We are entering into a strange era where religious belief is being permitted to trump scientific fact.
Ohio legislators in the House passed legislation allowing students to receive credit for wrong answers on science tests if their answer is based on their religious beliefs.
Does anyone think that actions such as this one will prepare students to live and thrive in the modern world? Will students so ill prepared with knowledge and understanding of the scientific method be prepared for careers in science, engineering or technology or any other field that requires a firm grasp of evidence and reality? Will they even know how to think critically about history and current affairs?
Every Republican in the House supported the bill. It now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate.
The Ohio legislature is also enthusiastic about charter schools and vouchers.
Former Governor John Kasich presents himself to a national audience as a “moderate” but it was under his leadership that this kind of zealotry took root in Ohio.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is likely some spillover from the “Answers in Genesis” crowd in Northern Kentucky where a replica of Noah’s Ark is a major attraction earning tax credits. Apart from that, the Republicans are extending as many of Bush’s “faith based” initiatives and justifications for policies as far as possible, including the denial of science at every turn, and of course efforts to kill ALL services offered by Planned Parenthood. The hoopla about STEM is just that. Ignorance is bliss….even if dangerous.
I do not understand what you mean about STEM hoopla. Can you explain it more?
Here is just one small example of hoopla and bandwagonism for STEM. This is from an Ohio-based think tank generously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
https://inside.battelle.org/blog-details/advancing-stem-education-for-more-than-a-decade?keyword_session_id=vt~adwords|kt~stem%20grants|mt~b|ta~372647560745&_vsrefdom=wordstream&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3dnfz_vs5QIV5I5bCh3CaQLCEAAYASAAEgIsrvD_BwE
Then there is the Federal Push: “The Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) was established pursuant to the requirements of Section 101 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. §6621). This was an Obama era initiative.
“In accordance with the Act, the Committee reviews science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs, investments, and activities, and the respective assessments of each, in Federal agencies to ensure that they are effective; coordinates, with the Office of Management and Budget, STEM education programs, investments, and activities throughout the Federal agencies; and develops and implements through the participating agencies a STEM education strategic plan, to be updated every five years. The Subcommittee on Federal Coordination in STEM Education (FC-STEM) advises and assists the CoSTEM and serves as a forum to facilitate the formulation and implementation of the strategic plan.”
You can see what the following 2018 document outlines as a “strategy” to forward STEM and computer literacy for the next five years. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/STEM-Education-Strategic-Plan-2018.pdf
For more on STEM hoopla look at STEAM a variant pushed to make sure STEM included the arts. Look also at STEAMR… with an R so that reading ia an explicit part of these curriculum initiatives.
I think this mindset can be understood through the lens of Malcolm Nance’s recent description of the difference between Democratic and Republican voting patterns. He said, “Democrats have to fall in love, Republicans have to fall in line.”
How lousy can the GOP get? Everyday provides a new low. Dinosaurs roamed 6,000 years ago and people rode these dinosaurs just like horses. They even had a saddle to put on small dinosaurs so children could ride. What a pile of cr*p. No wonder Trump got elected.
There are Christian textbooks that teach Biblical “science.” Apparently to the writers of these textbooks, nothing new has been learned in thousands of years.
This infers that an essay on the benefits of racial segregation or justification for antiSemitism for example, would be considered acceptable. Would such a response be valid as long as it is well and correctly expressed and follows the requirements for persuasive writing, even though it is based on twisted logic? No, just no.
First we have the NGSS that are so watered down, who would know that they are really science related and now we’ll have the religious right God-splainin’ every act of “science”. If we keep it up, the only thing we may have left is the use of Penicillin for all of our ills and maybe a vaccine against the dreaded small pox. Yep, keep makin’ ‘Merica Great Again folks….and decrease the surplus population (ala Scrooge).
I just told my husband about this one since it concerns Ohio and he was born and bred in Toledo. He left Ohio … Summer, 1976.
His mouth fell open. Then he said, “What employers are going to hire people from Ohio these days given the opioid crisis and the knowledge chasm?” GOOD QUESTION.
I also shared with him NPE’s Report Card re: States. He was aghast as I was.
The privatizers in Ohio also artificially raised the test score cutoff for graduation so that more students would fail, in order to “prove” Ohio schools were inadequate. Nothing says “hire here”, like having a low rate of graduation.
The Koch/Gates ed machine – destroying states and the nation.
Linda,
You are sure correct about this one. Thanks for posting.
Read: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance … it’s his story and true.
My first response was, “This is sick.” Then I realized it is way worse than just “sick”!
I haven’t thought of the proper descriptive yet. I’m not sure a word exists for how horrible this is.
Absurd? Insane? The work of nuts, extremists, and zealots?
