny complaint about President Obama’s actually paying attention to school kids. Simpson’s complaints in Texas are highly ironic, considering that conservatives in the Texas legislature demand that Texas kids participate in exactly the kind of discussions that the Department of Education now urges.
According to the U.S. Department of Education:
During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.
“Oh, noes!” we might hear Simpson say. We can’t have our nation’s youth “persisting and succeeding in school.” Can’t have them “work hard,” and “take responsibility for their learning.”
One more deeply hypocritical demonstration that, for Simpson and his colleagues in whine, it’s all about being a sore loser and a carbuncle on the derriere of America, and not about policy at all.
Obama might be expected to plug charter schools again, a position Simpson would find good if Simpson had a reasoning cell left in his body. Not that Obama’s support of charter schools is a good idea, just that Simpson previously has expressed similar views, which he now would have to eschew, since Obama adopted them. Of course, it’s not about Obama. Right.
The Department of Education release has other details you should check out, if you’re interested:
The U.S. Department of Education encourages students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast live on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/) and on C-SPAN at 12:00 p.m., ET. We also encourage educators to use this moment to help students get focused and inspired to begin the new academic year. The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities—created by its teachers-in-residence, the Teaching Ambassador Fellows—to help engage students in the address and stimulate classroom discussions about the importance of education.
To learn more, please see the following:
That is, if you agree that education is important. (Oh, don’t even go to the post where Simpson starts arguing that “survival of the fittest” is tantamount to killing everybody else. Doesn’t this guy ever think?)
2. Making the case for Birther Control once more, Orly Taitz managed to get in front of a judge in some Texas court with her inane claims about Obama’s birth certificate. She’s not a Texas lawyer, she didn’t bother to get a Texas lawyer to sign in with her, she broke almost every rule possible, but the judge bent over backwards to be nice to her — and she still whines. Read the events at Dispatches from the the Culture Wars. You can almost decipher it at Orly Taitz’s blog, but she doesn’t even allow friendly posts without editing there. Get the facts from Brayton.
3. Meanwhile, riding the crest of the idiocy wave generated by inanities like Taitz’s and Simpson’s, these guys are gearing up for a violent confrontation with an evil, militant force, that isn’t even under discussion (if you read their links). Go read it. It’s the seedbed of homegrown terrorism.
4. GOP candidate for governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell repudiated the masters thesis he wrote for Pat Robertson’s Regent University. One by one, he disavows each of the offensive things he wrote then, claiming that he’s healed, or something, since then.
After McDonnell repudiates the education he got at Regent U, do you think the school will use him as an example of a graduate success in recruiting?
Already-elected GOP governors aren’t doing too well, either.
5. The Sedalia, Missouri band t-shirt flap keeps some people in stitches. I’m not sure whether it’s encouraging so many cross-stitchers show sanity on the issue, or discouraging that a few still remain deeply mired in darkness, claiming evolution is a problem. (See earlier post here.)
Sure, it’s all sign of apocalypse, but not the apocalypse most people worry about.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
30 Comments | Birth Certificate, children, Citizenship, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Government, Higher education, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Birth Certificate, Birthers, Education, Higher education, Politics, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, University Recruiting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 20, 2009
Short note from Di Mortui Sunt:
Got student loans? Did you know that the Federal government is changing the rules on the direct loans they give to students? The two big changes are debt forgiveness, for those who meet certain guidelines, and new income based repayment plans. If you’re about to get loans, you might want to wait til after July 10, when the new rules go into effect as the interest rate will be dropping and the size of the Pell Grant will increase. Overview here and the official site here.
Official information from the U.S. Department of Education here. You may want to check with the financial aid office at your college, too. Gather ye lots of information while the gathering is good.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | College, Education, Education spending, Financing College, Higher education, Student Loans | Tagged: College, Financing College, Higher education, IBR, Income-Based Repayment, Student Loans | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 9, 2009
107 years ago today Woodrow Wilson was unanimously elected president, of Princeton University in New Jersey, on June 9, 1902.
