Straight Platform Politics

Texas State Board of Education Controversy: Newly Adopted Science Curriculum Standards – Part 4

Texas science curriculum standards: the controversy continued

The old Texas science curriculum standards contained anti-evolution code words. See Part 3. Texas State Board of Education voted to remove the offensive code words, but evolutionists were not entirely happy with the new language.

The new science standards required students, in all fields of science, to “analyze, evaluate, and critique scientific explanations by using empirical evidence, logical reasoning, and experimental and observational testing, including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations, so as to encourage critical thinking by the student.”

Did you find the new offensive code words? “Examining all sides of scientific evidence.” According to proponents of evolution, there is only one side to evolution and these new code words will now open the classroom to non-science.

Evolutionists claim that science has proven the theory; it is fact. And it needs to be taught as fact. Anything else is junk. Students must not be taught anything that may, in anyway, introduce doubt concerning the theory of evolution.

But a newly released Zogby Poll showed that a large majority of the public feel that students should have the opportunity to learn the evidence for and against the theory of evolution. This was not good news for the proponents of evolution.

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Texas State Board of Education Controversy: Newly Adopted Science Curriculum Standards – Part 3

Texas science curriculum standards: the controversy

Proponents of evolution were prepared for the revision of the Texas science curriculum standards. See Part 1 The old standards contained anti-evolution code words. That is what proponents of evolution including the New York Times (editorial 3-31-09) called them—code words. And these had to go.

What were these code words? “Strengths and weaknesses.” Teachers were supposed to teach the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories including the theory of evolution. Evolutionists viewed “strengths” and “weaknesses” as subversive code words.

Even though this wording had been in Texas science standards for about 20 years, everyone ignored the requirement, especially textbook publishers. That is until ‘Creationism’ and ‘Intelligent Design’ became more popular as theories explaining the origin of species. The subversive code words in the science curriculum standards had to go.

What made these words, ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ so offensive? According to Eugenie Scott, who signed Humanist Manifesto III (2003) on behalf of National Center for Science Education See Part 2, there are no weaknesses in evolution. It has problem areas that are not yet explained, but these problem areas are not weaknesses.

Texas State Board of Education voted to remove the offensive code words, but evolutionists were not entirely happy with the new language.

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Texas State Board of Education Controversy: Newly Adopted Science Curriculum Standards – Part 1

Texas science curriculum standards: importance

More than 80 years after the Scopes trial in Tennessee, evolution is still controversial. And if the fight in Texas over science standards is any indication, the controversy will not end anytime soon.

Why are the Texas science curriculum standards so important? Why was the decision of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) so momentous that it generated such a huge input of information, letters, emails, and testimonies to the SBOE and such an enormous amount of media/web/blog coverage?

Texas is a one of the largest purchasers of textbooks and being approved or rejected by the Texas SBOE can make or break a textbook publisher. Therefore, publishers write their textbooks to Texas standards. Textbooks that are approved by the SBOE for purchase by Texas school districts will also be sold to other states.

The new science curriculum standards adopted in Texas in March will take effect in 2010; these standards indicate to publishers what will be expected of new biology textbooks when the major publishers revise their products. What is taught in Texas classrooms will also be taught in classrooms throughout the nation.

Therefore, curriculum standards in Texas that, in any way, question the validity of evolution could have a ripple effect across the nation. A standard that even hints of a weakness in evolutionary science may show up in biology textbooks and may be discussed in classrooms and may cause students to question evolution as fact.

And that would be terrible.

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College Education – Part 1

College Education: its worth

More and more people are reevaluating whether a college degree is worth the expense, the time, and the effort. The debt accrued by college students, the decrease in job availability, and the unattained earning potential that so many new grads are experiencing are causing many to question the value of a college education.

Megan Twohey writes in Is college worth it? (10-14-08), “Money is only one of the reasons to go to college, of course. But with college costs skyrocketing and the economy worsening, the question of whether higher education is a worthy financial investment is no longer a no-brainer. For decades, the earnings gap between college graduates and high school graduates grew and grew. Get a bachelor’s degree, and you were almost guaranteed to be a lot better off.”

The title of Kathy Kristof’s article in Forbes (2-2-09) is The Great College Hoax. She observed: “While the premium that college grads earn over high schoolers has remained relatively constant over the past five years, the cost of acquiring a degree has risen at twice the rate of inflation, dramatically undermining any value a sheepskin adds.”

