June 25, 2009
Betsy Oney teaches in Arlington, Texas. She’s a frontline soldier in the fight to educate our kids.
She also reads the newspapers and pays attention to what is going on at the highest levels in Texas government. From her view, she describes better than anyone else I’ve seen, the problem facing Texas Gov. Rick Perry right now, after the Texas State Senate rejected Perry’s nominee to head the State Board of Education, Don McLeroy.
Betsy’s views appeared as an opposite-editorial piece in the Fort Worth Star Telegram on June 7, 2009:
Texas governor in a dilemma over education board pick
By BETSY ONEY
Special to the Star-Telegram
Gov. Rick Perry is in something of a Catch-22.
It started two years ago when he appointed dentist Don McLeroy to chair the State Board of Education. McLeroy is described by his many supporters as a “good and decent man,” and of that we can be sure.
McLeroy’s appointment came after the 80th Legislature adjourned, so he had to be confirmed during this year’s session. The confirmation failed in the Senate.
McLeroy’s supporters blame that on the fact that he’s a Christian. Records show that this Senate, and the House Public Education Committee in a July 16 hearing, were concerned not that he’s Christian but that McLeroy politicized Texas children’s education and led the board and the Texas education system into the spotlight. And what Texans and Americans saw in that light was a fairly grotesque parade of a few people — a majority faction of the board led by McLeroy — who listened to ideology instead of experts and were intent on imposing an antiquated education system on Texas children.
From that same elected board, Perry now must decide on a new chairman who, like McLeroy, will serve without scrutiny until the next legislative session, in 2011.
Perry’s decision is his Catch-22.
He probably won’t consider a Democrat. That leaves nine Republican possibilities. Seven are the radical members responsible for politicizing children’s education. They voted in lock step on a range of issues that individually and collectively have been widely seen by educators and lawyers as anything from illegal to unconstitutional to damaging children. Nominating from that pool might yield a different management style than McLeroy offered, but the ideology, intent and backward direction would remain the same.
The two remaining Republicans are conservative, but not extremists. Both District 11’s Pat Hardy of Fort Worth and District 15’s Bob Craig of Lubbock are well-qualified and would lead Texas public education in the right direction. In contrast to the radical members, they would be responsive to the changing educational needs that the future demands as well as to the rich diversity of children in our population.
Although Hardy has been mentioned as a nominee by senators, she’s recommending Craig.
Craig, an attorney, is a logical choice. He’s served on the board since 2002 and before that served on the Lubbock school board for 14 years. Craig is a “good and decent man,” but in contrast to McLeroy, his voting record and conciliatory demeanor show him to be a rational, uniting public education supporter. He listens to educators and experts. He respects the opinions of others. He votes in the interest of all children.
It’s clear that Perry could not make a better choice than Bob Craig. The Catch-22 is that by appointing a nonextremist, Perry risks losing support from his biggest donors, the religious right.
These donors see benefit in turning public education into religious education at taxpayer expense. They see benefit in keeping critical thinking out of the classroom. Their money is essential in his campaign against Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison in the next gubernatorial primary election.
If Perry appoints from the pool of radical rights, the voting public will be alerted that he’s sacrificing our children’s education and Texas’ future for his own political interests. So he’ll lose votes.
Money and ideology vs. public’s interest and, ultimately, its confidence. What a dilemma! Stay tuned.
Betsy Oney of Fort Worth holds a master of education degree and is a master reading teacher (and English-as-a-second-language teacher) in the Arlington school district.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Robert Luhn via Glenn Branch.
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Education, Education quality, Politics, State school boards, Texas, War on Education | Tagged: Betsy Oney, Education, education standards, Gov. Rick Perry, Politcs, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
May 27, 2009
Tim Ritz cartoon, for Americans United
Texas Freedom Network’s Insider blog reports that embattled chairman Don McLeroy is working to create a panel of experts to review studies curricula. The experts he has proposed so far are all well-known cranks in academia, people who bring their axes to grind on the minds of innocent children.
This panel is a bold insult to Texas’s community of economists, historians, and other practitioners of fields of social studies, not to mention educators. A more qualified panel of experts could be assembled in the coffee break rooms of the history departments at most of Texas’s lesser known state colleges and universities.
Why does Don McLeroy hate Texas so?
