Texas GOP – We oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills to children

[rdean]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

We pledge our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and toward dispelling the myth of separation of church and state.

Downsizing the Federal Government – We support abolishing all federal agencies whose activities are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution; including the Departments of Education and Energy. W

We support the privatization of veteran’s healthcare.

Morning After Pill - We oppose sale and use of the dangerous “Morning After Pill.” (The maker of this pill gives millions to Mitt Romney)

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The Texas GOP Party Platform is amazing.

 

[regent]

It seems finding the truth has been a goal of mankind since the ancient Greeks, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, created logic. Logic while useful for educated people, it was requirement of universties for years, is probably not useful for average citizens. The other method of finding truths was the scientific method and recently critical thinking was thought to be of some benefit for we average citizens.
If it is true that some in Texas oppose the teaching of critical thinking it is more evidence that some politicians find an ignorant citizenry more useful. Jefferson insisted that a democracy needsfor educated population. So we continue with a population that some believe the world is flat, the sun orbits the earth and there is a Loch Ness monster. Then again maybe it the fault of the teacher unions?

 

[rdean]

It seems finding the truth has been a goal of mankind since the ancient Greeks, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, created logic. Logic while useful for educated people, it was requirement of universties for years, is probably not useful for average citizens. The other method of finding truths was the scientific method and recently critical thinking was thought to be of some benefit for we average citizens.
If it is true that some in Texas oppose the teaching of critical thinking it is more evidence that some politicians find an ignorant citizenry more useful. Jefferson insisted that a democracy needsfor educated population. So we continue with a population that some believe the world is flat, the sun orbits the earth and there is a Loch Ness monster. Then again maybe it the fault of the teacher unions?

Funny, the schools considered the best also have the strongest teachers unions as well as the smallest class size.

Course trickle down doesn't works and magic isn't science. The right wing just can't seem to get it, well, er, "right".

 

[squeeze berry]

can you really teach high order thinking skills?

 

[regent]

can you really teach high order thinking skills?

It's probably being done in some schools and maybe even in some districts today. If we can teach young people lower order thinking skills why not higher? It doesn't have to be Bloom but something less. The real threat is to parents that do not want their children exposed to other ideas truthful or not, and I would strongly suspect that many a politician also would not like young people to know certain truths. Would Galileo have a hard time in some of America's schools today?

 

[onecut39]

It seems finding the truth has been a goal of mankind since the ancient Greeks, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, created logic. Logic while useful for educated people, it was requirement of universties for years, is probably not useful for average citizens. The other method of finding truths was the scientific method and recently critical thinking was thought to be of some benefit for we average citizens.
If it is true that some in Texas oppose the teaching of critical thinking it is more evidence that some politicians find an ignorant citizenry more useful. Jefferson insisted that a democracy needsfor educated population. So we continue with a population that some believe the world is flat, the sun orbits the earth and there is a Loch Ness monster. Then again maybe it the fault of the teacher unions?

Too bad Texas is a right to work state and the text books in question were requested by the state school board.

 

[onecut39]

It seems finding the truth has been a goal of mankind since the ancient Greeks, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, created logic. Logic while useful for educated people, it was requirement of universties for years, is probably not useful for average citizens. The other method of finding truths was the scientific method and recently critical thinking was thought to be of some benefit for we average citizens.
If it is true that some in Texas oppose the teaching of critical thinking it is more evidence that some politicians find an ignorant citizenry more useful. Jefferson insisted that a democracy needsfor educated population. So we continue with a population that some believe the world is flat, the sun orbits the earth and there is a Loch Ness monster. Then again maybe it the fault of the teacher unions?

Teacher unions???????????????????????????????????????????///

 

[DGS49]

The point is simply this: Basic schooling should be focused on the transmission of INFORMATION and KNOWLEDGE. Teach the kids how to read & write competently, how to do math, history, geography, civics, basic science, maybe a foreign language.

All of this is tangible information, the learning of which can be measured. It is also tedious and requires real work from both the teachers and the students. How tedious!

But lazy teachers (whom teachers unions classically represent) would rather teach "learning skills," and "critical thinking," and "problem solving abilities," which are not tangible or measurable, and provide "cover' to lazy and incompetent teachers.

The product of "Outcome Based Education" and bullshit programs like that has been a couple generations of students who know very little, but have extraordinary (and totally unjustified) levels of "self esteem." They really feel good about themselves academically, but for no good reason.

Critical thinking and higher-order problem solving are appropriate for college, but should be based on a foundation of knowledge of tangible information and facts and abilities.

I think the Texas legislature is on the right track.

 

[Katzndogz]

When liberals use the term critical thinking it doesn't mean critical thinking. What it means is critical thinking to come to a predetermined outcome. If critical thinking has any other result, it's not only a failure to use critical thinking, it's not thinking at all.

 

[whitehall]

You almost gotta admire the reverse psychology of the left. The left absolutely hated Bush's "no child left behind" agenda because the poor union teachers would be ....gasp....held responsible for the education (or lack of it) of kids. Everyone saw union teachers in Wisconsin call in sick to riot in the state capital and lefties loved it. Barry Hussein came out with a downright creepy plan of establishing a "corps of master teachers" with a billion dollars of taxpayer money and the left loves it because Barry and the boys tell them to love it. There is no solution to the radical leftie plan to throw taxpayer money at a problem and hope it goes away except throwing the rascals out in November.

