Our editorial today welcomes the newly moderate Kansas State Board of Education’s expected vote to remove anti-evolution language from the science standards.
What Kansans should understand is that this is a political debate, not a scientific one. There is no raging “controversy” in the scientific mainstream about the central facts of evolution or their importance to modern science.
The intelligent design folks and their conservative enablers on the Kansas board are creationist activists who want to install a faith-based science in public school classrooms.
Besides being unconstitutional, it’s also bad science.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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82 Comments
hee hee hee hee hee hee
Damn, ya GOTTA love that headline!
Good one Randy!
I think Randy pretty well summed this one up
I must say that Dr. Abrams and Ms. Martin were kind enough to at least respond to my emails.
However,Perry Mason’s reply to them would be:OBJECTION!Non-responsive!
(Ms. Martin sent me a link to the standards, as though all I had to do was read through them, and then I’d be on her side of the fence)
There will always be some on the fringes who will shout controversy. The same sort of “scientists” who say evolution is a lie are the same sort that deny the holocaust, reject climate change, think Bigfoot is real, continue to work on cold fusion and still believe the Earth is the center of the universe.
The last controversy in evolution was between Lamarkian and Darwinian evolutionists. After the science came out natural selection theory won over. The only ones who still held onto Lamarkian evolution was the Soviet Union since Stalin felt crops could be convinced of Marxism and pineapples would eventually grow in Siberia.
The Dover evolution case should have shut up the creationists/intelligent designers/scientific creationists or whatever color of crap they paint themselves with now. When the judge asked the creationists if they had any scientific evidence for their claims they honestly responded with, “no”. Ask any creationist for scientific evidence and you’ll just get excuses and complaints in response. Let’s hope the creationists stay put in the next election and try not to tarnish science with their dogma.
Do you mean that Bigfoot is NOT real, Doug?
There is talk that Dick Cheney may be one. He mumbles incoherently, has back hair and can’t handle a gun without shooting an attorney. However the Bigfoot anti-defamation league suggested I not degrade Bigfoot by making the comparison.
Doug- Didn’t you mean Dick the Hun instead of Bigfoot?
Senator McCain lends credence to what Randy calls bad science:
Discovery Institute is pleased to co-present with CityClub of Seattle and the Seattle World Affairs Council a luncheon featuring U.S. Senator John McCain.http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=271&program=Discovery%20Institute&isEvent=true
How in the wide world of sports will ANYBODY take Johnny seriously after this stunt?Unbelievable.
The Discovery Institute’s primary thrust in terms of funding and resources dedicated are those political and cultural campaigns centering around intelligent design.These include the:Wedge strategyIntelligent design movementTeach the Controversy
Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) is a strong opponent of evolution.
I think McCain has gone over to the dark side. 8 years ago I think he was his own person. He has slowly been sucked in. Most evident was his giving credence to the likes of Fatwell and Robberson. Sad really.
Isn’t it an evolution oddity that people who are profoundly stupid see all things in the world as crystally clear. Wouldn’t it have survival value to question one’s stupid judgements?
And, while I’m on the subject, shouldn’t all of Fleetwood’s ancestors died before they reached the age of reproductive potential?
Meanwhile, this story has its own link on cnn.com. What is the saying: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity as long as the name’s spelled right”? Beginning to wonder.
Hey, Radical Right Wingers.
Bite it.
We shut you down in the last election.
And now we get to shut you UP and throw your heretical Biblical take on Genesis out of our schools.
Chew it.
And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
Swallow.
Oh, yeah . . . and GET OVER IT.
It is refreshing to see that a sense of reason has returned to the BOE. Sadly, I am afraid we have not seen the last of this seesaw…the extremists will gear up for another election and push their candidates. Those candidates will undoubtedly not be honest about their position and we will be stuck with another of the Connie Morris ilk.
*sigh*
Based on the poll of Kansas voters reported in the Eagle and taken last June, all conservative candidates will have to do is not be Connie Morris-like. As you may recall, in that poll over 70% thought that criticisms of, and alternatives to, evolutionary theory should be taught in public schools.
“As you may recall, in that poll over 70% thought that criticisms of, and alternatives to, evolutionary theory should be taught in public schools.”
Mathmeticians should decide math curriculums.
Historians should decide history curriculums.
Scientists should not decide science curriculums.
Science is not a democratic institution.
All of a sudden O&OLiar has a new-found religion in GASP! polls.
What about “leadership?” What about the only poll that matters is the one on election day? What about “this is a republic, not a pure democracy?”
And btw, I don’t recall . . . where’s the link?
Sorry………..
That should have been…….
Scientists SHOULD decide science curriculums.
I see CapnSh*thead has weighed in. Thank you for your input Capn.
The link I had to the KC Star is no longer up, but you can find reference to the poll if you can Google. Here are a link reflecting the thoughts of the people overall.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml
I think that “are” a mistake in the above.
Religion is a good thing- in private and in moderation. I am a testament that Jesus Christ can and will change you for the better. But it has no business in schools, courthouses or City Hall.
How many on this board voted for Ken Willard? He’s just as extreme as the rest of them. You should have seen him on the news yesterday talking about this. We had good candidates to run against him, and he still won. And he often defended the other whackos on the school board. HE should have been replaced.
“WILLARD OUT NOW! NOW!”
familiar theme?
Homer Arafat Sardine Sandwiches.
I think that “are” a mistake in the above.
Jeez, Kansas has made a banner headline on MSNBC.
For “approving” the same science standards that the rest of the world recognizes.
outlander, the polls of the ignorant do not decide what is real science.
p-mom……….I know you think little of me, but I actually walked the streets of Bel Aire doing lit drops for Jack Wempe, Willard’s opponent in the November election.