I’ve been buried in teaching, grading, planning and the other affairs of the life of a teacher, and had not paid much attention to the movement on this issue (“movement” because I cannot call it “progress”). My students passed the state tests by comfortable margins, more than 90% of them; this news from SBOE makes me despair even in the face of the news that our achievements are substantial in all categories.
The panel lacks knowledge and experience in economics, geography and history. The panel is grotesquely unbalanced — at least two of the panel members remind me of Ezra Taft Benson, who was Secretary of Agriculture for Dwight Eisenhower. When he resigned from that post, he complained that Eisenhower was too cozy with communism. Barton and Quist lean well to the right of Ezra Taft Benson. Quist has complained of socialist and Marxist leanings of Reagan administration education policy and policy makers.
Samuel Morse sent the first telegraphic message on May 24, 1844: “What hath God wrought?”
Sitting here on the morning of May 27, 2009, I wonder what rot hath Don.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
March 30, 2009
Historical Item: William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper in New York favored war with Spain in 1898 — the Spanish-American War. When the war got underway, on the top of the newspaper’s first page, in the corners (the “ears”), Hearst printed, “America! How do you like your war!”
Creationism lost on the votes that had been planned for weeks, on issues members of the State Board of Education were informed about. But creationists on the board proposed a series of amendments to several different curricula, and some really bad science was written in to standards for Texas school kids to learn. Climate change got an official “tsk-tsk, ain’t happenin'” from SBOE. And while Wilson and Penzias won a Nobel Prize for stumbling on the evidence that confirmed it, Big Bang is now theory non grata in Texas science books. Using Board Member Barbara Cargill’s claims, Texas teachers now should teach kids that the universe is a big thing who tells big lies about her age.
Phil Plait wrote at Bad Astronomy: “Texas: Yup. Doomed.”
A surefire way to tell that the changes were bad: The Discovery Institute’s lead chickens crow victory over secularism, science and “smart people.” Well, no, they aren’t quite that bold. See here, here, here and here. Disco Tute even slammed the so-conservative-Ronald-Reagan-found-it-dull Dallas Morning News for covering the news nearly accurately. Even more snark here. Discovery Institute’s multi-million-dollar budget to buy good public relations for anti-science appears to have dropped a bundle in Austin; while it might appear that DI had more people in Austin than there are members of the Texas SBOE . . . no, wait, maybe they did.
SBOE rejected the advice of America’s best and greatest scientists. If it was good science backed by good scientists and urged by the nation’s best educators, SBOE rejected it. If it was a crank science idea designed to frustrate teaching science, it passed. As the Texas Freedom Network so aptly put it, while SBOE closed the door on “strengths and weaknesses” language that favors creationism, they then opened every window in the house.
Read ’em, and tell us in comments if you find any reason for hope, or any reason the state legislature shouldn’t abolish this board altogether. (What others should we add to the list?)
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5 Comments | Biology, Education, Education quality, Environmental protection, Evolution, History, Physics, Religion, Science, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Biology, Education, Environmental Science, Evolution, geology, Physics, Science, Science Standards, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 11, 2009
NYC Educator tells the story: Teachers, denied parking permits, park on the street — legally.
School day starts. City crews show up, post brand new “no parking signs.”
Cops show up. Cops ticket teachers’ cars.
$150 to park for the day.
Do you love education? Do you support teachers? Write to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Tell him to investigate, and to establish justice:
You may contact me directly by writing, calling, faxing or e-mailing:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
FAX (212) 788-2460
E-MAIL:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
I hope you will visit NYC.gov regularly as we continue to update the site with information about new happenings throughout New York City.
Sincerely,
Good teachers leave education every day. When I talk to them about it, these little insults boil up, and boil over. The small insults add up. These are the things that, left uncorrected, hammer away at the foundations of education. Does New York respect teachers, and want good schools? Let New York show it.
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4 Comments | Education, Education reform, Government, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Education reform, Motivation, New York City, Teachers, Teaching, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
October 24, 2008
Have you looked around lately?
Dallas isn’t the only school system in trouble in America. Financial woes plague many, perhaps most of the nation’s schools systems.
Funding for schools is difficult in an environment where even good schools get stuck with the label “failing school” due to seriously misdirected programs from the federal government. The situation is complicated by a non-booming economy, especially in districts that had been gearing to build new schools to accommodate increased student populations.