Wilson’s history is remarkable. He is not the only university president ever to have been elected president of the United States — Dwight Eisenhower and Charles James A. Garfield also served in that capacity (any others?) — but his election to the Princeton post marked an unusual rise in an essentially non-political career that would lead Wilson to the White House through the New Jersey governor’s mansion.
Wilson’s thinking, writing and thinking about how to make colleges and universities more democratic, and therefore more useful as fountains of leadership for the nation, propelled him forward. This makes him unusually American in the way he worked for national service, and so was called to higher service.
All details courtesy the Library of Congress’s American Memory “Today in History” feature:
- “On June 9, 1902, Woodrow Wilson was unanimously elected president of Princeton University, a position he held until he resigned in 1910 to run for governor of New Jersey. As university president, Wilson exhibited both the idealistic integrity and the occasional lack of political acumen that marked his tenure as the twenty-eighth president of the United States (1913-21).”
- “Wilson served on the faculties of Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University before joining the Princeton faculty as professor of jurisprudence and political economy in 1890. A popular teacher and respected scholar, Wilson delivered an oration at Princeton’s sesquicentennial celebration (1896) entitled ‘Princeton in the Nation’s Service.’ In this famous speech, he outlined his vision of the university in a democratic nation, calling on institutions of higher learning ‘to illuminate duty by every lesson that can be drawn out of the past.'”
- “Wilson began a fund-raising campaign to bolster the university corporation. The curriculum guidelines that he developed during his tenure as president of Princeton proved among the most important innovations in the field of higher education. He instituted the now common system of core requirements followed by two years of concentration in a selected area. When he attempted to curtail the influence of the elitist “social clubs,” however, Wilson met with resistance from trustees and potential donors. He believed that the system was smothering the intellectual and moral life of the undergraduates. Opposition from wealthy and powerful alumni further convinced Wilson of the undesirability of exclusiveness and moved him towards a more populist position in his politics.”
- While attending a recent Lincoln celebration I asked myself if Lincoln would have been as serviceable to the people of this country had he been a college man, and I was obliged to say to myself that he would not. The process to which the college man is subjected does not render him serviceable to the country as a whole. It is for this reason that I have dedicated every power in me to a democratic regeneration.
The American college must become saturated in the same sympathies as the common people. The colleges of this country must be reconstructed from the top to the bottom. The American people will tolerate nothing that savors of exclusiveness.
Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton University, “Address to Alumni,” April 16, 1910.
Woodrow Wilson, circa 1913 (in the Oval Office?) - Library of Congress image
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Citizenship, College, Democracy, Education, Education success, Higher education, History | Tagged: Citizenship, colleges, Education, Higher education, Presidents, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 9, 2009
No, Harold Levy doesn’t get it all right. He’s a former chancellor of schools in New York City, so even if he did manage to get most what he says right, there would be enough people on the other side of some issue to say he did not, that if I compliment him too effusively, someone will say I’m wrong.
Among the greater products of the United States of America — and Canada, let’s face it — is the grand array of nearly 4,000 colleges and universities that set the pace for education in the world. Our greatest export is education, the idea that education almost by itself can solve many great and vexing issues, the idea that education is a great democratic institution, and the education systems themselves, the methods of education used no matter how little backed by research.
Higher education makes up the better part of what we get right.
In an opposite-editorial page piece in the New York Times today Levy proposes some significant but eminently doable changes in how we work education in high schools and colleges. Maybe surprising to some, he has good things to say about the University of Phoenix and their $278 million advertising campaign, about high-pressure tactics to reduce truants, and about the GI Bill.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | College, College-ready, Education, Education quality, Education reform, Education spending, GI Bill, Globalization, Government, Higher education, History | Tagged: Educaiton Reform, Education, GI Bill, Globalization, Harold O. Levy, Higher education, International Competition, Truancy | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 13, 2009
Creationism is not taught at any major university, as science. It’s difficult to find creationism taught in any curriculum, including theology schools, because it’s not a part of the theology of most Christian sects. And yet, creationism continues to pose hurdles to good science education in almost every state (especially Texas).
