Archive for the ‘education’ Category
Cynthia Dunbar is scary
December 7th, 2008
In her book, One Nation Under God, Dunbar argues that the country’s founding fathers created “an emphatically Christian government” and believed that government should be guided by a “biblical litmus test.”
Dunbar endorses a belief system requiring “any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern.”
She calls public education a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.” The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even “tyrannical,” she writes in the book, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.
So who gets to decide the “biblical litmus test?” What qualifies as “sincere knowledge?” Did she really tell the voters that she thinks that public schools are unconstitutional or just say that she was for more school choice?
I’m always amazed at the calls for a more “Christian” government. Oh sure, it’s easy to exclude the Jews and Muslims but have these people actually stopped to think about how they would define legitimate “Christians” and worship from those who aren’t? Mormons in or out? After all, this is a religion that was founded in the United States. Catholics? They had an entire colony. Would it be Christians for or against torture? And which version of the Bible would we be using?
The Landscape Survey confirms that the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country; the number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%. Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions — evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
Don’t they realize that probably the best reason to keep religion out of government is so that government does pick and define the religion? Of course, I’m sure she assumes that she’ll be part of the group doing the defining…
Death threat as a motivation technique
May 23rd, 2008
No charges will be brought against New Braunfels Middle School Principal John Burks for allegedly threatening to kill a group of science teachers if their students’ standardized test scores failed to improve, although all four teachers at the meeting told police investigators Burks made the statement.
Now imagine if some student at the school had said something along the same lines in a writing assignment. We would be hearing about zero tolerance all over the place. The student would be out of the regular classroom so fast it would make your head spin.
The sad part about this is that I bet if a mere, ordinary teacher were to have made some similar statement, he or she would be treated more like the student rather than the principle.
What is being taught? What is being learned?
April 21st, 2008
Students at Medina Valley High School in Castroville say more of them spent the day in in-school suspension than in class because they chose to wear the color green to school after being told not to.
So now we know what’s important to students and that the school administration is more than capable of making a mountain out of a molehill.
“I wore green because they told me, ‘well, you can’t wear green’ and seeing as how wearing green is not against the rules, I’m gonna do it just to make you mad,” Holloway said.
Some suggested links for the students and administration:
It had to come from an educrat
April 14th, 2008
With the Top 10 % Rule, obviously more people are paying attention to how schools rank the students.
Catherine takes mostly AP courses, and under the district’s system those courses earn more points than regular classes. But for three years of soccer, she earned no points at all.
North East adopted its rank point system in 2003 because district officials said under the GPA-based system, students could make it to the top of their class simply by doing well in basic courses. They wanted the top-ranked students to be those who were most prepared for college, so they devised a system intended to encourage students to challenge themselves.
I’m astounded at this incredibly bizarre system. Apparently, the district thought it was better for students to accumulate points for the various classes rather than do a weighted average for gpa. I can see where they might go down this path. Theoretically, a senior could just take one AP class and no other classes and have a higher weighted gpa than someone who took six AP classes as a senior. But by giving absolutely no points for certain classes, the student who takes PE, Art, and Theater Arts (I’m just guessing at what might be no point classes here) is no better off point wise than the student who didn’t take any classes. Who came up with that system?
Did anyone stop to think which system, a weighted GPA system or an accumulated point system had more “non-deserving” students in the top ten percent? Given the importance of class rank, would it have been that difficult for the district to apply the various systems to past classes to see who it would sort out?
Apparently, it was so obvious to some decision makers that a weighted gpa would be more unfair than a point system that there was no question of which way to go. I just wonder how many other school districts in Texas thought it was obvious to use such system?
Technorati Tags: Class rankings, calculating class rank, Texas, gpa
If you can’t join them, sue them
April 8th, 2008
Now they’re suing UT for considering race in the admissions that fall outside the top 10 percent.
UT sued for considering race in admissions
“But for her race and ethnicity, it is our belief she would have been admitted to the University of Texas,” said Edward Blum, director of the Project on Fair Representation, a legal-defense group that fights the use of race and ethnicity in public policy.