What will the future bring?
It’s enough to merit its own little impromptu carnival. Oy.
- In Hawaii, libraries may not have enough money to stay open — in Hawaii, the libraries fall under the jurisdiction of education. Long gone are the days when Republican war hero/president Dwight Eisenhower found libraries to be the fount of information necessary for civilization, and proposed to spend $100 million to be certain even the smallest counties in America had a good library. (From The Honolulu Advertiser)
- Virginia proposes to whack education to make up for a statewide $2.5 billion funding shortage. (News Advance in Lynchburg)
- It’s this bad: In Missouri, Republicans campaign on the idea that education funding is bad. You don’t believe there’s a War on Education? Look at the local races, such as the race for the Missouri House of Representatives between Democrat incumbent Sara Lampe and Republican Michael S. Goodart, Jr. “Goodart criticizes his opponent as a polished, one-issue politician, referring to Lampe’s background as an educator and proponent of education funding.” Oh, yeah, those fat cats in public education. (From the Springfield News-Leader)
- Community colleges in Florida, suffering from “draconian” budget cuts, don’t agree on Amendment 8 on this election’s ballot, a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution to allow counties to hold elections to increase taxes for community college funding. Some colleges fear this is the first step by the legislature to cut off state support. (Miami Herald)
- Great googly-moogly, it’s difficult to tell what’s going on in South Dakota. It looks like the Democrat calls for a cut in state spending including education, though South Dakota ranks 51st in teacher pay (out of 50 states, that’s a remarkable failure!). (Sioux Falls Argus Leader)
- In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the schools are headed for a crash. When we drove through there last month, the headlines told of a proposal to dissolve the school district completely. But that’s a little way into the future. Right now the district must choose between double-digit increases in taxes, or dramatic, education-crippling budget cuts. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel publishes a special on-line education section, with information on the crisis in Milwaukee’s schools. The fight is getting bitter. (Looks this morning as if the board chose the tax increase — bet they’re not up for election this fall.)
- Perennial crab William Murchison complains in the East Texas Review that public schools are the problem, and invites Joe the Plumber to Texas where he can get a plumber’s license without knowing anything about plumbing. Ignorance about plumbing among plumbers good for business, Murchison says. He probably feels the same about ignorance in other areas — good for business. Murchison blames school funding woes on the schools. If only they’d close, Murchison says, things might be better. (Heck, Murchison even complains about Brownsville ISD’s winning the Broad Prize — according to Murchison, they don’t deserve it. Crabby, crabby, crabby.)
- Dallas, Texas’s schools are being hammered by the Bush economy, according to U.S. News and World Report. That’s why the layoffs, the magazine said. Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa apologized to laid-off teachers and their now-more-heavily-laden colleagues, but he did it to an audience of lawyers, not teachers. Have all the shoes dropped? No one knows.
There may be updates. We haven’t even gotten to the Texas SBOE House of Science Horrors.
Vote, will you?
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Posted by Ed Darrell
October 17, 2008
It will probably be several weeks before the full effects are known. Dallas ISD is about 500 teachers lighter today than it was two weeks ago. Yesterday the forced layoff notices went out, to teachers whose positions could not be saved by another teacher’s having retired, or simply resigned.
There is great irony. The year started with a mass meeting of Dallas’s 20,000 or so teachers, with an inspirational speech from a Dallas fifth grader. After nearly a decade of shaky leadership at the district office, most people thought Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa was close to established trim in the ship of educational state. Even Dallas Mayer Tom Leppart showed up to congratulate Hinojosa and cheer on the teachers.
News of an $84 million shortfall, the result of finance and payroll offices failing to integrate their systems, followed a couple of weeks later, and it’s been a downhill slide for teachers since then. NEA and AFT affiliates point to a lot of problems in Dallas ISD financial controls. How could they not notice an $84 million hemorrhage?
(Let me note here that I’ve been at private corporations that made errors of similar magnitude. Generally the problems were dealt with quietly. “Writeoff of bad investment” was what the annual reports usually said, or something like that.)
Originally, we heard 750 teachers would go. There are about 250 schools in the district — three teachers per school. Welcome to “Survivor, Dallas ISD.” Who gets to vote whom off the island?