The hard work of spreading creationism is long entrenched, and continuing, though largely out of the view of most observers of cultural and scientific trends.
For example, consider this blog by a guy who teaches creationism at Bryan College. It’s been discovered by supporters of science education — but what can anybody do about it? P. Z. Myers at Pharyngula noted the non-scientific contents of the stuff being taught. That’s not really enough.
We need to more aggressively promote good science teaching in public schools.
Here’s one thing we might do, as I noted in the comments at Pharyngula. We need to create institutions to aggressively promote good, powerful science teaching. Here is what I wrote there, essentially.
Notice that this is Bryan College that Todd Wood preaches at, the college set up to honor William Jennings Bryan, the creationist prosecutor from the Scopes trial. This is part of the evidence that scientists and other lovers of science and good education slept too long on some of these issues (“While Science Slept” might be a good essay somewhere).
Remember Scopes lost his case, and was fined; the overturning on appeal was due to a technical error in the fine, not due to other obviously major flaws in the law (which was signed and promoted by Gov. Austin Peay, who also has a college named after him). The law against teaching human evolution remained effective in Tennessee until after 1967, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Epperson v. Arkansas — which finally persuaded the Tennessee legislature to repeal the act.
Some people thought H. L. Mencken’s mocking judgment on the Scopes trial was final. Not creationists. While the rest of the world went on, fundamentalists developed a powerful, out-of-the-major-media network to spread and promote their ideas. Part of this network was the establishment of Bryan College, and to some degree, I think Austin Peay State University (though, as a state university with serious intentions on educating people, APSU is in the evolution camp in curricula).
Why is there no Clarence Darrow College? Why is there no John T. Scopes Institute for Teachers (say, at the University of Chicago, where Scopes went back for his advanced degree)?
Unless we get out there and fight in the trenches of education and religion and culture, evolution will continue to face silly opposition. Feynman warned us of the dangers of cargo cult science. (Honestly, though, Wood’s stuff looks like cargo cult cargo cultism, it’s so far removed from real science — doesn’t it?)
In the end it’s odd that a progressive-on-most-issues guy like Bryan would be memorialized by naming a college after him to preserve his most profound errors. It’s effective propaganda. I’d be willing to wager Bryan would have come around to evolution with the evidence stacked as it is now. His error was emotional and theological, I think. Education can prevent and correct such error. Bryan College doesn’t do that in evolution — something else needs to be done to fight what Bryan College does.
The John T. Scopes Institute for Teachers could run in the summer months, it should have a thousand teachers of science from primary and secondary education in every session, and it should emphasize the best methods for teaching the best science we have. We really need such an agency — or agencies — now. Our children lose interest in science between fourth grade and graduation, their achievement in science plunges in comparison to other nations.
Our economy suffers as a result.
Creationists have Bryan College to help them spread their versions of cargo cult science, with that mission specifically in mind. We can fight fire with fire, but we have to fight ignorance with education. And, my friends in science education, we are behind.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Cargo Cults, Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Higher education, Science, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Bryan College, Cargo Cults, Creationism, Curricula, Education, Evolution, Higher education, Science, science education, teacher training, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 19, 2008
High school seniors should be firming up their choices for colleges to apply to in the next couple of months — early decision applications will be due in November for some schools.
Students looking for a great college should consider looking at one or more of the 40 outstanding small colleges and universities that have banded together in a group known as Colleges that Change Lives. Each is an outstanding institution that has a reputation for taking good kids and helping them transform into great people.
There are more than a dozen events planned around the nation where a score or more of the colleges will show up in one location to talk to high school students and their parents. You really should consider attending one of these events if one is close by.
We attended an event in Houston last year. Our younger son, James, eventually chose Lawrence University, a school he knew almost nothing about before that afternoon. (It appears Lawrence recovered its sanity after recruiting me to play football back in, uh, a few years ago. I didn’t attend Lawrence, and I’m greatly amused that my son will.)