I think a metaphor is called for that takes a single or even two descriptive words (like insane and nuts) “into, through beyond”.
We have to warn the world that there is a corruption virus that infects only the minds of most of the world’s wealthiest 0.1 percent.
To save our world and the future survival of our species, we must develop a vaccine that will stop this brain-eating disease from consuming the super-wealthy.
I’m thinking that the only vaccine that will work will be a transmissible protein called a prion, which causes mad cow disease.
The adjective is “dangerous”.
I agree, corrupt billionaires are “dangerous” to all of us and even themselves in a corrupt suicidal way, but I was looking for a poem with a metaphor that roasts them further than one word.
Maybe the Damn Poet will be able to come up with it, a poem that does justice to the corruption of the super-wealthy.
It gets “worser” and “worser”.
It gives Christianity a horrible name.
I wish that these “Christians” would really read the bible,
Matthew 24: 31 – 46. how we are to be judged.
Precise: no interpretation.
That among numerous other verses which describe the
way to live, precise,. these are coherent laws, mostly I would
say the things that are found in most world religions; Do unto others etc..
As is the case way too much now, people interpret things with very
narrow parameters of perspective.
Ugh !
I mean, like, what?
Australian Science Teacher here, so our context is pretty different (maybe) but how could this even be a reasonable consideration?
Dear Australian Science Teacher,
Think of American education at this moment as a system staffed by dedicated professionals but controlled by fools.
Yeah we have that as well.
Well put, Diane. A good summary of the current DISASTER, in a nutshell.
But the question I’m left with is, so what should those “dedicated professionals” do now? Or, rather, what WILL teachers do now?
I mean, I know what I would like to do. But what about teachers (plural) as in the millions of educators who show up to school each morning?
Have our schools, has our country, finally reached the tipping point where the sheer weight and power of the fools who are in charge (and the Know Nothings who enable them) going to win out over the forces of common decency?
BTW if you want to read a fascinating history lesson about Ben Franklin’s “Republic if you can keep it…” comment and the woman who actually prompted Franklin’s famous reply back in 1787, check out this recent piece in “The Washington Post”. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/29/what-we-get-wrong-about-ben-franklins-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/
Maybe you saw it already?
The title: “What we get wrong about Ben Franklin’s ‘a republic, if you can keep it’
Erasing the women of the founding era makes it harder to see women as leaders today” It’s by Zara Anishanslin.
The article deserves to be bookmarked, forwarded, reposted, blown up to billboard size, printed on biodegradable paper pamphlets and thrown en masse out of airplanes across the United States. I’m going to use it with my classes for sure.
One thing keeps coming back to me, Diane. In all our society’s haste right now to ZOOM forward at the quantum speed of the internet, I’m finding that the lessons of history are more important than at any other point in my lifetime.
In all fairness, the vast majority of the people who really shape history, who did all the work, all the building, all the contruction, all the feeding of the wealthy, all the fighting for the wealthy have been erased from the books and only the kings, generals, religious leaders and their wars for power, money and nuances in ideology are recorded and taught in schools. All other events and people are footnotes or, at best, mentioned in the context of these power and ideological conflicts.
And, that phenomenon (the “erasure” or omission, rather) from history might only be accelerating. Yes, more history is absolutely being recorded -digitally now. (Who was that guy who was wearing a camera every waking hour and posting all the moments of his day online, except I guess the most personal?)
But who has the time to watch that guy’s life? Not that guy, he’s living it. And, certainly not us. It’s great that so many people today are telling their stories. But do we have the capacity to listen?
The TIDAL WAVE of information and data right now is is too often obscuring what is really important. The shouting is drowning out the reasoned dialogue. Of course, people years ago predicted this moment. And, here we are.
So, sorting out, fact checking, organizing, presenting and teaching accurate history has become even more important. History and journalism. But like so much in our lives now, that task is just so much more complicated.
Life is more exciting and diverse here on the edge of the third decade of the 21st century. No doubt about it. But it’s also stretching us to some very human limits.
Will people be able to deal with the all complexity? Or, just resort to clubbing each other over the head? And, let the machines decide.
It’s like when thousands of years ago there was a solar eclipse and one of those ancient cultures would sacrifice people to appease their gods, or whatever. There’s a lot of fear motivating what’s happening now. This is BIG, uncharted territory we’re moving into here.
Mate,
I remember the timing of the removal of chapters about unionism from business administration textbooks – deliberate erasure of the people who built the nation.
John-
Both Franklin and Thomas Jefferson warned in strong terms against allowing religion into the activities of state.
Lincoln warned about the threat from those who eat the bread for which others toil.
The financial sector drags down GDP by 2%. Bernie for President in 2020.
