Ruse on Fodor, Nagel, Plantinga

This week’s Chronicle [of Higher Education] Review features a long piece by Michael Ruse with the title, “Philosophers Rip Darwin.” The occasion for Ruse’s article is  “the publication of a new book by Jerry A. Fodor, a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a professor of cognitive science at the University of […]

Texas outdone by South Dakota (climate change)

After so many posts here on Texas lunacy, it’s something of a relief to post on another state outdoing Texas in dictating political nonsense for teaching in the public schools. State of South Dakota EIGHTY-FIFTH SESSION LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2010 363R0643 HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1009 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in […]

2½-Hour TV tribute to Howard Zinn

This program is being re-aired: Saturday, February 27th at 1pm (ET) Saturday, February 27th at 11:30pm (ET) The C-SPAN page, with information, transcript, and video, is at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/219641 .

Ohio Council for the Social Studies on Ohio curriculum revision

Here’s a position statement by OCSS on the revision of Social Studies standards in Ohio: 

Texas Standards and the “Quality Counts” report

Being ignorant is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is nothing to be particularly proud of either. A large and disruptive segment of the Texas State Board of Education is not only ignorant — a state that we all share at various times and on various subjects — it is proudly and aggressively ignorant, […]

Texas Exceptionalism (Texas opts out of common education standards)

Governor Rick Perry announced today that Texas will not submit an application for education funding in the federal government’s “Race to the top” competition. His office issued a press release under the title:  Gov. Perry: Texas Knows Best How to Educate Our Students. Here’s a video clip from his announcement: more about “Office of the […]

Tiger Woods and Social Studies

Here’s what I, as a Social Studies educator, find completely unacceptable from Tiger Woods: Woods weighs in on Augusta membership GolfWeb Wire Services — July 16, 2002 GULLANE, Scotland — Tiger Woods was vague, his answers repetitive. For the first time at a major championship, he seemed unprepared and uncomfortable when handling a topic that […]

Representative Democracy vs. the Senate filibuster

A cloture-proof filibuster is more than just a remote hypothetical possibility. The pie-chart here provides a picture of what it means for representative democracy when such a minority can hold hostage the government of the United States. The minority — in terms of representation of the people — is significantly less than the 40% that it is often thought to be.

Richard Dawkins this weekend on BookTV

Richard Dawkins will be on BookTV (C-SPAN2) this weekend. Click here to find the book at a library near you. Click here for the Web page at BookTV. Here’s the preliminary information (but note: Last weekend the daytime schedule was pre-empted by the unusual weekend proceedings of the U.S. Senate. C-SPAN2 was created to cablecast […]

Presentation by Dr. Yong Zhao, Confucius Institute at Michigan State University

Here’s a presentation by Dr. Yong Zhao, from Michigan State University (Thanks for this link to Ana Marjanovic-Shane, who writes, “The video is very long — almost 3 hours but it is worth watching — especially the second part,” in its consideration of “education, creativity, art and play in education [discussed in] a very important […]

SBOE: The Missing Episodes

From what we hear in these proceedings, there could be an SBOE majority, along with the Commissioner, who are open to this kind of politicization of committee membership, not only for TEKS development, but for textbook approval as well. They have the power to do this even thought it’s not really required by the statute (as Ames falsely claims that it is). Still, in case the claim about the statute will not be put to rest by the Board’s TEA lawyer, the sane attorneys Craig and Berlanga must be prepared to request an opinion from the Attorney General, which would decisively shut down this claim by the appointees of Bradley and McLeroy.

Voting on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, by Party

This (and the previous) post are written with concern for “ensuring that our youth get an accurate historical view of the United States,” rather than the false view that Virginia Foxx and others have been trying to project, with their deceptive use of such practices as concealing the historical context while alluding to the aggregated voting percentages. Factually accurate statistics can always be used, without their necessary context, for telling lies. As they say, “Figures never lie, but liars figure.”

Experts, standards, textbooks

It looks to me like they have not actually changed the definition of who is an expert. What they’ve done, rather, is to change it so people don’t need any expertise to be on the textbook review panel. I can see how there could be some rationale for including non-experts in the standards development process, since that can be regarded as a policy-making process, in which it could make some sense to include some political interest representation, along with the expertise. The same rationale would not apply, however, to the review of textbooks. At that point, the policy decisions have been made already. Policy determination is something prior to and separate from textbook review. Textbook review might require different kinds of expertise (expertise in grade-specific pedagogy, for example, as well as expertise in the subject or discipline), but it is not a process calling for further policy-making representation of political, commercial, or industrial interests. Employers might have expertise for judging textbooks and materials for occupational/vocational courses, but not for courses in science, math, history, etc.

“honest history” for Texas social studies standards?

In her testimony Wednesday night, November 18, before the Texas State Board of education, Carole Haynes (phonetic) helpfully informed the Board members that There has been so much controversy over the Civil Rights [legislation], … and the truth was, Republicans voted for it and the Democrats voted against it. … We need to set that […]

the debate I wanna see (Will Phillips v. Carrie Prejean)

On CNN Monday morning (Nov. 16, 2009), ten-year-old Will Phillips his reason for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance in his fifth-grade class: I’ve grown up with a lot of people and I’m good friends with a lot of people who are gay and I think they should have the rights all people should, […]

“Are Too Many Students Going to College?”

The cover feature for the November 13 issue of the Chronicle Review section of the The Chronicle of Higher Education is a forum on the question: “Are Too Many Students Going to College?” People are sure to differ in their judgments as to how that question should be answered. What I want to call attention […]

Mass., Va., etc. “students’ religious freedom” bills

There’s “An Act Relative to Protecting the Religious Freedom of Students” pending in the Massachusetts legislature which, according to Antoinette Pizzi reporting in the Cape Cod Times, “has bipartisan support and is expected to pass favorably through the Joint Committee on Education.” Folks at the National Center for Science Education have taken particular notice of […]