What exactly is this “belief” based on? Do Hispanics and African-Americans make up a larger percentage of the non-top ten percentage admits than Anglos (excepting athletes in money making sports, of course)? Are individuals from these groups being admitted with lower SAT scores than Anglos? How about those with a lower class rank? Is playing the cello supposed to be considered part of the admission process? If so, how does that compare to getting merely decent SAT scores at a poorly funded and poorly performing high school?
I have to admit that this is a change from the usual “my child scored 1400 on the SAT but can’t get into UT because she’s not in the top ten percent” complaint. Fisher’s SAT scores would put her in the bottom of the middle 50% for UT. It would be nice to know why they think she would be admitted under “race neutral” conditions.
Technorati Tags: UT Austin, admissions policy, racial preferences
Progressive homeschooling
April 6th, 2008
Ask Rockridge: Can a Progressive Support Homeschooling? — Rockridge Nation
So, yes progressives can support homeschooling.
But apparently with quite a few “ifs”. I really can’t bring myself to read through all the comments. I’m sure there is the usual education as the foundation for democracy and so on. I’m sure there are plenty of anti-homeschoolers who are certain we are isolating our children although the number of homeschoolers they personally know they probably can count on one hand. It’s just tiring.
For some reason, people think that public schools and education are the same thing. And progressives are for mandatory school attendance if the schools are teaching the “right” information just as conservatives would have no problem with requiring everyone attend public school if they were teaching the “right” conservative information.
It’s not about the quality of the schools, it’s about parental choice. And if you can’t trust parents to ensure that their children will be educated well enough to function in the “real” world, why stop with education? Why not regulate the clothing parents may buy children or how about inspecting every family’s kitchen? Why not require every two-year-old in the nation to be inspected for parental quality?
Granted, it’s a gray area and difficult to draw the line but if nothing else, consider homeschooling an escape valve for parents who don’t want their children in school for whatever reasons–too conservative, too liberal, too regimented, too dangerous, etc. If everyone grows up learning only the public school group think, who will be around to challenge it?
Technorati Tags: Progressive Homeschooling
Spelling success
April 4th, 2008
Since I started homeschooling my son in second grade, I have tried a variety of spelling programs and methods on and off over the years but without much success. A few months ago, I found one that works and I would encourage anyone who is having difficulty with spelling to try it.
AVKO Educational Research Foundation, Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, & Oral a multi-sensory approach.
For over a quarter of a century the AVKO Educational Research Foundation has been investigating
the nature of the English language and its orthography.
what it is about English that causes so many problems for so many students trying to learn to read and spell English.
what methods are used to teach reading and spelling that work or don’t work
For a summary of our research and a challenge to researchers worldwide, see our Research section.
Why am I giving free advertising to this group? Because after only two months of use, my 15 year old is learning to spell and neither one of us have been traumatized by the experience. He is finally learning to recognize spelling patterns that we would go over previously but never seem to stick. Previously spelling for us was trying a new curriculum or system for a few weeks, realizing that he is getting anything out of it, and then ignoring the subject until the next time I would panic that he doesn’t know how to spell. So imagine my relief that I’m now seeing some progress. The program isn’t expensive and you can download the first few lessons for free from the website.
Technorati Tags: spelling, spelling curriculum, AVKO
If they’re allowed to do whatever they want, then they didn’t break the law
January 19th, 2008
More on the Texas SBOE’s rejection of a third grade math book. Now the majority has voted to strike the minority reports from the official record of the board’s minutes. It seems that while our San Antonio representative couldn’t bring himself to vote on the original matter, he has joined the majority in censoring the minority.
“This is about the credibility of this board, and I will challenge anyone here who tries to challenge my credibility,” said Rick Agosto, a Democrat from San Antonio who had abstained in the November vote over whether to reject the math book.
If he didn’t vote, how could this be about his “credibility?” If he had bothered to vote for approving the textbook to begin with (which meets all state requirements) this wouldn’t be an issue at all, now would it? What’s the deal, he’s afraid the board wouldn’t elect him as an officer again? Does he really believe that the board has the right to reject textbooks based on personal beliefs even if they meet all state requirements? No wonder he’s worried about his credibility.
