It would be more like the situation where a teacher hired to teach French in French class decides instead to mix in grammar and vocabulary from Italian (or Klingon, maybe, to make the analogy more precise — since Italian is another real language, after all), without letting students know that what they’re learning is not really French, and with state law protecting the teacher against any kind of repercussions.
Category Archives: Politics of Education
Texas GOP: NCLB “a massive failure, should be abolished”
June 22, 2008 – 12:06 pm
Although my previous post highlights what the Texas 2008 Republican Platform says about “Theories of Origin,” the biggest headline in the Education pages of that platform is surely their statement that
The No Child Left Behind Act has been a massive failure and should be abolished.
Recall that this law was George W. Bush’s signature piece of [...]
TX GOP 2008 platform on Education
June 22, 2008 – 11:51 am
The Republican Party of Texas has now posted its State Party Platform for 2008.
I have also excerpted and posted here the four pages of that platform with the Preamble, Principles, and positions on Education.
As usual the Texas GOP takes interesting positions on many things, but in this post I’ll just quote their statement on “theories [...]
¿ against teaching the controversies (or “strengths and weaknesses”) ?
June 10, 2008 – 2:16 pm
While the ridicule is well deserved, I want to take exception to something possibly implied in Curmudgeon’s response, where he says that “High school students don’t know how to reach ‘their own conclusions’ about science. That’s why they’re in school! That’s why we call them students! “
Bradley: Teachers “got spanked” by Texas Bd. of Ed.
June 3, 2008 – 1:05 pm
Added June 6, 2008:
NY Times: Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy
Steven Schafersman, President, Texas Citizens for Science: Critical Review that covers developments reported in the NY Times article and the article (linked below) by Gary Scharer, as well as reaction by Intelligent Design proponents.
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A story by Gary Scharrer for the San Antonio Express-News reports [...]
TX School Bd member seeks replacement of Bd chair
May 26, 2008 – 5:29 pm
The previous post on the “Texas English / Language Arts standards debacle” has raised questions about intentionality — whether this just shows incompetence, or whether the right-wing board leadership and majority are acting with nefarious intent.
A May 21 article by Gary Scharrer for the Houston Chronicle is suggestive, I think. It reports that in a [...]
Texas ELAR standards debacle (evolution next?)
May 24, 2008 – 11:39 pm
The Texas State Board of Education’s shocking action Friday (May 23, 2008) in adopting new standards for K-12 English/Language Arts is being viewed by some as a harbinger of things to come for the new science standards, which are the next to be revised.
Creationists’ new legistlative maneuvering: state “Academic Freedom” acts
April 6, 2008 – 4:25 pm
The latest wave of anti-bioscience activity in the legislative arenas in several states is the Introduction of “Academic Freedom” bills, such as the one introduced in Louisiana recently (and discussed by Casey Luskin at the Discovery Institute’s Evolution News and Views blog (with the illustration posted here at right).
The “Louisiana Academic Freedom Act” declares its [...]
compromise on Texas English/reading curriculum
March 30, 2008 – 12:22 pm
Update Sept. 1, 2008. Since people are still finding their way to this post, I need to add that the compromise noted here has been swept away by subsequent developments. In chronological order, see
Texas ELAR standards debacle (evolution next?)
TX School Bd member seeks replacement of Bd chair
Bradley: Teachers “got spanked” by Texas Bd. of Ed.
Momentous [...]
evolution in Corpus Christi seat on TX state Bd of Ed
February 26, 2008 – 5:29 pm
The Corpus Christie area Caller-Times reports on how the teaching of evolution may be affected by the GOP primaries next week.When asked “How do you think the Texas school system will be influenced by the debate between creationism and evolution?“
eclipsed evolution vote in Texas
February 18, 2008 – 4:42 pm
Turnout for Huckabee, who supports Chuck Norris in promoting use of the Bible as a textbook in the public schools, could have an impact on State School Board elections that most of us outside of Texas don’t even know about.
House NCLB chair Miller endorses Obama
January 10, 2008 – 9:32 pm
As reported in the San Jose Mercury News,
Veteran legislator Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez [CA], has endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president.
Not mentioned in most of the commentary is that Miller chairs the House committee with jurisdiction over reauthorization of NCLB.
US Education Secretary: No position on Evolution in Science Standards
January 9, 2008 – 1:02 pm
On MiamiHerald.com, Gary Fineout reports:
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings … stayed as far away as she could from the unfolding controversy over whether the word “evolution” should be included in Florida’s science standards for schools. The State Board of Education is expected to vote on the new science standards next month.
Spellings said it wasn’t [...]
Norris (w/ Huckabee) advocates Bible as public school textbook
December 21, 2007 – 12:56 pm
On The Darwin Report blog, Chuck Norris has been named its Creationist of the Month Club Mr. December 2007.
Embedded in that post (and in this one, below) is a YouTube video in which Chuck Norris — and Mike Huckabee chiming in to support — advocates adoption of the Bible as a textbooks in public schools.
Although [...]
Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker
December 16, 2007 – 1:15 pm
from BookTV.org (ncludes links for purchasing the book, or viewing RealPlayer recording of the program):
Richard Kahlenberg talks about the life and career of Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 and president of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997. Commentary is provided by Eugenia Kemble [...]
Texas forebodings: textbooks and science standards
November 17, 2007 – 12:49 pm
Although the specific textbooks involved this time were in elementary mathematics, the broader concern here is that, if the Board is allowed to get away with rejecting textbooks without and explanation, they could use that practice to censor textbooks for ideological reasons in controversial areas such as teaching about evolution in biology.
Rod Paige v. Teachers Unions (BookTV)
May 17, 2007 – 7:17 pm
Remember when Bush’s Education Secretary Rod Paige called the NEA a terrorist organization? Well, he’s Baa-ack — with his new book: The war against hope: how teacher unions hurt children, hinder teachers, and endanger public education.Click the title (above) for detailed information on the book, and to check your local libraries on WorldCat (with link [...]
