Texans Fed Up With Texas Board Of Education

[Samson]

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

Then who exactly is the article suggesting serve on the Texas SBOE?

Texans want Teachers/Scholars, and they voted for Teachers/Scholars, and they got Teachers/Scholars.

So?

What's the problem?

The problem is that the article is written to misinform you: It makes the absurd assuption that a mysterious group of "politicians" serve on the SBOE.

 

[Samson]

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.

Nice Maps.

Too bad there's no relevance to the discussion.

Must you so consistantly demonstrate a profound lack of intelligence?

 

[Madeline]

I can only give your my own POV as to what the problem is.....the poll reported on did not explore why people in Texas are discontented with their SBOE.

 

[psikeyhackr]

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.

That is why I said this:

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.

I think e-reader devices are mostly really dumb. I use this:

Archos PMA400 Review

It is a Linux computer. I can use it as an e-reader because I installed the JustReader program. It is also an MP3 playear, video recorder and player, It records audio in MP3 format and has a built in microphone. The hard drive is 30 gigabytes.

How many good textbooks have already been written and have only gone out of use as part of the planned obsolescence of books? Is high school mathematics today really different from mathematics in the 60s? Or how much has English Literature changed since then?

I recently reread a science fiction book from 1957. I considered it far better than Catcher in the Rye which I had to read in 1968. I say it is better than most science fiction written today. They have fancy gizmos but no ideas about REAL LIFE. Now the internet allows me to see what other people think of books.

Upon rereading, CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY now ranks as my favorite Heinlein, above STARSHIP TROOPERS, and above MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS. His books written for grownups do not have this level of composition, characterization, theme, and particularly the echoes and foreshadows in each section of the book of the other sections. It is all masterfully, masterfully done.

johncwright: CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY

Our educational system does not get enough IDEAS into kid's heads in grade school. Ideas are a threat to cultures of stupidity. Most people want school to perpetuate the NORMAL culture. The culture is obsolete but most people have not figured that out. The laws of physics don't change style every year but they want to keep changing cars for CONSUMERISM.. Consumerism has now come to computers but they are already so powerful the changes don't really matter anymore. It is just stupid marketing. My Archos is only 150 MHz. That type of processor is now 600 to 1000 MHz. I would buy one of these if the nitwits had put an SSD drive in it.

Inventec's Dr. Eye puts Android in a pocket-sized laptop -- Engadget

The screen keyboard on the Archos is too aggravating to use and that fold down keyboard would protect the screen while it bumped around in my pocket. Even netbooks are too big to carry around all of the time. I almost always have my Archos though. I use my home computer to convert books from text to speech mp3s. I can then carry around the Archos listening to books I selected.

http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/en...rtial&Ntk=S_Keywords&Ntt=andre+norton&x=0&y=0

They want $7.50 for public domain books that I can turn into audio books for free. It is just a matter of putting up with the computer voice which I have learned to ignore and focus on the story. So this is a matter of people learing what they can do with this technology and not have to rebel against obnoxious teachers.

psik

 

[rdean]

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!

You're right! They're not politicians.

From the Article:

Texas' right wing-Christian dominated State Board of Education has mandated a bizarrely warped US history curriculum for Texas school children - and, because of Texas' enormous influence on the nation's textbook market, most non-Texan students as well.

I guess that means they are "Bizarrely warped right-wing Christians".

 

[Samson]

I can only give your my own POV as to what the problem is.....the poll reported on did not explore why people in Texas are discontented with their SBOE.

Thats because they ARE NOT DISCONTENTED WITH THE SBOE.

They are getting exactly what they want: Teachers/Scholars on the SBOE.

You are a little to easily manipulated by the article.

Join the Lemming Club, or begin to read more critically.

 

[Madeline]

Presumably schools replace books because they wear out, mostly. I would imagine only History and the like become truely out-dated. Your gizmo sounds terrific, though the screen would be too small for me. I can't see the upside to allowing school kids to use their e-readers as MP3 players, though.

Doesn't the iPad do just as many functions?

 

[psikeyhackr]

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

Yeah, lots of people think playing word games is demonstrating "education".

psik

 

[Madeline]

I can only give your my own POV as to what the problem is.....the poll reported on did not explore why people in Texas are discontented with their SBOE.

Thats because they ARE NOT DISCONTENTED WITH THE SBOE.

They are getting exactly what they want: Teachers/Scholars on the SBOE.

You are a little to easily manipulated by the article.

Join the Lemming Club, or begin to read more critically.

I think you have read the poll results reported too narrowly, but either way....tis but a small item in a non-mainstream forum. If there is any general and growing dissatisfaction with the Texas SBOE, it'll show at the polls next time these guys have to sit for re-election.

 

[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!

You're right! They're not politicians.