Here, stolen directly from CTCL’s website, is the list of cities where events are scheduled this fall, and an interactive map. Clicking on the hot links will take you to CTCL’s site with details about the meet ups.
|
Colleges That Change Lives, 2008 events
LOCATION INDEX:
|
| Atlanta, GA |
| Austin, TX |
| Boston, MA |
| Chicago, IL [2] |
| Columbus, OH |
| Denver, CO |
| Houston, TX |
| Indianapolis, IN |
| Kansas City, KS |
| Latin America |
| Los Angeles, CA |
| Minneapolis, MN |
| Nashville, TN |
| New York, NY [2] |
| Philadelphia, PA |
| Portland, OR |
| Raleigh-Durham, NC |
| San Diego, CA |
| San Francisco, CA [2] |
| Seattle, WA |
| St. Louis, MO |
| Tulsa, OK |
| Washington, D.C. [2] |
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
7 Comments | College, Education quality, Education success, Family, Higher education, History, Life | Tagged: College, College Applications, Colleges that Change Lives, Family, Higher education, Life | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 4, 2008
Texas’s Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is appealing the decision of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that denied ICR the power to grant graduate science degrees. According to the story in the Houston Chronicle, ICR plans to take the issue to court if THECB does not reverse itself.
Institute spokesman Lawrence Ford said the voluminous appeal — it is 755 pages long, including supporting documents — is based upon a claim of “viewpoint discrimination.”
The appeal described the board’s decision as “academic (and religious) bigotry masquerading as Texas Education Code ‘enforcement.’ ”
Board members and staff are accused of denying the request in April because the institute and its leaders believe the biblical version of the Earth’s creation is literally true.
Institute CEO Henry Morris III said last spring his school’s program includes information about evolution, although he and others affiliated with the school don’t accept the proof of evolution offered by mainstream scientists.
Board members and Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said they were concerned the degree would not equip graduates to teach science in Texas’ public schools.
The real issue, Stafford said Monday, is whether the institute’s course work — offered online and still available, although not accredited — fits the label of the proposed degree.
The disputed degree is a Master of Science in science education. “Either the curriculum or the label has to change,” Stafford said.
“That label has a particular meaning of preparing somebody as a science teacher.”
Paredes reiterated that in a May 21 letter to Morris. “It was determined that the designation of the degree and the content of the degree were not adequately aligned,” he wrote. “Approval would require either a change in the designation of the degree or a change in the content covered.”
The institute is not inclined to do either, Ford said.
More information at these websites:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Higher education, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Administrative Law, Creationism, Higher education, Jurisprudence, Science, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 27, 2008
Will Texas ever stack up to California? Do the math, at TexasEd.
Will Texas ever stack up to India? China?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education spending, Globalization, Higher education, Politics, Texas Lege | Tagged: education funding, Higher education, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
April 24, 2008
Good news: A subcommittee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Committee yesterday voted against letting the Institute for Creation Research award graduate degrees in science education because of their rejection of evolution. The full committee will vote today.
ICR promises to fight it.
Dallas Morning News reporter Terrence Stutz’s report is worth reading.
Citing the group’s teaching of creationism rather than evolution in its science curriculum, Dr. Paredes said it was clear the school would not adequately prepare its graduates to teach the scientific principles now required in Texas public schools.
“Evolution is such a fundamental principle of contemporary science it is hard to imagine how you could cover the various fields of science without giving it [evolution] the proper attention it deserves as a foundation of science,” he said.
“Religious belief is not science. Science and religious belief are surely reconcilable, but they are not the same thing.”
Henry Morris III, chief executive officer of the institute, contended that the school would prepare students to “understand both sides of the scientific perspective, although we do favor the creationist view.”
After the adverse vote from several coordinating board members meeting as a committee, Mr. Morris said the institute may revise its application or take its case to court.
“We will pursue due process,” he told the board. “We will no doubt see you in the future.”
Quiet and educational efforts from Texas Citizens for Science and the Texas Freedom Network probably helped turn the tide on this issue.
Resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Creationism, Education, Higher education, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Higher education, Religion, Science, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
April 4, 2008
Via Heart of Flesh, a half-hour conversation between Ben Stein and the often-pompous R. C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries. Sproul had Stein in the studio to promote the mockumentary film Stein stars in, “Expelled!”
Stein continues to reveal the religious nature of intelligent design advocacy, all the time complaining science doesn’t pay enough attention.
At what point does irony veer into hypocrisy? I think that point’s long past for these guys.
Vodpod videos no longer available. from heartofflesh.wordpress.com posted with vodpod
Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω
Anyone vaguely familiar with the science of astronomy, or cosmology, or physics, or biology, may want to get a bullet to chew on before clicking “play.” It’s that bad.
But what is this? Sproul disowns the movie? It may be that the movie, devoid of science as it is, is still too sciency for Sproul. Here’s how Sproul’s writers put it in his blog:
As our readers may already know, Dr. Sproul frequently challenges the unbiblical and irrational theories of Darwinian evolution in print and through lectures. While we were waiting for Mr. Stein to arrive for the interview, Dr. Sproul mentioned to the crew that he took some time in between book projects back in the early 90s. He was doing some recreational reading and ended up writing another book, Not A Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology.
It is important to note that during this free exchange of ideas, not all of the opinions expressed by Mr. Stein in the interview are the views of Ligonier Ministries. Christians should recognize that the argument from design does not necessarily prove the Genesis view of creation. We are not part of the Intelligent Design movement, but certainly share similar concerns for freedom of speech and inquiries into cosmology. Our foremost concern is to uphold the inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible and the authority of our Creator.
Don’t you love it? Super Sproul figures out the laws of chance in physics and chemistry in his spare time, probably in his game room between foosball challenges from the grandkids.
Sproul’s blog also reveals there is another part to this interview.
R. C. Sproul should do a public service some day. He ought to interview P. Z. Myers for an hour, and then interview Ken Miller for an hour (he can disclaim science later in his blog, if he chooses). Better yet, Sproul should have Myers and Miller each spend a week at Ligonier Ministries teaching theologians about biology.
I wager Sproul doesn’t have the fortitude to do something like that. Rants can’t stand the facts. Sproul’s genius is making his rants in a quieter voice, so they don’t sound as irrational as they are.
At about 14:40 into the interview, Stein says “There are very few places where more nonsense is spoken than universities.” First, one wonders why Stein and the movie’s producers want so badly to be seen as part of that university community?
Second, this interview demonstrates Stein’s error — there are lots of places more nonsense is spoken, including anywhere Sproul’s interview with Stein is aired.
In the universities, at least they strive for accuracy and honesty.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
25 Comments | Creationism, Higher education, Rampant stupidity, Religion, Science | Tagged: Ben Stein, Creationism, Entertainment, Evolution, Higher education, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 10, 2008
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
- George Santayana (The Life of Reason, vol. 1: Reason in Common Sense)
Last year a seventh grade kid approached me about a problem he had with the Texas history text. He pointed to a photograph of a Ku Klux Klansman, pointy-hood and all. It was a photo probably from the 1920s, in no way flattering to the Klansman, and it accompanied a couple of paragraphs explaining the resurrection of the Klan in that era. The book explained what some did to fight the Klan (not enough, but that’s a topic for another time).
“That’s racist, Mister!”
I asked him why he thought the photograph was racist.
“That’s a Klansman! They killed people!”
Yes, it’s a Klansman, and yes, Klansmen killed people unjustly. That’s part of history, a part of history we need to remember to prevent it from happening again. I explained that the photo did not endorse the Klan in any way, and that section of the book actually spoke against their actions.
“You’re a racist, Mister! That picture is racist and should be cut out!”
Our conversation had taken an inexplicable (to me) turn, away from the content of the photo or the book, into uncharted realms of inanity.
“Why don’t you take your complaint to the principal, and tell your parents about it,” I said. “I think this is a conversation you and I should have with your parents present.”
