Texas, Education, and Conservatives

Expired wrote:

BeautyXRush wrote:

That is sad and disgusting. Glad I don't live in Texas. I don't think these people should be allowed to do that, and put whatever they want into text books. Our textbooks already have so much wrong with them.

I think technically they are. If the taxpayers pay for education then they have the right to decide what should be taught.

I am an American tax payer and I don't think that religion should be taught in the classroom. Where's my say?

This article isn't so much about teaching the religion, as it is altering history to teach children that Christianity is the correct religion. Historical facts cannot be re-written, just as much as medical and scientific cannot be re-written. What they are doing is called dis-information, and they are doing it to young children. Disinformation is means in which a lie is told to the public many times in a manner, which seems credible, so that it becomes perceived as truth, even though it is not.

Of course they want to teach children that our currently failed capitalist system is good, corporations pay for the politicians campaigns and in turn the politicians install certain pieces of legislature to benefit the corporations. Their trying to make children complacent at a young age so that it is easier for the corporations to control the government.

And there is no better way for the government and the corporations to do this by aligning themselves with the christian right. These people will gladly vote away their futures, their children's futures, their economic and financial stability, social security and health care, if they are told that their christian views will become the law of the land. Every time there is a major election in America, the republican party brings up abortion and how they are against abortion. They do this because they get the christian right vote and the argument distracts people from the fact that are openly planning to implement disastrous governmental policies.

On another note, unfortunately not every child has well educated parents that can teach them the things that they won't learn in school. If we want to be a productive society, then unfortunately there are certain scientific, medical and historical facts that children need to learn in order to make good choices for themselves. That means that on some level the government has to teach certain things to kids. I went through public school in America, and since I live in New York, I had many opportunities to learn sex ed. I learned the facts about the reproductive system in biology, I had it re-iterated to me in health class and special sex ed assemblies. We were taught facts, facts about how a woman gets pregnant, facts about STD's and facts about birth control. And we were even taught that abstinence is the best protection, but that sex is a choice, and if you choose it you should protect yourself properly. And they made us watch a video of a woman giving birth and told us that childbirth is the most painful thing ever.

Health class in the U.S. is a class you take where they generally teach you how to be healthy. Aside from sex and birth control, they teach you about a balanced diet, exercise, general hygiene and some other stuff I can't remember.

My parents were not comfortable talking about sex with me, they weren't religious at all, quote the opposite, but they couldn't tell me anything else about sex other than it is for when you were married. I had public school to teach me about, and access to the information in my school library and the public libraries, so I could learn for myself what my parents were not comfortable talking to me about.

Quite frankly I think that if a parent is willing to deny their child the learning of necessary scientific and medical facts, because it conflicts with their religious views, they are horrible parents. Just because you may believe that you do not have sex until you are married, or don't believe in birth control, does not mean that you have the right not teach your child about birth control, or more importantly the basic facts about reproduction and STD's. Just because you have raised a child to believe certain religious ideals, does not mean that your child will follow them or even believe in them. How many times have you done something simply because you were told not to? If your child decides to go out and have sex simply because you have taught them it was bad, wouldn't you want them to use a condom regardless? Or would you rather they come home pregnant and with aids because they weren't taught the facts they need to know. Everyone thinks it won't be their child but it very well could be your child.

Expired wrote:

Ellie0792 wrote:

Expired wrote:

Well that's how it's suppose to work. If you pay for your child's education (even if it's through taxes) shouldn't you have a say in what they're taught?

i'm imagining a general vote on how kids should be taught the apostrophe here....

the university professors should get to decide, and people who have some knowledge of what they are talking about. not the general public.

Oh sorry I'll start writing in my first language. Since you're sooo smart I'm sure you'll catch on pretty quickly Though the capital letters might confuse you a bit.

um sorry. did i offend you? i don't quite see where. i'm not confused by capital letters, i just find them irritating to tap out on my key board, and since they seem to have almost no practical use (unless you are typing in all caps), i don't use them.

i wasn't correcting your grammar, you always write very good english, i had no idea your first language wasn't english. every apostrophe in the section i just quoted was correctly placed. a feat quite a few english adults (and well educated ones) can't accomplish.

i was simply pointing out that the majority of adults have no consistent and correct way of using an apostrophe. a vote on how it should be used would probably produce results something like this:
the child's apples-20%
the childs' apples- 20%
the childs apples'-10%
the childs apple's-10%
the child's apple's -10%
what's an apostrophe?-30%

there is no conclusive answer.

