May 15, 2010
Keith Tucker, WhatNowToons.com, via Tennessee Guerrilla Women
In a series of articles at George Mason University’s History News Network, historians from Texas and across the nation make a powerful case against the changes in social studies standards proposed by the politicians at the Texas State Board of Education.
Together, this is a powerful indictment of the actions of the SBOE, and strong repudiation of the raw political purposes and tactics employed in the War on Education by the “conservative” faction, including especially lame duck, anti-education crusader/jihadist Don McLeroy.
Texas scholars
- “A Culturally Irrelevant History of Melodramatic Minutiae,” by Iliana Alanís, University of Texas at San Antonio
- “A Sanitized History,” by Roberto R. Calderón, University of North Texas
- “An Almost Impossibly Large Set of Standards Produced by a Problematic Process,” by Jesús F. de la Teja, Texas State University-San Marcos
- “An Overstuffed Laundry List that Treats Seniors Like Kindergartners,” by Keith A. Erekson, University of Texas at El Paso
- “Review of the TEKS,” John Fea, Messiah College
- “An Incomplete Version of the Past that Silences Important Struggles,” by Kirsten Gardner, University of Texas at San Antonio
- “Plagiarized Work,” by Michael Soto, Trinity University
- “Is Texas Messing with History?” David Upham, University of Dallas
- “A Pattern of Neglect and a Missed Opportunity,” by Emilio Zamora, University of Texas
Scholars outside of Texas
- “The Texas SBOE and History Standards: A Teacher’s Perspective,” by Ron Briley, Sandia Preparatory School
- “Texas School Board Whitewashes History,” by Daniel Czitrom, Mount Holyoke College
- “What Texans Aren’t Talking About—But Should Be,” Keith A. Erekson, University of Texas at El Paso
- “Twisting History in Texas,” Eric Foner, Columbia University
- “We Prefer a Shiny Image of America,” Steve Haycox, University of Alaska Anchorage
- “One Classroom, From Sea to Shining Sea,” Susan Jacoby, Independent Scholar
- “Comment,” James McPherson, Princeton University
- “The Historical ‘Narrative’ Has Changed,” Joseph A. Palermo, California State University Sacramento
- “‘T’ is for ‘Texas Textbooks’,” Diane Ravitch, New York University
- “Texas SBOE Tries to Dilute History of Women, Minorities,” John Willingham, Independent Scholar
- “American History — Right and Left,” Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University
Historians can sign a petition set up for the purpose at a site that offers links to the essays, too, An Open Letter from Historians to the Texas State Board of Education.
SBOE will take up the issue again in meetings in Austin this coming week.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | 
Bogus history, Chilling Effect, Education, History, Political Smear, Politics, Voodoo history, War on Education | Tagged: Bogus history, Don McLeroy, Economics, Education, geography, History, Social Studies, Voodoo history, War on Education | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
April 29, 2010
Good information, oddly enough for a political note:
Dear Ed,
We need your help to keep divisive politics out of Texas’ classrooms.
From now until May 14th, the State Board of Education is accepting public comments on its proposed curriculum changes.
The SBOE has proposed removing Thomas Jefferson from a part of the curriculum. They are also planning to exclude references to Hispanics who fought Santa Anna and died at the Alamo.
Watch the YouTube video with my brief comments by clicking here.
During the primaries, Texans voted against the most extreme and hyper-political SBOE candidates, sending a clear message about their approach of injecting politics into our classrooms.
Last month, I called on Rick Perry to ask his appointed chair of the SBOE to either send changes back to expert review teams or delay the vote until new board members are seated.
Perry’s response has been to say that he’s not going to “try to outsmart” the SBOE. He declined to show leadership, refusing to ask his appointed chair of SBOE to rein in the hyper-political curriculum amendment process.
Join the conversation and spread the word about this opportunity to be heard.
Our next governor should be a leader who ensures our schools prepare young Texans for college and their careers. I am committed to improving education and working for our future.
Thank you for taking the time to weigh in.
Sincerely,
Bill White
P.S. If you would like to send your comments directly to the SBOE, click here.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Economics, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Government, History, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas history, War on Education | Tagged: Bill White, Education, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 18, 2010
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.