Morale is low. It’s been interesting to see who used the turmoil as just an excuse to get out. It’s been interesting to see how many teachers had illnesses suddenly flare up. Requests for information or work from the central offices get a lot more sneers from teachers. In the teacher’s work areas, in meetings in the hallways, cynicism rose to all time highs.
Our department of about 20 people lost two — one position that was not yet filled, and one retirement. That’s a 10% hit. Overall, our school lost just under a dozen teachers. So much for the “three per school” hope. It’s still unclear how some classes will be covered come Monday. Some schools will have to shuffle their student/class assignments completely. We’re starting over on the year, eight weeks in.
Some of the effects are predictable, some are not.
- Special education teachers laid off complain that they are paid from federal funds. At least one will sue.
- Students whisper to other teachers, wondering whether their favorites will go (why don’t they as the teacher?); sometimes the students hope a teacher will be terminated.
- Already noted, illnesses appear to be up.
- Several teachers with offers from other districts resigned, collecting a double paycheck for the next few months. Many of the teachers leaving Dallas are among the best. One we lost had just started what promised to be a brilliant career teaching math.
- Parents are confused. We had report card/parent-teacher conferences last Monday. One family asked me whether schools would open at all come next Monday.
- Class reshufflings yield gaps in education, when a student moves from one class where subject A had not been covered, to another class where subject A was taught in a project three weeks ago.
So, damage is done that cannot be undone. Teachers who had spirited devotion to their jobs and the district less than two months ago, hunker down.
Remember that rock climber who got his arm stuck under a falling rock? In 2003, Aron Alston amputated his own arm to get to freedom after a few days with his arm stuck.
That’s a good metaphor for Dallas schools right now. We’ve amputated most of an arm. No time to mourn. Move on. Except, there was no rock, and there was no chance to make such a clear calculation.
Ask not for whom the bells toll.
Tally from the Dallas Morning News:
The cuts
About 375: Teachers laid off Thursday, representing 3 percent of the district’s 11,500 teachers
40: Assistant principals and counselors released Thursday
152: Number of noncontract employees laid off last week, including clerks, office managers and teacher’s assistants
About 100: Number of unfilled, noncontract positions eliminated last week
62: Central office members laid off
About 100: Number of vacant central office positions eliminated
More than 200: Number of employees who have voluntarily resigned
Total: More than 1,000 total positions eliminated
Projected savings
$30 million: Expected savings from job cuts and unfilled vacancies
$38 million: Expected savings from cutting various programs throughout the district
Total: $68 million
Resources:
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1 Comment | Business, Business Ethics, Education, History, Politics, Teacher Pay, Teaching, Texas, War on Education | Tagged: Dallas schools, Economics, Education, Layoffs, Teachers, Teaching, Texas, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 25, 2008
Let’s get back to education nuts and bolts for a while. I have not commented on this partly because I’ve been on the road and just busier than most teachers with three preps, and partly because this is just jaw-droppingly unbelievable stuff.
Education nuts, anyway, maybe without the bolts.
Officials at Dallas Independent School District (DISD) announced over a week ago they had discovered an accounting error that led to hiring too many new teachers, and a $64 million shortfall. The Board of Trustees asked for more details to a plan proposed last week that includes layoffs of teachers, including some that were newly-hired.
The second report is due this afternoon, and the DISD Board will meet tonight to consider action. If people are not cut, the budget shortfall will double in the rest of this fiscal year.
Most teachers have been working on estimates that 750 teachers will be axed, which works out to about 3 from each campus.
The Dallas Morning News’s DISD Blog says fewer than 750 will go.
More employees could be laid off than expected. We’re hearing from a good source that 1,209 employees would be let go if the board approves to have a reduction in force at today’s 3 p.m. meeting.
The layoff numbers breakdown like this:
Central office – 164
Campus non-contract support staff – 250
Campus administrators – 50
Teachers – 675
Non-teaching campus support staff – 70
One more battle lost in the War on Education. For Dallas, this is a big one, for the effects on morale alone.
Coupled with the collapse of schools in Milwaukee, lack of gasoline in Tennessee, the unmitigated and unreported natural disaster from the storm named Gustav that hit Baton Rouge, the known disaster caused by Hurricane and Tropical Depression Ike, one might be excuse for thinking much of the U.S. is sinking to second- or third-world status. Oh, and did I mention that most of our larger financial institutions are in ruins, too?