I still have my Bernie sign from 2016 out in the shed -ready to go. I hope it doesn’t turn into the same sort of relic as the McGovern campaign pin I have in my desk drawer. (Although Nixon finally did get the boot. What did Hunter Thompson say about Nixon…he was so crooked they had to screw him into the ground when he died. God, what would HST be saying about Trump?)
This is about as low as anyone can get. Trump is at the bottom of the sewer.
………………………………………
Donald Trump’s body count: He’s not just a narcissist and a liar — he’s a killer
Lucian K. Truscott IV / Salon November 16, 2019
…What happens in the background of practically everything that Donald Trump does or fails to do is that people are dying. This is why the impeachment hearings are about more than Rudy Giuliani running around trying to get Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate Joe Biden and his son or some spurious right-wing conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, rather than Russia, that meddled in the 2016 election. Ukraine is quite literally fighting for its life against Russian aggression on its eastern border. As Taylor’s testimony made clear, the fact that Trump ordered that American military aid to Ukraine be withheld had deadly consequences.
While Donald Trump stood at a podium next to Vladimir Putin, as he did last year in Helsinki, and called the Russian president a “strong leader,” Ukrainians were being killed by Russian military forces that had invaded their country under Putin’s orders. At the same time Donald Trump stood next to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as he did in the White House on Wednesday, and referred to the Turkish president as “a tough guy who deserves respect,” Kurds were being killed by Turkish forces who invaded Syria with Trump’s explicit approval. Last summer, when Donald Trump sat across a table in Osaka, Japan, from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and called him “a friend of mine” who is doing “a spectacular job,” Yemeni civilians were being killed by American supplied “smart bombs” and armed drones, and the dismembered body of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, murdered by Saudi assassins last year in Turkey, still had not been found.
This week, while Donald Trump tweeted conspiracy theories about Joe Biden and launched personal attacks on former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as she testified on Capitol Hill, two more school children lay dead and four more lay severely wounded in a hospital, shot by yet another mass killer on a rampage at a high school in Santa Clarita, California. The shooting in California came on the heels of an Oval Office meeting in late September between Trump and National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre, during which LaPierre asked Trump to “stop the games” about gun control legislation and promised NRA support for Trump in his fight against impeachment, according to The New York Times. Trump spoke at the NRA convention in April of this year, and has long had a cozy relationship with the gun lobby. The NRA reportedly spent $30 million in support of Trump’s election in 2016…
https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/donald-trumps-body-count-hes-not-just-a-narcissist-and-a-liar-hes-a-killer/#.XdAiLmRfz5A.gmail
Teachers in Gary, IN are getting a one time stipend. They haven’t had an increase in money for 12 years. How do they survive? [Need I say that Gary, IN is a poverty area.] Politicians in this state should be ashamed, but they’re not.
………..
Gary teachers to see first stipend in more than a decade, school officials say
11 hrs ago
GARY — Gary Community School Corp. teachers will see their first stipend in years ahead of the winter holidays.
A new teacher contract approved Thursday will provide a one-time, 1.25% stipend to all Gary teachers.
That breaks down to almost $600 for the average Gary teacher, Emergency Manager Pete Morikis said, and will likely be paid by the district’s winter break, which begins Dec. 23.
The stipends are supported partially through funds freed up under Gov. Eric Holcomb’s plan to reduce teachers’ pension contributions by 2%. Additional support for the stipends will come from the district’s general fund, available through actions taken under the school corporation’s deficit reduction plan, Morikis said…
The new 2019-2020 school year contract, approved Thursday morning by the state’s Distressed Unit Appeal Board, also contains new attendance incentives for teachers.
Instructors with perfect attendance or missing just one day of work will be eligible for a $1,000 stipend, Morikis said. Teachers missing two or three days of school may receive a $750 bonus and teachers absent four to five days could earn $500…
Gary school leaders say this year’s stipend is the first pay increase to come to Gary teachers in more than a decade.
“Nobody has offered us anything in the last 12 years,” Gary teachers union president GlenEva Dunham said, crediting Morikis with the change. “Hopefully that’s the beginning of the future. Hopefully they can give us more and the state can do its part.”…
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/gary-teachers-to-see-first-stipend-in-more-than-a/article_1fc31b17-82dc-5f54-bccb-5317a34c97a8.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
I just received this in an email from a Canadian friend.
……..
In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.
The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet. It’s funny, as well as informative:
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination … End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.
Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations.
A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?
I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15: 19-24.
The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.
When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord – Lev.1:9.
The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death.
Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?
Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I’m confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.
Your adoring fan.
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia
(It would be a damn shame if we couldn’t own a Canadian)
Laura also tells women to stay at home raising kids while she does otherwise.
Republicans have a void where others have a stop valve for hypocrisy.