- “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:
Also:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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
March 10, 2010
A 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
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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
January 15, 2010
News reports in Texas this morning said that several of the right-wing, gut-education-standards changes proposed to social studies standards had failed in voting on Thursday, January 14. But, much more was to be done, and the SBOE adjourned early last night to continue voting today.
In a pattern familiar to education advocates in Texas, board member Don McLeroy (R-Pluto) today proposed a long series of amendments, apparently off-the-cuff, but probably written up in earlier strategy sessions. These last-minute amendments tend to pass having missed any serious scrutiny.
Will he be able to ruin Texas education for the next decade? I cannot follow the live webcasts; Steve Schafersman is working to stop the amendments, rather than merely blog about them. We probably won’t know the extent of the damage for weeks. McLeroy cherishes his role as a Port-au-Prince-style earthquake to Texas education. (Pure coincidence, I’m sure — Ed Brayton summarizes McLeroy’s politics today.)
Watch that space, and other news sources. I may provide updates here, as I can get information.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Education, Education blogs, Education quality, Education reform, Political Smear, Politics, Religion, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, War on Education | Tagged: Economics, Education, Education reform, geography, History, Politics, Religion, State Board of Educaiton, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 13, 2010
In a post titled “The Battle Joined,” the Texas Freedom Network repeated for us the press release from their Tuesday press conference at the Texas Education Agency, about the hearings on social studies standards, graduation requirements and other issues in Austin this week.
Watch that space (see also this explanatory piece) and this space, and your non-faux news outlets.
The Texas Freedom Network sent out the following press release after our press conference this morning at the Texas Education Agency:
The state’s leading religious liberties group today joined with clergy and scholars in calling on the State Board of Education to approve new curriculum standards that don’t undermine religious freedom in Texas social studies classrooms.
“Curriculum writers have drafted proposed standards that rightly acknowledge the influence of faith on the Founders and in our nation’s history,” Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said today. “But those writers also respected religious freedom by rejecting political pressure to portray the United States as favoring one faith over all others. Doing otherwise would aid the teaching of bad history and promote something that is fundamentally un-American.”
Miller spoke in advance of a Wednesday public hearing on proposed new social studies curriculum standards. Teachers, academics and community members from around the state have spent the last year crafting the new standards. Publishers will use the standards to write new textbooks scheduled for adoption by Texas in 2011. The state board will debate the standards drafts on Thursday and has scheduled a final vote in March.
Derek Davis, dean of humanities and the graduate school and director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Mary Hardin-Baylor University, a Baptist institution in Belton, called on the board to respect the work of teachers and other experts who helped write the new standards.
“Religious liberty stands as one of our nation’s bedrock principles,” Davis said. “Yet it seems always under siege by those who fail to appreciate the astute thinking of the founding fathers that caused them to write into the Constitution the principle that guarantees religious liberty: the separation of church and state. This distinctly American value continues to set our nation apart from those embroiled in religious conflict in the rest of the world.”
Miller and Davis were joined at a press conference by the Rev. Marcus McFaul of Highland Park Baptist Church in Austin and Steven Green, a professor of law and of history and director of the Willamette Center for Religion at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.
“The instruction of religious faith, discipleship, and a life of service and piety is the responsibility of each faith community, whether church, synagogue or mosque,” Rev. McFaul said. “It is the responsibility of parents and parishes, not public schools. We all note – as the curriculum writers did – the role and influence of religion in American history, but not to advance, promote or seek advantage for any particular religion’s point of view.”
The state board has revised curriculum standards for language arts and science over the past two years. In both cases the board either threw out or heavily revised standards crafted by curriculum writing teams that included teachers, curriculum specialists and academic experts. Last year, for example, creationists on the state board pushed through science standards that call into question long-established scientific evidence for evolution.
“This is not a good way to make sound education policy,” Miller said of the board’s habit of rejecting the work of teachers and experts. “It’s past time that state board members stop playing politics with the education of Texas children, respect the hard work teachers and other experts have put into writing standards, and acknowledge that experts – not politicians – know best what our children need to learn.”
Educate somebody else on this issue:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Education, Education blogs, Education quality, Education reform, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas Education Agency (TEA), Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo history, War on Education | Tagged: Education, SBOE, Social Studies, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 29, 2009
Note to teachers: They hate you out there global warming denial land.