As one of the more recent hires in Dallas ISD, excuse me while I go back to working with the kids.
What? You thought I’d have time to chew my fingernails? You don’t know jack about teaching, or teachers, if you thought that.
Stay tuned. Check out resources listed below.
Resources:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
June 30, 2008
I love the headline: “Anti-science law signed by Louisiana’s exorcist governor.”
Tony Whitson’s quick analysis is good, too.
One might begin to think Louisiana really is cursed. Katrina, Rita, other political troubles — and then they elect the bright, young reformer as governor, and he turns out to be a voodoo history and voodoo science practitioner — heck, maybe he practices just plain old voodoo.
All this comes at a time when it may have saved John McCain from making a mistake that would make George McGovern’s selection of Tom Eagleton look like wisdom of the ages (when news came out that Eagleton had undergone convulsive shock therapy for depression, he was replaced on the ticket by Sargent Shriver, but not after much damage had been done to the credibility and viability of the McGovern campaign — why Nixon thought it necessary to sponsor burglary to defeat this ticket is one of the mysteries of the ages of Shakespearian tragedy come to life in in American politics).
Mind you, I like and respect McGovern, and I found working with Tom Eagleton on the Senate Labor Committee a great joy.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
June 28, 2008
It happens. Last night I had a semi-emergency root canal. That’s not why I haven’t blogged, though — I feel fine. I haven’t used any of the pain medication. I’ve been able to work without the headache I thought was sinus, but now appears to have been an infected tooth.
But the story is Harry Sugg’s dental practice at Wheatland Dental.
There’s a lesson there for health care. There’s a lesson there for professional services, like law offices. There’s a lesson there for schools.
After a half-day wrangling with the dental insurance company — a phone system very unfriendly to clients asking questions, a fellow with bad information about which dentists in the area are on the plan — I got through in the late afternoon to Sugg’s office. I’m a new patient, and I more than half expected them to offer an appointment late next week.
Instead, the receptionist said the entire staff, but for her, were out celebrating Dr. Sugg’s birthday. But they’d be back in an hour, and I should be there when they arrived.
The waiting room has massaging chairs, two televisions running different, intrigueing DVDs, and a coffee pot. Before I’d finished the paperwork I was offered a bottle of water. Zip, zip, zip. Oh, and no out-of-date magazines (a few interesting books, on history mostly, and astronomy). The waiting room was not full at all — not a lot of waiting. One group appeared to be there to support an aging family member. They kept up a lively and often funny line of patter with the staff. It was as if a co-ed barber shop had broken out in the waiting room.
The exam was quick, with digital x-rays, from a woman who noted most of the staff was in a training session in the lunchroom — the Guinness Book of World Records‘s champion speed reader was offering reading tips to the staff. A quick diagnosis from Dr. Sugg — could I be back at 8:00 p.m. for the procedure?
That’s right: 8:00 p.m. The office hours run until 9:00 p.m. Other options were Saturday and Sunday. It’s a ’round-the-clock, through-the-week operation.
I mortgaged our grandchildren, took the prescriptions to the pharmacy, got a quick dinner and headed back. Dr. Linda Cha performed the procedure. She deadened everything before I got a needle — didn’t feel any pain at any time. Obviously highly skilled, she explained as much of the procedure as I needed, always solicitous to my comfort.
As I left the office at about 10:15 p.m., an attendant gave me a fresh red rose. Today they called to check on my progress and spend a significant amount of time answering questions.
Could I get used to that kind of care?
So I thought back to the days I aided intake at Legal Services of North Texas — the cattle-call features, the crowded hallways, the lack of restrooms, the vending machines that often didn’t work, the impossible tasks of trying to match a sticky legal situation with an attorney to do the work for free. Clients weren’t happy with much of anything there. I did this often while I worked at Ernst & Young — free coffee, free soft drinks, free pastries, client-effusive hospitality. Lots of training. And at bigger lawfirms in town, with restroom attendants, shoeshine machines, on-site concierge for employees and clients if needed.