 

[Katzndogz]

Texas is absolutely correct.

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

An example of liberal use of critical thinking skills.

If a person can look at at an ultrasound of an unborn child with a beating heart, lungs and sucking a tiny thumb and come to any conclusion other than this is a clump of cells is not thinking critically.

If armed gunmen break into your home and you come to any conclusion other than these are disadvantaged people only looking to find a way of feeding their families, you are not thinking critically.

 

[old navy]

Texas is absolutely correct.

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

An example of liberal use of critical thinking skills.

If a person can look at at an ultrasound of an unborn child with a beating heart, lungs and sucking a tiny thumb and come to any conclusion other than this is a clump of cells is not thinking critically.

If armed gunmen break into your home and you come to any conclusion other than these are disadvantaged people only looking to find a way of feeding their families, you are not thinking critically.

Very true. When I see a sonogram of a baby (live human), I see one that will some day be on my baseball team, some day sitting at a desk in my classroom learning medicine, or one day being a leader in their chosen field.

Those that choose to do wrong by my family or break into my house, if my dog does not get to them first, will be ventilated with a magazine of the finest hollow points sold by Walmart* and their pathetic family will get the bill for the cost of the ammo.

 

[Katzndogz]

Texas is absolutely correct.

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

An example of liberal use of critical thinking skills.

If a person can look at at an ultrasound of an unborn child with a beating heart, lungs and sucking a tiny thumb and come to any conclusion other than this is a clump of cells is not thinking critically.

If armed gunmen break into your home and you come to any conclusion other than these are disadvantaged people only looking to find a way of feeding their families, you are not thinking critically.

Very true. When I see a sonogram of a baby (live human), I see one that will some day be on my baseball team, some day sitting at a desk in my classroom learning medicine, or one day being a leader in their chosen field.

Those that choose to do wrong by my family or break into my house, if my dog does not get to them first, will be ventilated with a magazine of the finest hollow points sold by Walmart* and their pathetic family will get the bill for the cost of the ammo.

I'm glad you brought that up. At a recent anti abortion protest it was noted that most of the people attending were quite young. I watched their interviews. What they thought of was the brothers and sisters they never had, the friends they never made, the classmates they never studied with.

The generation of abortion takes abortion quite seriously. Their numbers have been greatly diminished by abortion. To them, it's not a clump of cells, but a cousin. Abortion itself is fast becoming the platform of old selfish people. Emphasis on the "old". I note among young people that they uphold the right to abortion, but at the same time despise the decision of abortion.

 

[old navy]

Quite the dichotomy, huh?

 

[Truthmatters]

you dont get the right to tell women what to do with their bodies.

that is why abortion is legal.

pretending that history doesnt show that making abortion illegal doesnt stop abortion but increases the death count is pure stupidity.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

1. Strict adherence to the original intent of the Declaration of Independence...

What does that even mean? Is the Texas GOP suggesting that there are some people who are still British loyalists?

 

[old navy]

you dont get the right to tell women what to do with their bodies.

that is why abortion is legal.

pretending that history doesnt show that making abortion illegal doesnt stop abortion but increases the death count is pure stupidity.

I don't disagree one bit.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

can you really teach high order thinking skills?

It’s rather straightforward.

Students are taught basic research skills and tasked with solving problems.

Rather than spoon-feeding students with sanctioned subject matter per educational doctrine, students are allowed to gather information on their own from multiple sources, developing in them the critical thinking skills needed to tell the difference between opinion and fact, dogma and the truth.

Needless to say the ability to engage in independent thought is frightening to conservatives, hence the Texas ‘education’ policy. Independent thinking encourages questioning authority, something authoritarian conservatives can’t abide.

We pledge our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and toward dispelling the myth of separation of church and state.

The Constitution and its case law are not a ‘myth.’

Downsizing the Federal Government – We support abolishing all federal agencies whose activities are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution; including the Departments of Education and Energy.

Morning After Pill - We oppose sale and use of the dangerous “Morning After Pill.” (The maker of this pill gives millions to Mitt Romney)

Above we see the hypocrisy of the right:

On the one hand they seek to ‘downsize’ Federal government, yet on the other hand seek to expand its authority at the expense of individual liberty, and in violation of the Constitutional right to privacy.

 

[Unkotare]

can you really teach high order thinking skills?

It’s rather straightforward.

Students are taught basic research skills and tasked with solving problems.

Rather than spoon-feeding students with sanctioned subject matter per educational doctrine, students are allowed to gather information on their own from multiple sources, developing in them the critical thinking skills needed to tell the difference between opinion and fact, dogma and the truth. .

LOL. You don't know what you are talking about.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

Rather than spoon-feeding students with sanctioned subject matter per educational doctrine, students are allowed to gather information on their own from multiple sources, developing in them the critical thinking skills needed to tell the difference between opinion and fact, dogma and the truth.

That would involve the students being tested mostly through in class essays and reports written at home. Republicans prefer high stakes standardized testing, and writing essays and reports doesn't neatly fall into standardized tests.

I now laugh at the concept of the "word problem" in mathematics courses as a specialized sort of math problem. Presumably we are teaching kids math so that they can use it in the real world - not so they can become theoretical mathematicians. Once we get past things that require memorization - like times tables - ALL problems should be "word problems"

All history exams should involve writing essays - no multiple choice or lists or the like.