Watt’s Up denizens ramble in a state of confusion about how the planet can be warming while local records fall in cold weather. [Note to Anthony Watts: Have you explained to your readers that seasons are not governed by CO2 levels, but instead by the tilt of the Earth?]
How to clear up the confusion? Blame it on the teachers. No kidding. Here’s the comment from “r”:
r (08:12:32) : [about 62 comments down]
Forget the main stream media. The real roots of this movement, strangely enough, are in grade school and collage teachers.
College teachers are out of touch with the real world. They live in the insulated bubble of academia. They go to school for so long, all they know is school. They never get any experience in the real world of any industry. Therefore, they preach the socialist agenda because it sounds good on paper. The young people they teach do not protest because they don’t know any better yet. Their parents continue to give money to these colleges because they have no idea what their children are actually learning.
Grade school teachers despite having increased course work on classroom management are not required to take many classes in science. They cannot teach science because they don’t understand it themselves. Global warming was introduced to my children through Scholastic Magazine given out at school. The magazine is used as part of the curriculum. The teachers never questioned it. The children were frightened by it and peer pressure keeps anyone from dissenting. The parents are learning about global warming from their children as in 1984.
In fact it is harder for me to protest the fraud of global warming at my own school than it is to protest in the media. I run the risk of alienating myself and my children at school.
If anybody would like to send my schools a note telling them to stop teaching the global warming fraud with reasons why, I would be grateful.
Here are the principal’s emails: Vince.DiGrandi@WappingersSchools.org
Tom.Stella@wappingersschools.org
Perhaps I can do the same for someone else.
Thanks in advance.
Here’s what I recommend: Send an e-mail to the two people listed above, and congratulate them for offering real science to their students. Tell them you’ve heard that there is a national campaign to stop them from teaching good science, and that you support them and hope the campaign fails.
Anyone who lies to his kids about science, about the environmental issues we face, about life in general, will indeed alienate themselves from their children, if the children are lucky. “r” wishes his kids to be taught voodoo science. Shame on him.
I wonder what “r” thinks of his own teachers.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, Cost of Green, Education, Global warming, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Science, Teachers, Voodoo science, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Climate change, Cost of Green, Education, Global warming, Green Politics, Politics, Science, Teachers, Voodoo science, War on Education, What's Up With That, WUWT | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 17, 2009
Here’s an education and Texas issue I’ve not done justice to: The Texas State Board of Education is working to gut social studies curricula in Texas, with a special vent on history, which they appear to think is not fundamentalist Christian enough, and economics, where they think “capitalism” is, somehow, a dirty word.
Do I exaggerate? Very little, if at all. Really.
There’s a lot to say. I may have another post on it this week. In the meantime, the indefatigable Texas Freedom Network works to organize for the hearing on the issue in January. SBOE hopes it will be a quiet, non-confrontational meeting, and they will do whatever they can to prevent Texans from telling them to have good history standards that make great students. So it’s important that you speak up — especially if you’re a Texan. Here’s what TFN said in an e-mail alert:
Make Your Voice Heard at January Public Hearing
The process of revising social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools is moving into a critical stage. And a public hearing the board has scheduled for January may be the only opportunity for you to speak out against the far right’s efforts to corrupt standards for history, government and other social studies classes.
The final drafts of the proposed standards prepared by writing teams made up of teachers, academics and other community members are reflective of mainstream academic scholarship in the various subject areas. It is clear that members of these writing teams largely resisted intense political pressure from far right, rejecting attempts to remove key civil rights figures and make other politically motivated revisions. (See the Background section at the bottom of this e-mail for a more detailed account of the politicization of this curriculum process.)
But as with science and language arts, far-right SBOE members are already plotting to undo the work of the writing teams of social studies.
Take Action
The State Board of Education so far has scheduled only one public hearing on the proposed standards. That hearing is likely to occur either on January 13 or January 14 in Austin.
If you are interested in speaking at the hearing, please click here. TFN will help you register to speak before the board and be an effective voice against efforts to politicize our children’s classrooms.
This may be the only opportunity the board provides for Texans to speak out on the proposed standards. If we are to prevent far-right SBOE members from turning social studies classrooms into tools for promoting political agendas, then it’s critical that the board hears from people like you! Click here to sign up for more information on how to testify in January.