Of course, the student did nothing I asked. Within a week I had a handful of other students complaining about the picture. Some of those conversations were better, but not much. Students had a difficult time understanding how reading about racism was not practicing racism. Learning about the mistakes of the past in order to avoid them, was the same as making the mistakes, the students argued.
This occurred shortly after several parents in another Texas school district had complained about the use of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because it contains a slang term for “negro” now considered particularly offensive when used by whites. The complaining parents were black. Never mind that this great American novel’s point is that racism is wrong, slavery an abomination to a just God, and that Jim is much greater a man than those who held him captive in slavery.
I worry that too many people lack enough education in history to make rational decisions about what should be considered “good to read” and what should genuinely be kept out of curricula.
Case in point: A janitor and student at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) was investigated for creating a “hostile work environment,” and one of his offenses appears to have been his reading of a history of a defeat of the Ku Klux Klan in South Bend, Indiana. It is unclear from details we have, but it appears complainants could not tell the difference between reading the history of a Klan defeat, and reading a book promoting the Klan.
Should we worry? I’d like your opinions, and experiences if you have any; details of the Indianapolis case below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
10 Comments | Books, Civil Rights, Higher education, History, History images, History Revisionism, Lessons of history, Racism, Rampant stupidity, reading, Reason, Texas history | Tagged: Affirmative Action, Books, Education, Higher education, History, IUPUI, Media, Politics, Racism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 23, 2008
I was one of Bae’s kids, too.
Sad note from the Hinckley Institute of Politics (note the funeral is today, for those in Salt Lake City):
The former, present, and future interns, staff, faculty, and family of the Hinckley Institute of Politics mourn the passing of former Hinckley Institute Assistant Director, Bae B. Gardner. I first walked in the door of the Hinckley Institute in the fall of 1988. It immediately felt like a second home and the main reason was Bae. I am proudly one of “Bae’s kids.” Unless you share that distinction, it is impossible to fully convey the loss we feel today with Bae’s passing. Bae was not just an administrator to her “kids.” She was a mother, friend, cheerleader, mentor, and confidant. Indeed, she supported and sustained me from that first day as an inquiring student through the present as the Hinckley Institute’s director. Bae had the unique talent of making students feel that they had unlimited potential and the tireless ability to provide them with life-changing opportunities. The Hinckley Institute and I will forever be grateful for the legacy she established and the love she exhibited during her incredible years of service at the Hinckley Institute.
Kirk L. Jowers
Director, Hinckley Institute of Politics
Viewing and Funeral Service
Saturday, February 23rd
Viewing: 11:00 am. Service: 1:00 pm.
Foothill LDS 7th Ward Chapel
2215 E. Roosevelt Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
In lieu of flowers, the Gardner family has suggested that donations may be made to the Bae B. Gardner Internship in Public Policy scholarship fund administered by the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Donations can be made online or by calling the University of Utah Development Office at 801.581.6825. Donations can also be mailed to the Hinckley Institute at 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 253. Salt Lake City, UT 84112. For more information call the Hinckley Institute of Politics at 801.581.8501.
I had applied for an internship with the National Wildlife Federation. Bae thought I had a chance at a different internship, so she copied the form and sent it to the Secretary of the Senate. I lost the NWF internship on a .01 gradepoint difference. I got the internship at the Senate, and it changed my life.
Of course, I was on the road debating when the word came through that they wanted me in Washington. Bae called me late at night at home, minutes before my acceptance would have been overdue. Four days later I was working in the Capitol. Whenever I meet with other Hinckley Interns, I learn she did more for everyone else.
My first real office was a few feet from the Senate Chamber, with a view down the mall to the Washington Monument, and a chandalier 8 feet across. I got floor privileges to the Senate, and with Mike Mansfield’s name on my ID card, I had access to the White House and almost any other government building in town.
That sort of education is priceless. Thanks to Bae Gardner.
