Texans Fed Up With Texas Board Of Education

[Madeline]

People will only stand still for just so much bullshit, apparently:

Poll Shows Texans Dissatisfied with State School Board Curriculum Revisions | Center for Inquiry

 

[Truthmatters]

Good news

 

[psikeyhackr]

When all of the children have netbooks what will text books matter?

The problem will be selecting the FREE stuff that is worthwhile for kids to read.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski

psik

 

[Douger]

When all of the children have netbooks what will text books matter?

The problem will be selecting the FREE stuff that is worthwhile for kids to read.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski

psik

You could let taxes fund them but that would be socialism.
Better to send your tax dollars to IsNtReal and Zaire.

 

[Madeline]

I haven't a clue what you two are on about.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I am simply saying that the decentralization that the use of netbooks makes possible could make the Texas textbook bottleneck irrelevant.

I just don't expect our educators to make good use of netbooks.

psik

 

[Madeline]

So, are you saying you foresee a time when textbooks will no longer be used?

 

[psikeyhackr]

So, are you saying you foresee a time when textbooks will no longer be used?

Isaac Asimov already did that. But he appears to have been off by more than a century.

The Fun They Had

The HP 100e which is marketed for kindergarten to 6th grade has a 160 gig drive.

HP debuts Mini 100e: you know, for kids | Crave - CNET

How many people understand how BIG 160 GIGABYTES is? Suppose the operating system and included apps teke up 20 gig and leave 140 gig of space.

A 500 page paperback book has about 2000 character per page. That comes to a megabyte of text. So 1000 of those books is a gigabyte. So one little netbook could hold 140,000 books. A kids entire educational curriculum from kindergarten through high school could be put into that space plus various simulation software.

Do you want an electronic simulator for free?

Solve Elec - Educational software

That is better than anything I could get in college when I was taking electrical engineering in 1970.

Do you want astronomy instead?

Celestia: Home

Most people don't know what could possibly be done. I bet most educators don't. Most likely I don't know a fraction of what is available. But I suspect smart parents will just have to start exploring this for themselves and exposing their kids to it because the education bureaucracy won't get its head out of its ass.

Have you ever heard of Vero Beach High school in Florida?

Computers as tutors - section I

1987 was two years before Intel introduced the 486 chip. What kind of computers did they have at Vero Beach to do that? But do you hear the education profession advertising that success story? The kids exist to justify the existence of the educational system not to be educated.

psik

 

[Madeline]

I wasn't so much asking whether you think real books will be replaced by e-readers. I was asking, do you think school boards will allow teachers to design their very own cirriculums and materials?

Personally, I don't. I also don't think writing a good textbook is easey-peasy.

 

[Samson]

People will only stand still for just so much bullshit, apparently:

Poll Shows Texans Dissatisfied with State School Board Curriculum Revisions | Center for Inquiry

Here is what the relevant poll results were:

Texans appear to have finally had enough. Last week the Texas Freedom Network released the results of a statewide survey showing that most Texans want an end to the curriculum battles that have divided the Texas State Board of Education. 72% of likely voters say they want teachers and scholars, not politicians, to be responsible for writing curriculum standards.

The Chairman of the Texas State Board of Education is Gail Lowe.

Prior to her election to the State Board of Education, Lowe served on the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees, as well as district and campus site-based decision-making committees. She has been a longtime classroom volunteer, working primarily with elementary schoolchildren who have fallen behind in their reading and math skills

Clearly, Lowe is not a politician, but is a teacher and a scholar.

Who is on the Texas SBOE that IS a politician???

 

[Madeline]

I dun know if I'd call a classroom volunteer an "educator", Samson. I presume Texans are somewhat embarrassed by a cirriculum that requires students to know who Phylis Schafley was, but not Thomas Jefferson.

 

[Samson]

I dun know if I'd call a classroom volunteer an "educator", Samson. I presume Texans are somewhat embarrassed by a cirriculum that requires students to know who Phylis Schafley was, but not Thomas Jefferson.

My point is that teachers and scholars already comprise the majority of the SBOE:

For example:

Barbara Cargill currently serves as chair of the board's Committee on Instruction .

Cargill is the founder and director of Wonders of the Woodlands Science Camp, which has been operational since 1995. WOW! Science Camp provides creative, hands-on learning to more than 1,200 children each summer.