At one of our high schools in Dallas, men’s restrooms for faculty went without water to the sink for months. The teachers’ “lounge” doubled as a site for a major computer node, so the ambient temperature was generally close to 90 degrees. A coffee maker looked as though it hadn’t been used in months, nor that it could produce any coffee that wouldn’t resemble industrial sludge. But teachers only get 30 minutes for lunch anyway.
Anyone who doubts there is a War on Education hasn’t been in most schools lately.
Harry Sugg runs a great business. Professional offices and other businesses could learn a lot from how he operates his dental clinic. Schools could learn a lot, too. He could consult with school districts on how to treat employees and get good results. I’ll wager the school districts wouldn’t listen.
Teacher meetings? Frankly, I’d rather have a root canal. And I’ll pay for the service.
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1 Comment | Business, Customer Care, Education, Health care, War on Education | Tagged: Business, Customer Service, Dental Care, Education, Employee Relations, Harry Sugg, Health care, Medical Care, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 27, 2008
According to the Associated Press, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the latest creationism bill to come out of the Louisiana legislature “in the last few days.”
Discovery Institute operatives claimed credit for authoring the bill and provided close support to advocates of the bill in Louisiana. Oddly, now that the bill has become law and is likely to be a litigation magnet, DI has backed off of supporting the bill.
That is an object lesson, which may be lost on Louisiana school boards. The bill is a bit of a stealth creationism bill. It doesn’t directly advocate creationism by name. It adopts the creationist tactics of claiming that criticism of evolution is critical thinking, a confused statement of what critical thinking is if ever there was one. Critical thinking should involve real information, real knowledge, and serious criticism of a topic. The bill is designed to frustrate the teaching of evolution. The part Louisiana school boards need to watch is this: The bill passes the buck on litigation to the school boards.
In other words, the Louisiana legislature, Louisiana Family Forum, and Discovery Institute will not support any school district that allows a teacher to teach the religious dogma that commonly passes as creationism and intelligent design.
As part of the War on Education and the War on Science, this is effective tactics in action. If any teacher in Louisiana seeks approval for anti-evolution materials as the law encourages, school boards are put on the spot. If the school board approves the anti-evolution material, it is the school board’s action that will be the subject of the suit; if the board disapproves the material, but the teacher teaches it, the teacher can be fired and would be personally liable for any lawsuit.
But if a science teacher teaches evolution as the textbook has it, the Louisiana Family Forum will complain to the school board that “alternative materials” were not offered.
So to avoid trouble, evolution will be left out of the curriculum. The kids are failing the tests anyway — who will notice, or care? Not the Louisiana lege, not the Louisiana governor.
As America slips farther behind the rest of the industrialized world on education achievement in science, Louisiana’s legislature has sided with those who promote the “rising tide of mediocrity.” If a foreign government had done this to us, we’d regard it as an act of war, the Excellence in Education Commission said in 1983.
So what is it when the Louisiana legislature and Gov. Jindal do it to us? Treason? Maybe Bill Dembski will ask Homeland Security to investigate this attack on America by Louisiana’s elected officials.
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6 Comments | Creationism, Education, Politics, Public education, Religion, Science, Voodoo science, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Politics, Religion, Science, Voodoo science, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 25, 2008
From a blog called Teachers Count:
A middle-school health teacher (in a small, conservative [read that religious] community) was put on administrative leave for teaching details about sexuality. The original story inferred that she was holding forth on details on homosexuality, masturbation, and oral sex. The truth is that she had taught the regular curriculum and thereafter fielded student questions, which turned to these things.
On the one hand, the outraged and prolix parents had every right to wax eloquent, loud and long on the violation of their parental rights in teaching their offspring about sex. It is even possible that some of those innocent students were hearing details theretofore unimagined by them
On the other hand–probably not. I teach junior high students, the same age as the endangered middle school kids in question. My students know lots about sex, far more than I ever knew at that age. For sure, these students see very explicit material on prime-time TV, and they surely see plenty of sex in the movies they watch. From time to time we discuss cinema in art class, and I am often floored at the kinds of movies these young kids view, both for violence and for sexuality. Furthermore, they watch and rewatch very explicit music videos–and many of them use outright porn. And furthermore, walking around the art room as kids work and talk, I overhear that many of them are sexually active at thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
No wonder they have questions about sexual practices. I believe the young health teacher caught herself in a trap. Experienced teachers know that there are certain things you never say, never discuss, because of community reaction. Young teachers, hoping to help kids understand a sexual world they really are much too young for, can get tripped up on answering questions.