From the Article:

Texas' right wing-Christian dominated State Board of Education has mandated a bizarrely warped US history curriculum for Texas school children - and, because of Texas' enormous influence on the nation's textbook market, most non-Texan students as well.

I guess that means they are "Bizarrely warped right-wing Christians".

So, because the article says they are "bizarrely warped right wing christians," you believe they are "bizarrely warped right-winged christians?"

Lemming.

But I suppose simply believing anything you read is much easier than confirming it by actually reading the few bios of SBOE Chairpeople that I included in each of my posts.

 

[hortysir]

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.

WADR, Samson,
The same could be done with every senator and rep in DC.
They're lawyers and business owners.
They're also politicians

 

[Madeline]

Actually, I did follow the debate over the new cirriculum this board chose a few months ago, when it happened. But I can't pull all that from memory....and anyway, my own POV on this wasn't what I posted about. But you are right; I am critical of their choices.

 

[Samson]

I can only give your my own POV as to what the problem is.....the poll reported on did not explore why people in Texas are discontented with their SBOE.

Thats because they ARE NOT DISCONTENTED WITH THE SBOE.

They are getting exactly what they want: Teachers/Scholars on the SBOE.

You are a little to easily manipulated by the article.

Join the Lemming Club, or begin to read more critically.

I think you have read the poll results reported too narrowly, but either way....tis but a small item in a non-mainstream forum. If there is any general and growing dissatisfaction with the Texas SBOE, it'll show at the polls next time these guys have to sit for re-election.

Heh, yes, Texas will suddenly become filled with Godless Socialists.

right.

Don't hold your breath.

 

[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.

WADR, Samson,
The same could be done with every senator and rep in DC.
They're lawyers and business owners.
They're also politicians

So?

I need to reiterate my previous post?

A. The Poll says Texans want Teachers/Scholars
B. Texans Elect Teachers/Scholars
C. Texans Get Teachers/Scholars on the SBOE

 

[hortysir]

David Bradley and Bib Craig are, definitely, not teacher/scholars.

So, actually, it's the Texans that are FOS.
If they didn't want any politicians, or if they wanted only teachers...
They probably shouldn't have elected these 2 guys

 

[psikeyhackr]

Presumably schools replace books because they wear out, mostly. I would imagine only History and the like become truely out-dated. Your gizmo sounds terrific, though the screen would be too small for me. I can't see the upside to allowing school kids to use their e-readers as MP3 players, though.

Doesn't the iPad do just as many functions?

People act like MP3s are just music. A book can be in MP3 format too. But the music can be Beethoven. I have the fifth and ninth symphonies on my Archos.

I can change the font size on the Archos. I can make the font twice as big as what is in a paperback book. The iPad does not have a USB port. I refuse to even look at it. If a portable computer does not have a USB port I won't even consider it.

I consider their virtual book where the reader turns a virtual page by sliding his finger on the screen to be really silly. It is the words in the book that matter not the pages. So they created some unnecessarily complicated software to imitate pages that the technology does not even need.

The iPad does not fit in a pocket.

Unfortunately my Archos does not automatically scroll the text. I have to hit a button.

But it is selecting what to have kids read that is truly important not which computer.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of All Day September, by Roger Kuykendall.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cost of Living, by Robert Sheckley

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Subversive, by Mack Reynolds

psik

 

[Samson]

You've been manipulated by the writer of the article, and your own POV: The fact is Texans are getting exactly what they want, and have always wanted for as long as I can remember.....30+ years of hard-core, conservative educational values.

I've gone through the Texas Public School System, worked in it, had kids in it, and can compare it to Colorado.


I was required to wear a tie: In Colorado, teachers wear sandals and ear-rings (males)

In Texas, schools don't "Celebrate" Halloween: In Colorado, classrooms have Halloween Parties!!

In Texas Teacher Unions are Outlawed: In Colorado, they have Teacher Unions

In Texas, the State Standardized test is taken VERY SERIOUSLY: In Colorado....meh, not so much.

 

[Samson]

David Bradley and Bib Craig are, definitely, not teacher/scholars.

So, actually, it's the Texans that are FOS.
If they didn't want any politicians, or if they wanted only teachers...
They probably shouldn't have elected these 2 guys

"Scholar" is a pretty broad term

I wouldn't define either as a career politician.

 

[Madeline]

I didn't realize you were a teacher, Samson. May I ask, why is there (apparently...please dun holla at me any more) objection to the vouchers for private school tuition? This seems to me to be a terrific idea.

 

[hortysir]

David Bradley and Bib Craig are, definitely, not teacher/scholars.

So, actually, it's the Texans that are FOS.
If they didn't want any politicians, or if they wanted only teachers...
They probably shouldn't have elected these 2 guys

"Scholar" is a pretty broad term

I wouldn't define either as a career politician.

They still have time