Cargill has worked in the field of science education for over 25 years. Before founding WOW!, she taught biology in the Garland and Hurst-Euless-Bedford school districts between 1982 and 1991.

In other words, 72% of the voters in the poll results are happy with the status quo.

 

[Samson]

Nor is David Bradley, who serves as chair of the School Finance/Permanent School Fund committee, a "politician."

Bradley is married and has two children. Bradley, a self-employed businessman, is licensed in insurance and real estate sales

Who are all these politicians that are on the SBOE?

Huh?

 

[Madeline]

From the article:

Texans appear to have finally had enough. Last week the Texas Freedom Network released the results of a statewide survey showing that most Texans want an end to the curriculum battles that have divided the Texas State Board of Education. 72% of likely voters say they want teachers and scholars, not politicians, to be responsible for writing curriculum standards. 68% say that separation of church and state is a key constitutional principle, although 49% want religion to have more influence in public schools. And 55% of likely voters oppose publicly funded vouchers that permit students to attend private religious schools.

If the poll was properly done and the results correctly reported, they dun sound happy to me, Samson.

 

[rdean]

So, are you saying you foresee a time when textbooks will no longer be used?

Isaac Asimov already did that. But he appears to have been off by more than a century.

The Fun They Had

The HP 100e which is marketed for kindergarten to 6th grade has a 160 gig drive.

HP debuts Mini 100e: you know, for kids | Crave - CNET

How many people understand how BIG 160 GIGABYTES is? Suppose the operating system and included apps teke up 20 gig and leave 140 gig of space.

A 500 page paperback book has about 2000 character per page. That comes to a megabyte of text. So 1000 of those books is a gigabyte. So one little netbook could hold 140,000 books. A kids entire educational curriculum from kindergarten through high school could be put into that space plus various simulation software.

Do you want an electronic simulator for free?

Solve Elec - Educational software

That is better than anything I could get in college when I was taking electrical engineering in 1970.

Do you want astronomy instead?

Celestia: Home

Most people don't know what could possibly be done. I bet most educators don't. Most likely I don't know a fraction of what is available. But I suspect smart parents will just have to start exploring this for themselves and exposing their kids to it because the education bureaucracy won't get its head out of its ass.

Have you ever heard of Vero Beach High school in Florida?

Computers as tutors - section I

1987 was two years before Intel introduced the 486 chip. What kind of computers did they have at Vero Beach to do that? But do you hear the education profession advertising that success story? The kids exist to justify the existence of the educational system not to be educated.

psik

Knowing "stuff" and "education" are not the same thing.

 

[Samson]

I dun know if I'd call a classroom volunteer an "educator", Samson. I presume Texans are somewhat embarrassed by a cirriculum that requires students to know who Phylis Schafley was, but not Thomas Jefferson.

So what?

The poll results say Texans don't want politicians:

THEY DO NOT HAVE POLITICIANS ON THE TEXAS SBOE!

 

[Samson]

From the article:

Last week the Texas Freedom Network released the results of a statewide survey showing that most Texans want an end to the curriculum battles that have divided the Texas State Board of Education. 72% of likely voters say they want teachers and scholars, not politicians, to be responsible for writing curriculum standards. .

If the poll was properly done and the results correctly reported, they dun sound happy to me, Samson.

Yes, I quoted the article too: The article assumes that there are politicians on the SBOE.

But, there are no politicians on the SBOE.

In fact, there are TEACHERS AND "SCHOLARS" (whatever the hell that is).

 

[Madeline]

Okay, mebbe so, Samson. (Though I'd argue getting elected to a public office qualifies one as a "politician".)

 

[Samson]

Does a Lawyer count as a Scholar?

Bob Craig, currently chariman of the board's Committee on School Initiatives.

Craig is a senior partner in the law firm of Craig, Terrill, Hale & Grantham, LLP. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas; Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation; College of Master Advocates and Barristers; Diplomat of the American Board of Trial Advocates and Litigation Counsel of America.

Again, not a politician.

 

[rdean]

The map shows county migration in the United States in pictorial form. Black lines show inward migration to a county, and red lines show outward migration. The thicker the line, the higher the volume.

Texas: Who’s Moving Where

Looks like a lot of Blue state people have been moving to Texas.
Uh oh. Does that mean that they aren't going to secede from the Union? And I had such high hopes. Oh well.