Bae should be remembered as a hero for education, a champion for college kids, and one who played a role in more good public policy decisions than few others in history, by promoting good kids to good experience that they applied later in public service.
I wish the service were streamed on the web somewhere. I’ll bet it’ll be something to see and hear.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Heroes, Personal, Politics | Tagged: Heroes, Higher education, Personal, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 31, 2007
The Waco Tribune offered its editorial support to science, and evolution theory, today.
Texas education officials should be wary of efforts to insert faith-based religious beliefs into science classrooms.
* * * * *
Neither science nor evolution precludes a belief in God, but religion is not science and should not be taught in science classrooms.
Those are the opening and closing paragraphs. In between, the authors scold the Texas Education Agency for firing its science curriculum director rather than stand up for science, and cautions the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board against approving a course granting graduate degrees in creationism education.
Support for evolution and good science scoreboard so far: Over a hundred Texas biology professors, Texas Citizens for Science, Dallas Morning News, Waco Tribune . . . it’s a cinch more support will come from newspapers and scientists. I wonder whether the local chambers of commerce will catch on?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, Politics, Public education, Religion, Science, Science and faith, Separation of church and state, TAKS, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Textbook Selection | Tagged: Creationism, Evolution, Higher education, Religion, Science, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 20, 2007
It’s not God driving the creationists to grant degrees in Texas; it’s Mammon.
See the press release from the Texas Citizens for Science, below:
TEXAS CITIZENS FOR SCIENCE
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
10:00 a.m., Thursday, December 20, 2007
CONTACT: Steven D. Schafersman, Ph.D.,
President, Texas Citizens for Science
432-352-2265
tcs@texscience.org
http://www.texscience.org/
TITLE: The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wants the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to Give ICR Certification to Grant Graduate Degrees in Science Education in Texas for Monetary Reasons
In a major report on the ICR’s quest for official certification by the THECB, Texas Citizens for Science (TCS) believes it has identified the major motivation for the rapid, incompetent, and–until now–stealthy process of the ICR site evaluation and approval by two committees of the THECB. ICR is on-track to make millions of dollars by charging Protestant Fundamentalist students from many foreign countries tuition at its new on-line distance education graduate school. ICR says:
“The graduate school of ICR also offers resident Master of Science degrees in astronomy and geophysics, biology, and geology. These degree programs are currently being developed for web-based, distance education platforms to accommodate a growing number of students who desire quality advanced science instruction from a thoroughly biblical perspective.”
The certification to award Master’s Degrees in Science Education will apply to distance degree programs as well as on-site classroom study. In fact, ICR’s Henry Morris Center in Dallas has only a single equipped classroom. ICR, therefore, intends to sell its Young Earth Creationism graduate program to students from all over the United States and foreign countries who would be interested in obtaining a science master’s degree that is legal, authentic, and fully-certified by the State of Texas. With Web-based distance education so powerful and available today, he potential market contains thousands of individuals, and ICR is on-track to make many millions of dollars.
In the Report on the ICR, TCS President Steven Schafersman writes, “The only thing better than offering distance education courses for thousands of Protestant Fundamentalist students in India, China, Africa, and South America is being able to give them certified and legitimate Masters of Science degrees from the United States. And the only thing better than that is charging each of those thousands of Protestant Fundamentalist students all over the world many thousands of dollars for tuition. With a fat Texas-certified Master’s Degree in Science Education thrown in, every student will get super-extra “value added” for their money. ICR stands to earn tens of millions of dollars
from tuition fees if they can award real Masters of Science degrees to thousands of distance students over the world. Likewise, they will lose those millions of dollars if THECB certification is not granted on January 24, 2008, in Austin.”
The financial motivation for the so-far successful progress of the ICR to obtaining its official Texas certification to award legal and authentic master’s degrees in science has not been uncovered until now.
The Report is now available at
http://www.texscience.org/reviews/icr-thecb-certification.htm
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Biology, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Higher education, Junk science, Religion, Science, Voodoo science | Tagged: Creationism, creationism controversy, Higher education, Politics, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 