However, while more and more people are questionimg the value of a college education, President Obama wants more students to attend college. A part of his education strategy for America is to ‘provide every American with a quality higher education, whether college or technical training.’

Richard Vedder, a professor at Ohio Universtiy, was asked by the Associated Press (2-28-09) whether this was realistic. He answered, “Not everyone can or should go to college…. Fulfillment of President Obama’s goal would lead to many students failing, resources being squandered and the quality of post-secondary education being diluted.”

But the same thing can be said about universal healthcare, universal pre-school, or universal anything: money is squandered and worth decreases. For future college students, this is not good news.

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Prekindergarten: The New Cure For Social Ills–Part 2

The pre-k movement: will we ever learn?

Psychologists investigated the wild claims of the self-esteem movement and found, to their dismay, that these claims were just that – claims – and nothing more. Their investigation uncovered several disadvantages of high self-esteem, but by then a generation had paid the price for this foolishness. See Part 1

Now we have more absurd claims from the pre-k movement. Are we going to be foolish again or are we going to learn from our mistakes? Are we going to ignore the negative effects of prekindergarten until another generation pays the price?

Any academic improvement from pre-k has been shown to dissipate by the end of the first grade. But the pre-k classroom misbehavior and aggression, which has been well documented, persists longer than any boost in academic performance.

If the wild claims of the pre-k movement are true, those states (like Georgia and Oklahoma) that have had pre-k systems in place for over 10 years should show a solidly positive academic effect. However, they don’t. In fact one such state was the worst performer in terms of fourth-grade reading tests.

Pre-k advocates continue to cite a pre-k project that is at least 40 years old. The Perry Preschool Project had only 58 children in the experiment group and all were considered intellectually challenged. The parents were required to be actively involved with the pre-k program and with the home visitation component of the project. This was not a typical pre-k program and any positive result cannot be expected, and has not been duplicated, in state-run prekindergarten systems.

Some economists may tout pre-k as an important component of economic development, but that is only because they want more mothers of young children to stay in or to enter the workforce. Pre-k is childcare and state-run pre-k is free (not for the tax-payers) childcare. It’s all about what is good for business; it is not about what is good for the child.

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Pre-Kindergarten: The New Cure For Social Ills–Part 1

The pre-k movement: will we ever learn?

Psychologists finally took the time to study the wild claims of the self-esteem movement and found, to their dismay, that these claims were just that – claims. High self-esteem in children did not cause them to have better academic performance, better job performance, less sexual activity, less drug or alcohol use, less aggressive or violent behavior, or better relationships.

People with high self-esteem were found to actually have poorer academic and job achievement, to experiment with sex, drugs, and alcohol at earlier ages, to be more aggressive and violent, and to have poorer relational skills. They were also prone to depression due to their inability to handle criticism in a constructive manner.

So now we have pre-k advocates making similar wild claims: unlimited social and economic benefits. Participating in high quality (a fall-back qualifier) pre-kindergarten will cause children to be more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, earn more, stay employed, and be healthier. They will be less likely to become pregnant, engage in criminal and sexual activity, pursue drug, alcohol, and cigarette use, and rely on welfare.

Pre-k is also touted to be a vital and sound component of economic development. It supposedly   is a sound investment producing a sizeable return (7-16% depending on who is making the baseless claim) on every dollar spent. Pre-k has been linked to a more productive workforce and a 3.5% increase in gross domestic product.

Wow! Even high self-esteem couldn’t top that. But where is the reputable research to support all these wild claims? It took psychologists over 20 years before they seriously investigated the claims of the self-esteem movement. And by then we had a generation negatively impacted by the real results of inflating self-esteem. See: The Self-Esteem Movement Part 3 and See: The Self-Esteem Movement Part 4  

Is it going to take us 20 years before we understand the folly of the wild claims of the pre-k movement? 

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The Self-Esteem Movement: Whatever Happened To Common Sense? Part 4

The self-esteem movement: The claims

Parents and teachers were led to believe that the wild claims of the self-esteem movement were true. Boosting self-esteem and protecting children from life’s adversities were of great importance. Unfortunately, the claims are not only bogus but have proven to be dangerous. See Part 3

Claim: High self-esteem will decrease crime. Research indicates: High self-esteem is more likely to be present in a person of aggression and violence than low self-esteem. Schools are now required to develop policies on how they will deal with bullying and how they will deal with the aggressive child – the bully. Is baseless self-esteem causing some children to become bullies?

