http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html
Lets not forget this...
Heres what the Republican Party of Texas wrote into its 2012 platform as part of the section on education:
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 students fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
Outcome Based Education was a hot buzzword in the 80's, it was in fact NOT a well rounded liberal arts education for the students, it was "teaching to the test" with rote memorization of "facts" like:
the civil war was all about slavery. end of subject.
the US government deliberately infected blankets with smallpox and gave them to the native americans on the reservations.
theodore roosevelt and the rough riders took san juan hill
"marijuana" is deadly poison, and a highly addictive drug.
6 million jews died in the holocaust.
the US is a democracy
and lots more, all of which are factually incorrect, yet still taught to this day. last year i helped my nephew with his summer schoolwork while he stayed with me over the summer, and his coursework was LAUGHABLE.
heres a little sample: this is the exact question and the multiple choice answers as offered on his final exam:
Question 16
The text of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech, where he declared that
"we have nothing to fear but fear itself" is an example of:
A: a primary source
B: a secondary source
C: a biliography
D: an appendix
the correct answer is B, a secondary source.
ORLY????????????
the entire course of study was laden with incorrect assertions like that, and it was lauded as one of the best online self study programs in america. they even misquoted shakespear plays and langston hughes poems.
the texas school board may have laid out their opposition in a buffleheaded and inarticulate manner, but OBE, HOTS and all the new hotness in education reform are all flawed at their core. they teach agendas, memorization and blind acceptance of the assertions of the coursework. they call themselves "critical thinking education" but they are not.
for fuck's sake one part of the course had him watching zit cream commercials with justin bieber to gain insight into "Critical Media Consumption" which was the actual title of that section, yet it did not offer any assistance in critical thinking or questioning the assertions of the "media" he was instructed to "consume" it merely helped him see that justin bieber sold a shitload of zit cream, and after the section was complete, i asked him what he learned from this portion of his course, he answered "justin bieber is a fag" so i guess he learned something in spite of it all.
the texas school board is sadly RIGHT, just for the wrong reasons. education SHOULD challenge beliefs, and as a result it MUST undermine the unswerving faith a child should have in his parents when he is young, in favour of understanding and logic. OBE and HOTS do NOT do that they simply replace mommy and daddy's "because i said so" with the school curriculum's "because i said so". and thats why they suck.