___________________________________________________
Background on Social Studies Review Process to Date
Earlier this year, TFN exposed and derailed several attempts by the far right to hijack the social studies curriculum revision process. Members of the state board – or their appointees to review panels and writing teams – tried at various times to:
- Remove civil rights champions like César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall from the standards, calling them poor examples of citizenship
- Turn Joseph McCarthy – who discredited himself and dishonored Congress with his infamous Red-baiting smear campaign in the 1950s – into an American hero
- Rewrite history and portray America’s Founders as intending to establish a Christian nation with laws based on a fundamentalist reading of the Bible
Members of the writing teams largely rejected these fringe ideas in the final drafts of the standards they submitted to the board. Chávez and Marshall remain in the curriculum. The American history standards do not whitewash the damaging history of McCarthyism. And under the proposed standards students would still learn that the Founders created a nation in which all people are free to worship – or not – as they choose without coercion or interference by government.
We must ensure that the board adopts curriculum standards that reflect mainstream academic scholarship in social studies. This is vitally important because the results of this decision will be reflected in the next generation of social studies textbooks around the country.
Click here to let TFN know you are willing to testify at the state board.
Spread the word even farther — help save history, in Texas:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Curricula, Education, Education quality, Education reform, History, History Methods and Tools, knowledge | Tagged: Capitalism, Curricula, Economics, Education, Education reform, History, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Textbooks, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
November 20, 2009
Jon Taplin explains why knowing world history is valuable. The sad thing is that, of course, the story that makes his reason doesn’t appear in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills list for world history, nor in any other social studies course.
Now that the Texas State Board of Education has taken off the cloak of education and made it clear that social studies in Texas is considered a political free-fire zone, and that they plan to vitiate anything but the propaganda value for the Republican Party, Taplin’s piece has all the more poignance.
The Renaissance, and Florence, were more than just a minor question on the TAKS test. Santayana’s Ghost weeps bitterly.
Why isn’t Jon Taplin’s blog required reading in more places, by more people in government and politics? We know why the Texas State School Board doesn’t want anyone to read it — that alone should make people fight to see what Taplin says.
Promote this idea in your own study group:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Education, Education quality, History, Renaissance, Santayana's ghost, Social Studies, State school boards, Taxes, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, War, War on Education, World history | Tagged: Afghanistan, Florence, Santayana's ghost, Social Studies, State School Board, Texas, War, War on Education, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 8, 2009
I was listening to some talk radio show tonight when I had to run to the store for a few things…So Im sitting in the parking lot..and this guy calls in…talks about his wife being a teacher…and the meno she got about Obamass visiting schools…
It seems the schools..some by force if they dont want a major budget cut..are making the kids write letters to Obamass telling him how proud they are of him..how they hope healt care is past so they will be able to go to good doctors..and how they all promise to serve him.
The kids are all made to learn the history of Obamass with of course all the lies and bs that goes with it…Songs where..it seems..written about him and the children will be singing them before and after the broadcast.
The older students…age 12 and up..will be ask to (forced really or face a bad grade and God knows what else) to sign a pledge to his new government!…
I just sat there for a moment….glad my daughter was out of school and my g/son isnt in yet.
Freedom is another way to God…A corrupt government is a straight way to hell.
How you can tell this is a hoax:
- It alleges a guy talking about a memo his teacher wife got; what guy reads his wife’s memos?
- School districts are not part of the federal government. Federal funds are a small part of any school district’s budget. No amount of letter writing from a district to the president can affect the district’s budget.
- If there were a way for letter writing to affect school budgets, threats of cuts in budgets for political action are a violation of the Hatch Act. Crooks who tried to get around the Hatch Act wouldn’t write a memorandum about it.
- No school is forcing kids to learn Obama’s history. History texts take years to write. Generally the newest texts run about four years behind national elections. No, there cannot be a federal curriculum on the topic — that’s against tradition, and against federal law. No agency may write curriculum for local schools — that’s the job of the local school districts.
- Music has been cut out of most schools. Who would write a song for the kids to sing to Obama? Who would lead the singing? This hoaxster hasn’t been in the schools in 40 years.