No doubt our Utah middle school health teacher will not have her contract renewed next year. I think that is a shame. Obviously, the offended parents have no clue about what their kids’ lives are really like. They do not realize the misinformation–and the pressure–these young students experience. I would not be surprised to find that these offended parents have not given their kids much information on sex. Maybe the teacher crossed a line–and maybe a few students pushed her there. Still, I’d rather see her keep her job and learn the hard lesson of staying very conservative on certain subjects, like sex.
Accusations included the charge that the teacher distributed a list of 101 ways to have sex. In a heated meeting at the school, it turned out that the list was of 101 things to do instead of having sex. Ooops. And for this, parents want the woman fired?
Good analysis and background data in column by in the Salt Lake Tribune.
From that column, a list of what can and cannot be taught:
Careful what you say
What teachers can, and cannot, teach
as part of Utah’s human sexuality curriculum:
Teachers can:
* Stress the importance of abstinence from sexual activity before marriage and fidelity after marriage.
* Provide factual, unbiased information about contraception and condoms with prior written parental consent.
They cannot:
* Discuss the intricacies of intercourse, sexual stimulation or erotic behavior.
* Advocate homosexuality.
* Advocate or encourage contraceptive methods or devices.
* Advocate sexual activity outside of marriage.
Source: Utah State Office of Education
Who knows what’s really going on? It will be interesting to see how this case is resolved. It’s been hanging fire for a month now.
Other resources:
- Original news story in Salt Lake Tribune, “Teacher’s sex talk riles parents”
- Salt Lake Tribune editorial, “Threatening teachers makes no sense.”
- Tribune columnist Robert Kirby unbarbs the issues a bit with humor: “Neighbors assured me that it was all quite true. The teacher had even given her students a manual titled 101 Sexual Positions. For proof, I should attend the parents’ meeting at the school the following morning.
“I went. I don’t have kids attending Fort Herriman Middle School, so my interest was entirely selfish. Mad as they were, I figured the parents might try to hang the teacher. I didn’t want to miss that. Also, I wanted a copy of that 101 Positions manual.
“I arrived early enough to see the signs that students had put up in defense of the teacher, demanding her return to the classroom. Seriously, duh. If my health teacher had been holding orgies, I would have repeated seventh grade until I was 35.”
- Tribune editorial that takes a stand for giving children accurate information (no, I’m not making that up)
- Story in the Deseret News, Salt Lake City’s second daily newspaper
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Education, Health care, Public education, Public health, Science | Tagged: Disease Prevention, health, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
June 15, 2008
Considering recent history and the Texas State Board of Education, how can any reasonable voter or parent read this, except as a declaration of war on science? According to the blogs at the Dallas Morning News:
State Board of Education chairman David Bradley of Beaumont told GOP delegates [at the Texas State Republican Convention] that the board was about to take up the science curriculum for public schools. He forecasted a fight over evolution vs. creationism.
Bradley said there are some on the board (he’s among them) that believe God created Man.
“There are others who think their ancestors were apes. That’s okay. But I’m going to vote the right way,” Bradley said.
Is there anything there that suggests Bradley wants good science in Texas textbooks and Texas classrooms?
Remember the Excellence in Education Commission Report in 1983? The Commission warned that the nation was facing “a rising tide of mediocrity” in schools, in such things as lax science standards.
“Our nation is at risk. The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. History is not kind to idlers.”
25 years later, Commissar Don McLeroy is leading the tide of mediocrity, doing crippling things to our education system that the likes of Nikita Khruschev and Mao Ze Dong could only dream about.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Creationism, Education quality, Education reform, Evolution, History, Intelligent Design, Political conventions, Politics, Religion, Science, State school boards, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Education reform, Politics, Religion, Science, Texas, War on Education, War on Science | 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 25, 2008
The Houston Chronicle’s coverage of the Texas State Board of Education meetings this week is not well indexed on the web. Following a couple of odd links I found Gary Sharrar’s article (he’s the Chronicle’s education reporter), though the Associated Press Story shows up for the paper’s main article on most indices I found.
