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Do We Need National [Education] Curriculums Yet?

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Posts

  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Teucrian wrote: »

    Like any other profession we only sink or swim based on the quality of our tools.
    The textbook is a critical tool, especially in low income districts. It doesn't make us less important as teachers to acknowledge that fact.

    This is the equivalent of California revamping their Building Code to allow buildings to be constructed to Haitian standards. A simple "Well, a good building inspector will recognize that the Code itself is insufficient and make up for it in other ways, and the real problem is bad inspectors" is not a good reason to implement a shitty Code.

    BubbaT on
  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    BubbaT wrote: »
    Teucrian wrote: »

    Like any other profession we only sink or swim based on the quality of our tools.
    The textbook is a critical tool, especially in low income districts. It doesn't make us less important as teachers to acknowledge that fact.

    This is the equivalent of California revamping their Building Code to allow buildings to be constructed to Haitian standards. A simple "Well, a good building inspector will recognize that the Code itself is insufficient and make up for it in other ways, and the real problem is bad inspectors" is not a good reason to implement a shitty Code.

    Actually the job of inspectors starts and stops with ensuring that it meets whatever minimum standing code requires. The better analogy would be that builders/developers should realize that collapsing homes aren't a good selling point and personally accept the moral requirement to have seismically engineered construction. Should, that is...

    moniker on
  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    moniker wrote: »
    Wait, what does Congress have to do with anything? Nationally mandated minimum standards for textbooks &c. would be a function of the Department of Education. Legislation might possibly need to be drafted in order to provide him with that power, but that would basically be it. Everything else would be a matter for the Executive, and basically just entail holding funding hostage for various programs to ensure State compliance.

    There is nothing stopping a congressional bill that would say that the department of education has to include creationism in the curriculum.

    Nor is there anything stopping it now. However Congress generally tends to do things in broad strokes then let the bureaucrats deal with actually making shit work.
    And that still does not answer the question of what happens the next time the republicans gain power?

    It would be like if Texas singlehandedly decides on what goes into the textbooks that are distributed throughout the country. As unimaginable as that scenario is...

    moniker on
  • HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Can we just disregard the stupid shit that happens in Texas? It would save us all a lot of years in our lives if we just focused our attentions on matters that aren't stupider than an elephant in an inflatable bouncy castle.

    Hacksaw on
  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Hacksaw wrote: »
    Can we just disregard the stupid shit that happens in Texas? It would save us all a lot of years in our lives if we just focused our attentions on matters that aren't stupider than an elephant in an inflatable bouncy castle.
    It would be easier to do that in this sort of a discussion of Texas didn't basically single-handedly determine the content of a majority of the nation's textbooks.

    OptimusZed on
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  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Hacksaw wrote: »
    Can we just disregard the stupid shit that happens in Texas? It would save us all a lot of years in our lives if we just focused our attentions on matters that aren't stupider than an elephant in an inflatable bouncy castle.

    I try, man, but when the Texas stupid starts spilling over there borders and stupiding up the rest of the country...

    mcdermott on
  • HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    mcdermott wrote: »
    Hacksaw wrote: »
    Can we just disregard the stupid shit that happens in Texas? It would save us all a lot of years in our lives if we just focused our attentions on matters that aren't stupider than an elephant in an inflatable bouncy castle.

    I try, man, but when the Texas stupid starts spilling over there borders and stupiding up the rest of the country...
    If it gets too stupid I say we move. You and me. I hear Swedish women are lovely this time of year.

    Hacksaw on
  • frandelgearslipfrandelgearslip 457670Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    moniker wrote: »
    And that still does not answer the question of what happens the next time the republicans gain power?

    It would be like if Texas singlehandedly decides on what goes into the textbooks that are distributed throughout the country. As unimaginable as that scenario is...

    But textbooks are not all there is to curriculum. Texas can put whatever they want in the textbooks, but it does not mean that Vermont has to teach that. They can simply ignore the offending parts of the textbooks. If they have Texas curriculum then they have to teach it, which is far far worse then just some bad textbooks.

    frandelgearslip on
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Part of my job is writing textbooks and I'll say that textbooks are massively important.

    Not just in the content but in the design too. For example, it's certainly possible to write a textbook in such a way that it encourages critical thinking, just as it's possible (and common) to do the opposite.

    One of the biggest problems in my part of the teaching industry is the assumption that textbook quality doesn't matter that much. Work as a principal or something similar and you'll hear things like 'A good teacher can make up for a bad textbook' all the time. Which I find ridiculous, because a good textbook can make a teacher a much better teacher. And a great teacher can teach well without a good book, but it takes much more work than it would with a good textbook.

    We accept flaws and conservative design in textbooks we wouldn't readily accept elsewhere, and they influence even the best teachers.

    poshniallo on
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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Accidentally posted this in the wrong thread.

    I just saw on PolitiFact (went to check on the Obama Meter) that Fox News is apparently saying Texas officials are planing to remove references to Christmas and the Constitution from school textbooks.

    I thought what Texas is really doing was in Fox's fucking favor?

    Henroid on
  • Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    It is.

    Phoenix-D on
  • enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    Accidentally posted this in the wrong thread.

    I just saw on PolitiFact (went to check on the Obama Meter) that Fox News is apparently saying Texas officials are planing to remove references to Christmas and the Constitution from school textbooks.

    I thought what Texas is really doing was in Fox's fucking favor?

    Well, the Constitution doesn't really agree with Fox's sensibilities, and Texas is selectively ignoring parts of it. Especially that pesky Establishment Clause.

    enlightenedbum on
    Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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