Claim: High self-esteem will improve academic performance. Research indicates: If anything, it is the other way around. Namely, high academic performance will improve self-esteem. If boosting self-esteem improved academic performance, then American students should be at the top in international math and science tests. They are not and have not been so for years. They consistently have been at or near the bottom. They consistently, however, have been at the top in overrating their performances on these tests. See Part 2

Claim: High self-esteem will deter youth from getting into sex, drugs, and alcohol. Research indicates: High self-esteem leads to earlier sex, drug, and alcohol use. These youth seem to minimize the risks involved - what has happened to others will not happen to them. They have been raised in a protective bubble and have an unreal outlook on life.

Research also debunks the claims concerning correlations between high self-esteem and forming good relationships, reforming criminals, enhancing job performance, and improving how one deals with stress.

Roy Baumeister is a psychologist and a former advocate of the self-esteem movement. His research has debunked the claims of the movement and his advice is that nonprofits, policymakers, parents, teachers, and therapists should forget about self-esteem and invest in self-control.

Now that is common sense.

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The Self-Esteem Movement: Whatever Happened To Common Sense? Part 3

The self-esteem movement: The real world

School districts across the nation believed the wild claims of the self-esteem movement that boosting self-esteem was the cure for many social ills. Boosting self-esteem came first and academics came second. We now have a generation of poor academic performers who are out of touch with reality. But they do have high opinions of themselves. See Part 2

Parents and teachers thought they were doing right by guarding their children against criticism, correction, or anything negative. But criticism, correction, and negative feedback develop academic skills and build character. Empty, phony praise causes children to believe lies about themselves and their skills.

When these children graduate from high school with their straight-A report cards, they have a rude awakening in college. They are unprepared for the real world and are, unfortunately, emotionally fragile. Research has shown that more and more college students, not being able to handle criticism, are seeking counseling.

We have raised a generation that has an inflated sense of self and an inflated sense of entitlement, but is incapable of dealing with life’s problems and pressures. Pain and failure are not seen as opportunities for improvement, but as destructive attacks that must be avoided at all cost. It is no coincidence that this generation also has a higher incidence of depression.

Self-esteem and confidence are good traits if they have a real foundation. If they lack a true base, they are like a house of cards that will cause a life to be in shambles at the slightest wind of adversity.

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The Self-Esteem Movement: Whatever Happened To Common Sense? Part 2

The self-esteem movement: Invading the classroom

Once the self-esteem movement took hold, there was no stopping it. School districts across the nation grabbed onto it as the panacea for societal ills. Self-esteem came first and academics came second.  See Part 1

Teachers and parents were told that as students’ self-esteem improved, academic achievement would follow. Students were supposed to be praised and protected from criticism. Core academic courses were secondary; self-esteem was everything. Saving society was at stake.

Grades became inflated. We had to protect students from failure. Everyone was a winner. Everyone was special. ‘A for effort’ was rampant. Students were not receiving an honest evaluation of their work.

State governments started programs to boost students’ self-esteem. Tax-payers were told that if children from low-income families were given new clothes for school, it would increase their self-esteem and thereby improve their academic performance. The few logical people who dared question such nonsense were ridiculed.

It was so unfair to the children to tie their self-esteem to material goods. What would happen when those new clothes were not new anymore? What were the children suppose to think of themselves then? Or were the tax-payers expected to continue paying for new clothes?

New clothes would make the children happy – temporarily. But did the new clothes programs result in improved academic achievement? No. There is nothing wrong in trying to make children happy. (But that’s not the responsibility of state governments. Service organizations are great resources for those types of programs.) But do not lie to them. Academic achievement takes hard work.

Were the teachers and parents successful in boosting the self-esteem of their children? Yes. Did it improve academic performance? No. American students have for many years scored at or near the bottom of international math and science tests. But they scored at the top in ranking their expected performance results. The students thought very highly of themselves as they were performing miserably.

We are now dealing with a generation of poor performers who have no clue, no idea of reality. But they do have high self-esteem.

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