Sharrar adds a few details of Kommissar McLeroy’s war on English education, but the significant thing about the story is in the comments, I think. One poster appears to have details that are unavailable even from TEA. Partisans in the fight have details that Texas law requires to be made public in advance of the meetings, while the state officials who need to advise on the regulations and carry them out, do not.
TEA has an expensive website with full capabilities of publishing these documents within moments of their passage. As of Sunday morning, TEA’s website still shows the documents from last March. Surely Texas is not getting its value from TEA on this stuff.
Sharrar wrote:
Two different outside groups offered opposite reactions. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank, favored the board’s action.
“It is obvious that too many Texas public school students aren’t learning the basics with our current curriculum,” said Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry. “We are glad the new curriculum will emphasize grammar and writing skills.”
Texas public schools fail to adequately prepare many students for college or the workplace, she said, citing a 2006 survey by the Conference Board found that 81 percent of employers viewed recent high school graduates as “deficient in written communications” needed for letters, memos, formal reports and technical reports.
But the Texas Freedom Network, which promotes public education, religious freedom and individual liberties, called the board divisive and dysfunctional.
“College ready” generally means reading well, and reading broadly in literature. From a pedagogical standpoint, emphasizing “grammar and writing skills” over the reading that is proven to improve grammar and writing skills will be a losing battle. I hope the details of the plan will show something different when TEA ever makes them available to the taxpaying/education consuming public and English teachers. NCLB asks that such changes be backed by solid research — it will be fascinating to see whether there is any research to support the Texas plan (not that it matters; this section of NCLB has been ignored by the right wing from the moment NCLB was signed).
Prior to this week’s series of meetings, Commissar McLeroy expressed what sounds like disdain for reading in the English curriculum to the El Paso Times:
But chairman McLeroy said he would fight against some of the measures the educators want, especially the comprehension and fluency portion.
Their suggestions, he said, would have students waste time on repetitive comprehension strategies instead of actually practicing reading by taking in a rich variety of literature.
“I think that time is going to be lost because they’ll be reading some story, and they’ll just overanalyze,” he said.
By the way, calling the Texas Public Policy Foundation a “free market think tank” is misleading. The group is quite hostile to public education, and features on its board several people who have led fights to gut funding for public schools and impose bleed-the-schools voucher programs. The Foundation appears to endorse preaching in public schools and gutting science standards, among other problems.
If it’s good work, why is it done in secret? Remember that I spent years in right wing spin work in Washington. Here’s what I see: Either McLeroy’s administration at the state board is incredibly incompetent and can’t even get the good news right, and out on time, or there is another, darker and probably illegal agenda at work.
Below the fold, the full text of the comment from “WG1” at the Chronicle’s website.
Other resources:
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
9 Comments | Books, Curricula, Education, Freedom of Information, Literature, No Child Left Behind Act, Politics, Public education, State school boards, TAKS, Teaching, TEKS, Texas, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Education, English standards, Open Meetings Act, Politics, state board of education, Texas, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 24, 2008
Today is graduation day for some of my seniors, at the school where I teach. It’s a wonderful affair, and it will be good to see them off on the next step, ceremonial though it is.
The chaos caused by graduation in this district cannot be minimized, for an odd scheduling reason. Today the seniors graduate. Tuesday, we’re back in class with everyone else, with a couple of days of instruction and finals yet to go. It’s nice to have the seniors gone — the halls are much easier to navigate, the juniors are already stepping up, the sophomores and freshmen suddenly realize the work they do leads to something — but the schedule seems out of whack.
I’m trying to adapt.
This year our family has multiple graduations — well, two. Younger son James graduates in a bit over a week, assuming he gets in a mass of work in classes that appeared after the state tests (for which he was exempt because he passed them all the previous year), and after more AP tests than I thought humanly possible.
James’ school held a ceremony and reception for the top 11% of the graduates, 75 kids who may be in the top 10% (a magic number in Texas because it guarantees admission to Texas colleges). Texas colleges won a majority of the plans of the graduates, but there was an impressive number of students off to out-of-state schools of high repute. (James is off to Lawrence, in Wisconsin.)
I wake up in a cold sweat. Clearly we must have done something right, as parents of graduating kids, as teachers of graduating kids. What was it?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Education, Life, No Child Left Behind Act, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Graduation, Life, No Child Left Behind, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 