Why should people pay taxes if they can't even decide how the money should be spent? If it's your money you should have a say. Of course the will be people who disagree with the decisions of the majority, but that's the downside to government funded projects.

you do decide, in a roundabout way. you vote for someone who agrees what you agree with. if you really want what you want to happen then you try to get elected yourself.

i don't want my parents deciding what i learn, because chances are they are wrong. let the professionals decide.

Last edited by Ellie0792 (03-16-2010 20:32)

Expired wrote:

But professionals still disagree. So who decides which professionals we should listen to at the end? Power hungry politicians. I don't really see a way around government interference if the money goes through the government before it reaches schools.

Sorry about the snarky reply to your previous post, I was ticked of and could genuinely thought you were correcting me and I didn't know on what.

professionals do disagree, but i don't think politicians are really the ones who decide. not people who could have anything to gain by changing things anyway. the only ones with something to gain from changing the way stuff is taught are the professors. who will be paid by the government to decide what's right. here, people in elections only decide stuff like how much money will go to education funding, not what will be taught.

edit: i only used the apostrophe as an example because it's the thing that well educated people with university degrees (lawyers, doctors, accountants and so on) get wrong. all the time. obviously you wouldn't be aware of that not having english as your first language, and having actually had to learn the english grammar rules. which i admit are a little insane. this is because the english grammar rules are the latin grammar rules, imposed on a language which isn't fully declined. so the don't really work. but never mind. /long off topic rant.

Last edited by Ellie0792 (03-17-2010 18:14)

Last edited by Lutren (03-19-2010 09:18)

Cryzilla wrote:

Typhani wrote:

I still love that some people think there exists a thing called "liberal bias". It's called NOT being biased.

I love the fact that apparently all teachers are liberally-biased.  D;

Yeah, right, and whoever decided that fact never met a couple of my history teachers.

One was about as outspokenly far-right as possible.

The other didn't think it was right for people of different races to marry. Not because there was anything inherently wrong with it, but out of racial pride so they can each keep their own race "pure" and not be producing children who weren't.

Expired wrote:

Cryzilla wrote:

People vote for Rick Perry because he's always the Republican runner.  He chose the people for the Board of Education.  >.X  People are not going to start voting for a democratic runner just because they disagree with the Board of Education.  So in our state, we're screwed.

People vote for someone/some party because they share the same values. Those values determine what will be taught and who will be consulted.

Unfortunately, that's not always true. I've met far too many people who will vote for or against someone simply based on their political affiliation, not even paying attention to what they stand for.

Cryzilla wrote:

People vote for Rick Perry because he's always the Republican runner.  He chose the people for the Board of Education.  >.X  People are not going to start voting for a democratic runner just because they disagree with the Board of Education.  So in our state, we're screwed.

This is not quite true--the Texas Board of Ed is elected like a city council.  The problem is that they are people with no background in education and who, as politicians, have to cater to the popular political beliefs held by their constituents.  What this means for kids is that the education standards can vary wildly from year to year.  Detriot is having this problem right now too, as one of the people on their board of ed, a native-born English speaker cannot pass an English proficiency test and is holding up reform.

As a Texas state science teacher who has to deal with them constantly changing the science standards, we tend to follow the national standards selected by professors and long-time teachers.  Each states' standards are based more or less around the national recommendations.  I know bucket loads of history teachers, and they plan on ignoring the new standards so that students will continue to have a college-preparatory education despite political whims.

My fav (sarcastic) proposed change to the TX history standards is a narrowly (by 1 vote) defeated proposal to include in US history that the 1950s civil rights movement gave minorities "unrealistic" expectations of equality. 

There is a reason that not all government positions are elected.  Would be nice for the governor to appoint board members and have them approved by state congress, like with federal judges.  Unfortunately, this does not happen.  We also just elected a state supreme court justice who has no law experience whatsoever, so we TX voters have a pretty patchy record.

OMG--sorry this is so long. Eek, I sound a bit crazy.  I have been on a tear since mistakenly reading the user comments on a CNN article about all those NJ teachers getting fired.

Last edited by BrunetteBunny (03-22-2010 02:05)