Because they don’t like it
January 17th, 2008
The state Board of Education’s unusual decision to reject a math textbook used by Dallas and 70 other Texas school districts has evolved into a power struggle over the approval of classroom materials used across the state.
At issue is whether the 15-member state board can reject any book it wants for any reason it wants. That’s what some conservative board members, led by board president Don McLeroy, say they are allowed to do.
So much for local control.
In Dallas, officials rolled out Everyday Mathematics books in kindergarten through sixth grade at 19 schools with low math scores during the 2000-01 school year. By the end of the year, only two of those schools still had low scores; a year later, none of them did, said Camille Malone, DISD’s director of mathematics.
The district now uses the book to teach the nearly 79,000 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at all elementary schools. Ms. Malone said games and hands-on examples help the students develop computation skills.
“The TAKS test is a test of concepts as well as skills,” she said. “Had we not had a conceptually based program, I’m not sure we would have had the achievement we have had on TAKS.”
So because some board members are more interested in establishing the authority of their beliefs, Dallas can not use a textbook that it believes has been instrumental in improving it’s math scores.
Terri Leo’s comments have to be among the most pathetic.
Ms. Leo said. “I object very much being taken to task for rejecting a book that I actually read.”
Apparently it doesn’t matter to her that the textbook was recommended by a review committee, the TEA commissioner, and probably several textbook committees at various districts not to mention the teachers who have been using the textbook in the classroom for a couple years. Shouldn’t they be the ones “objecting” rather than Leo?
I’m pretty sure this is just a continuation of Leo’s attempt for the SBOE to regain absolute control of textbook selection which suffered a major setback in the fall of 2006. Why now? Because biology textbooks are coming up for approval soon. And if the board “establishes” it’s right to reject textbooks for any reason, then the board can easily reject books that fail to “teach the controversy” regarding evolution.
BTW, Terri Leo is up for re-election this year. Unfortunately, the Democrats don’t have a candidate in the race. However, the Libertarian candidate is Brian Kuzma. Why should seven board members get to decide on textbooks for every district in Texas based solely on their personal preferences?
Technorati Tags: Texas State Board of Education, Don McLeroy, Teri Leo, textbook selection
West Campus Wonderland
December 6th, 2007
The story till now: South San ISD wants to shut down low performing, low enrollment school. Parents protest and attempt to get a court injunction which is denied. The school district retaliates by suing the parents for court costs. The parents’ lawyer, David Van Os, has a press conference and reads a blog posting supposedly by the school district’s attorney.
Fake Blog Post Riles West Campus Community – Yahoo! News
The blog posting — littered with grammatical and spelling errors — read:
“Save West Campus has cause alot of inconvience for the community … ,so when the district files a lawsuit against the parents of Save West Campus,each of them individualy,that’s the only way to recover the legal fee’s the taxpayers had to pay,so if they claim they have no money,we will file to seize their property,assets & have thier wages garnish,when we win the lawsuit. And hope this will put all this to and end.”
Now is anyone actually surprised that the school district’s attorney said that he did not write the post or have anything to do with it? So what are the possibilities here?
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Someone, presumably on the parent side, planted the post. Does the person really think lawyers write like and is that a reflection of the education quality provided by South San Antonio?
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David Van Os actually writes like that which is why he thought it was the real thing? If true, that would explain why they lost their injunction.
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The school district planted the post knowing that David Van Os would jump on it before verifying it’s authenticity. What does that say about Van Os’ reputation? What does that say about the administration’s respect for the parents?
It’s a sorry situation when the district sues the parents who were pursuing their right to be heard in court. It’s a sorry situation when the parents go to court to solve their problems when there was a school board election that occurred at the same time. It’s a sorry situation when you can’t figure out who to feel sorry for.
Technorati Tags: South San ISD, West Campus, San Antonio, David Van Os, Mark Anthony Sanchez