Many religious people seem to miss/ignore the fact that God gave us free will, only God will judge us, and there are only ten rules God requires us to follow – The Ten Commandments.
And Jesus Christ said the most important of the ten are: “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
And in Mathew 7:1-5, it says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
The rest of the Bible is a history written by about 40 people spread out over several thousand years starting around campfires for three thousand of those years.
“Many people contributed to the writing of the Bible. In fact, the Bible is a diverse collection of writings from about 40 main contributors—30 in the Old Testament and 10 in the New Testament.
“Some books are actually collections of writings from several authors, not just one. For example, while many people think of David when they think of the book of Psalms, there are individual psalms attributed to Moses, Asaph, a man named Ethan, and the sons of Korah.”
https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/who-wrote-the-bible/
These are the only laws God requires us, Humans, to follow and even then, He gave us free will.
If “free will” is taken to mean unconstrained and voluntary choice, the Bible assumes that all people, unregenerate and regenerate, possess it. For examples, “free will” is taught in Matthew 23:37 and Revelation 22:17.
Ten Commandments list (Does anyone see a hint that God condemns homosexuals?Leviticus was a human with an opinion. Leviticus was not God.)”
Do teachers now have to study all religious texts in existence so that they can competently judge students’ answers based on the students’ religion? Do teachers now have to keep track of students’ actual religion so that they can have it handy when grading their papers?
How about multiple choice tests which are graded by machines? Do the answers have to include all possible answers according to the 7 million religions?
Most importantly: do religions have single acceptable answers to questions?
Yeah…great points. We’ve reached the edge of absurdity…the abyss…
And, the crazy irony is, all these so-called profound religious “thinkers” and alleged “do-gooders” seem to be PUSHING US RIGHT IN!
Horrible human tragedy, mountainous HEAPS of violent suffering, have been wrought from similar moments in our species’ history on this planet….
I thought standardized tests were graded by machines and those incompetents who are hired by test companies to grade papers.
It is up to the standardized testing companies to get religious leaders to check all the test answers.
[Huh? Don’t think this will happen.] Ohio House legislators don’t think very deeply into what they approve.
No need to think, believing is all we need.
Read Todd Farley’s alarming book, “Making the Grades,” to understand who reads essay questions (temps) and how they are graded (by a rubric) in a few seconds.
All they need to know is that facts don’t matter.
Diane’s comment about who grades those tests is a vital question.
I know a woman who is nasty and mean. She hates kids and public school teachers and is a “trust-fund” person who plays at work. She’s in financial trouble and has been for several years. She goes to food banks to get food, has been FIRED from jobs, and has been BANNED from some Happy Hour Bars here in Boulder.
Well, every year she is a temporary worker for Pearson. She thinks this is just fine and doesn’t realize she’s helping the enemy and calls herself a progressive. HUH?
And now she’s decided that TMT is BAD for Hawai’i, and is spouting “*&^%$” about TMT. CRAZY.
This 84-year-old female also wanted to get a job as a Site Manager for weddings at a hoity toityy golf club. She can’t get off the floor and can’t remember things, because she’s a drunk. But, this was a way for her (in her mind) to work and get paid plus the FREE booze and food.
This 84-year-old female also has been arrested for trespassing and putting a threatening note on the door of a home. She signed her name, too. She had to go to court for terrorism and trespassing.
People need to know WHO grades their children’s high stakes tests.
I hesitated to relate this information so publicly, but again i reiterate …. people NEED TO KNOW who grades their children’s high stakes tests … not teachers.
When my rent was suddenly raised by $500 per month and I was desperate to pay it and fend off homelessness, despite having two jobs and selling off all my valuables, I looked for a third job. I applied for a position grading tests, which as I recall, involved grading student answers to essay questions for Pearson. I quickly realized they had no intention of tapping into my expertise as a professional educator with multiple degrees and decades of classroom experience. It was obvious to me that they just wanted people who would tow the line by following their rubrics to a T.
I’ve had to use rubrics for years, and I hate them about as much as I despise high-stakes testing, because I believe that I was able to evaluate student learning just fine for years without them, and I think they’ve been implemented because of non-educators who don’t trust the expertise of teachers and can make huge profits off that cynicism. I figured out how to find wiggle room in rubrics in order to give students the benefit of the doubt, which I think is especially important with high-stakes testing, but satisfying inter-rater reliability checks were clearly important to them and I knew my evaluations were going to be compared to the ratings of non-educators. So, I decided that was not the job for me and I did not pursue it.
I might have made a huge mistake financially, because they paid well and I became homeless not long after that, but I do not regret failing to sacrifice my integrity for a buck. I think the reason why so few of their evaluators are educators might be because many of us have similar concerns.
I hope one day to see that you have changed your nom de plume to “Educator with a home.”