- Districts are moving to policies requiring no failing grades. Without pointing fingers to blame anyone, let’s just note that it’s been coming for the last six years. Consequently, a change in policy to require bad grades if kids don’t write a fawning letter to a president, ain’t gonna happen. Besides, if this were doable in any fashion where the federal government has no say in local curriculum, Cheney would have done it years ago for Bush. This Ron Paul fan, Misfit4Peace, has been toking way too much.
- Obama’s not on the state test, any state test. What teacher has time to add stuff on Obama when it’s not going to be covered on the test? No principal would stand for that.
Freedom? This guy surrendered his freedom to inanity long ago. Reality isn’t even a memory to these people.
It gets worse. There’s the guy who complains that Obama shouldn’t be urging his kindergartener to stay in school — oh, the pressure! There’s the guy who looks at Obama’s line about how policemen and soldiers need to have a good education, and complains,
One of them, I consider to be a hired murderer, and another to be a paid bully. But he calls them “good” jobs.
Cops and soldiers, he considers to be bullies and murderers?
We need a lot of healing. The critics need a lot of healing. Not Obama’s speech, not Obama’s policies, nothing Obama ever did opened these wounds.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Dissent, Education, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Dissent, Education, Hate, Politics, President Obama, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 6, 2009
The snark snipers are winning. Dallas’s CBS affiliate, Channel 11, has a poll on whether students ought to pay attention to Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday.
Do you think North Texas schools should have their students watch president Obama’s speech directed to children?
“No, it might get political” is winning right now.
The correct answer would be “Duh! Yes.” Kids who can resist “Just Say No” sex education can resist Obama’s plea to them to study hard and not dropout, as the conservatives appear to want them to, in the conservative War on Education.
Go vote in the poll as long as it’s there.
Urge others to vote, too:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Barack Obama, Dropouts, Education, Polling and Public Opinion, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Poll, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 15, 2009
I’m posting on the run from an AP Summer Institute at Texas Christian University, so just the facts.
Today’s Fort Worth Start Telegram featured a story on the social studies curriculum battles in the Texas State Board of Education. It’s one of those stories that does well in presenting the facts, but for the sake of “objectivity” treats the yahoos of the review committee — David Barton and Peter Marshall in particular — as respected academics.
Of particular note, a very brief summary of the credientials and comments of the “expert” reviewing panel.
Should Texas be worried?
See immediately previous post with the address to listen to live webcasts of the Board’s meetings this week.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
July 15, 2009
Starting at 1:00 p.m. Central today, the Texas State Board of Education will be in session. You can listen to a live webcast of the meeting here.
According to the note I got from Steve Schafersman at Texas Citizens for Science, this is the agenda today:
Important agenda items include 3. Ethics Training, 4. Legislative Update, 6. Discussion of Expert Reviewers, and 7. Discussion of Texas High School Graduation Requirements.
More meetings tomorrow and Friday — they should all be webcasts.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
July 10, 2009
Texas Gov. Rick Perry named Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, to chair the State Board of Education.
Texas senators rejected Perry’s earlier nomination of Don McLeroy, R-Beaumont, due to McLeroy’s divisive tactics on board issues. The chair must come from one of the board’s 15 elected members.
Perry was thought to favor a radical conservative to push the anti-education wishes of hard-core Republicans in Texas, whose vote Perry hopes to have in a tough fight for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will try to oust Perry for the party’s nomination. Some feared Perry would nominate Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, who is even more radical than McLeroy.
In contrast, Lowe has been a relatively reliable vote against Texas teachers and science curricula, but she is not known to be as polarizing as McLeroy. She has compromised on some issues, voting with educators and students.
Perry’s turning to Lowe indicates his disregard of education as an issue, and his writing off of the vote of Texas teachers and parents of students. Perry could have named an experienced administrator and peace maker who could push the board to do its legally-mandated work on time, by nominating Bob Craig, R-Lubbock. Perry’s turning to Lowe instead indicates that a working board is not among his priorities.
Lowe’s appointment to the chair probably is not so bad as a Dunbar appointment would have been. But unless Ms. Lowe makes serious efforts to push for journeyman policy-making from board members, avoiding intentional controversies and simply resolving controversial issues that cannot be avoided, the SBOE will contined to be little more than political theatre in Austin, except when it actually rules on curricula and textbook issues.
Few expect the board to be a fountain of wisdom, or an example of education excellence over the next two years.
Perry’s action becomes not so bad as the potential slap in the face to Texas education that he might have delivered. It’s the slap without a windup. Texas students deserved a kiss instead.
Lowe will serve at least until the State Senate can act to approve or disapprove the nomination; the legislature will meet next in January 2011. Lowe can serve for 17 months before the legislature meets.
Information:
Pre-nomination information:
Also at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Education, Education quality, Education reform, Politics, State school boards, Texas, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, War on Education | Tagged: Don McLeroy, Education, Gail Lowe, Gov. Rick Perry, Politics, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 7, 2009
Just when you thought it was safe to take a serious summer vacation, finish the latest Doris Kearns Goodwin, and catch up on a couple of novels . . .
The sharks of education policy are back.
Or the long knives are about to come out (vicious historical reference, of course, but I’m wagering the anti-education folks didn’t catch it). Pick your metaphor.
Our friend Steve Schafersman sent out an e-mail alert this morning:
The Expert Reviews of the proposed Texas Social Studies curriculum are now available at
http://ritter. tea.state. tx.us/teks/ social/experts. html
Social Studies Expert Reviewers
- David Barton, President, WallBuilders
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Jesus Francisco de la Teja, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Texas State University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Daniel L. Dreisbach, Professor, American University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Lybeth Hodges, Professor, History, Texas Woman’s University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Jim Kracht, Associate Dean and Professor, College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
- Peter Marshall, President, Peter Marshall Ministries
Review of Current Social Studies TEKS
You can download their review as a pdf file.
Three of these reviewers are legitimate, knowledgeable, and respected academics who undoubtedly did a fair, competent, and professional job. The other three are anti-church- state separation, anti-secular public government, and pseudoscholars and pseudohistorians. I expect their contributions to be biased, unprofessional, and pseudoscholarly. Here are the bad ones:
Barton may be the worst of the three. He founded Wallbuilders to deliberately destroy C-S separation and promote Fundamentalist Christianity in US government. Just about everything he has written is unhistorical and inaccurate. For example, Barton has published numerous “quotes” about C-S separation made by the Founding Fathers that upon investigation turned out to be hoaxes. Here’s what Senator Arlen Specter had to say about Barton:
Probably the best refutation of Barton’s argument simply is to quote his own exegesis of the First Amendment: “Today,” Barton says, “we would best understand the actual context of the First Amendment by saying, ‘Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination. ‘ ” In keeping with Barton’s restated First Amendment, Congress could presumably make a law establishing all Christian denominations as the national religion, and each state could pass a law establishing a particular Christian church as its official religion.
All of this pseudoscholarship would hardly be worth discussing, let alone disproving, were it not for the fact that it is taken so very seriously by so many people.
I am sure these six will participate in a Great Texas History Smackdown before our crazy SBOE. Perhaps this will finally sicken enough citizens that they will finally vote to get rid of the SBOE, either directly or indirectly. Be sure to listen to this hearing on the web audio. Even better, the web video might be working so you can watch the SBOE Carnival Sideshow.
Steven Schafersman, Ph.D.
President, Texas Citizens for Science
The non-expert experts were appointed by Don McLeroy before the Texas Senate refused to confirm his temporary chairmanship of the State Board of Education. The good McLeroy may have done as chairman is interred with his dead chairmanship; the evil he did lives on. (Under McLeroy and Barton’s reading of history and literature, most students won’t catch the reference for the previous sentence.)
Tony Whitson at Curricublog posted information you need to read. Texas Freedom Network’s Insider has a first pass analysis of the crank experts’ analyses — they want to make Texas’s social studies curriculum more sexist, more racist, more anti-Semitic, more anti-working man, and closer to Sunday school pseudo-history. While Dallas prepares to name a major street in honor of Cesar Chavez, Barton and Marshall say he’s too Mexican and too close to Jews, and so should be de-emphasized in history books (a small picture of Chavez appears on one of the main U.S. history texts now).
That’s the stuff that jumps out at first. What else will we find when we dig?
More to come; watch those spaces, and this one, too.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Bogus history, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Religion, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, Texas history, Textbook Selection, Textbooks, Voodoo history, War on Education, War on the Constitution | Tagged: Bogus history, David Barton, Don McLeroy, Education, education standards, Separation of church and state, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, Voodoo history, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 