This is a major victory for education in general and science education specifically. Be fore warned, the RW nutcases will be back in force for the ‘08 elections. NOW is the time to recruit moderate, intelligent candidates for the 5 positions up then. We have to rid the KSBOE of Steve Abrams and Kathy Martin in that election and preserve the moderates in the other districts. These nutcases just don’t get it.
outlander, the polls of the ignorant do not decide what is real science.
p-mom……….I know you think little of me, but I actually walk the streets of Bel Aire doing lit drops for Jack Wempe, Willard’s opponent in the November election.
This is a major victory for education in general and science education specifically. Be fore warned, the RW nutcases will be back in force for the ‘08 elections. NOW is the time to recruit moderate, intelligent candidates for the 5 positions up then. We have to rid the KSBOE of Steve Abrams and Kathy Martin in that election and preserve the moderates in the other districts. These nutcases just don’t get it.
Even Rush Limbaugh believes in evolution and old earth.
Finally, common sense prevails.
Right on, Mary! Finally the world will stop laughing at us.
You just have to love government schools. Politics decides what is taught while the rest of us get to pay for it. You pay for it even when you disagree, think they are voilating science standards, or just plain lying.
Thank you big government morons.
Regardless of anyone’s position regarding the “evolution vs. intelligent design” debate – the fact that both aren’t allowed to co-exist as different theories is a hypocritical stance. So much for “tolerance.”
“Finally, common sense prevails.” … don’t you mean “Finally, the left wing liberal prevails”?
Does anyone else see the irony in the liberal left’s position on the standards? Isn’t the far left the same group that is also preaching “tolerance”? Or is it only when others disagree with liberal viewpoints? Talk about a one way street.
Common sense, is your ID some kind of oxymoron?
I have no problem with you putting your beliefs in your church, in your family, but when you try to push them on the school system, that’s where we’re going to have a problem.
Your religion has as much place in the classroom as Witchcraft.
Common sense – only scientists are allowed to determine science curriculums.
Anything else is interference in academics.
Apophis Im pissed off at you right now yes. I think Willard laid too low to draw enough attention to himself, unfortunately.
it’s up to us to show how out of the norm he is.
Science is not religion and religion is not science. There is no “tolerance” issue involved. Religion belongs in church, not the science classroom.There is no “debate” about eveolution among REAL scientists.
Again Golf, got anything IMPORTANT to add?
Proudman,Who do you want to run our schools? God know I’m no fan of our current educational system but I don’t see privatizing as a way to give everyone equal access. I want everyone to have the opportunity to get a good education regardless of what that costs. We waste money on many things that do not matter but education is the key to resolving poverty and ignorance. We should be paying teachers millions not baseball players but we should be holding them responsible for the job they do. I haven’t heard you discuss an alternative. Do you have one?
Proudman,Who do you want to run our schools? God know I’m no fan of our current educational system but I don’t see privatizing as a way to give everyone equal access. I want everyone to have the opportunity to get a good education regardless of what that costs. We waste money on many things that do not matter but education is the key to resolving poverty and ignorance. We should be paying teachers millions not baseball players but we should be holding them responsible for the job they do. I haven’t heard you discuss an alternative. Do you have one?
Hey PM,Why are liberals supposed to be tolerant of right-wing propaganda? You certainly haven’t displayed any tolerance!
I’m tolerant of whatever they wish as long as they don’t try forcing it upon everyone else.
So yes, I’m intolerant of intolerance.
I’m past thinking teachers are underpaid.
They make more than police officers and RN’s.
Their wages are more than the average pay of most Americans. So that argument is dead to me.
Hopefully this is the last we hear about this mess! Kansas has been trying to get over the Wizard of Oz jokes then you I.D. losers force us into being the butt of new jokes.
Scientists don’t write bibles, and theologist shouldn’t attempt to write science books!
We have the 1st amendment for a very good reason and if you don’t like it, then get the heck out of the USA!
Today I raise my middle finger towards the I.D. losers which wasted so many of our Kansas dollars on this stupid issue!
On a completely unrelated note, whatever happened to the great and courageous Prof. Paul Mirecki, scourge of Thumpers everywhere? Did they ever find the dastardly pair that daubed his eyes with charcoal after he was out driving around Lawrence thinking great thoughts at 5 a.m.? I can’t find anything newer than 12/05 about him, and was concerned about his welfare. Thanks in advance.
This is good news for our schools.
For now.
Oh come on fundies! You don’t NEED to use the schools!
Can you honestly deny that this culture is not positively SATURATED with Creation information?
You don’t have to even go to church to hear about creationism.
O&OL–
Oops, Satan made you forget about Matt. 5, 22 “Anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
I learned the TOE as a child – and like most kids – it didn’t sway my spiritual beliefs. It’s Science – that’s all. It should be taught in Science class until a better theory comes along to displace or amend it.
Creationism is cult-thought because its tenets are based solely on mythological legends.
Evolution is a step up from cult-thought, but is still only a supposition-based upon the study of life as Darwin interpreted it from his observations. It is more aptly described as a ‘fad,’ but as Science progresses – it is foundation.
Human-induced Global Warming slips back into the cult-thought mentality – much like the hullabaloo that surrounded Y2K. We had a LOT of big scientific and mathematical minds spreading gloom and doom there also. GW, is a politically-induced cult-thought, which some believe is reaching its apex now and will begin to dim before the 2008 elections, dealing a fatal blow to Dems.
We live in a world where anyone can get on a soapbox and promote their own agenda. IF it catches on – woohoo.
Religions promote their legends for their own purposes – usually those of control.
But that doesn’t mean Science has cornered the market on the truth, either.
Consider what might happen if we launched into WWIII, complete with nukes and only a handful of folks survived, who then went ‘underground’ for centuries to protect themselves from fallout. All technology lost- the future tribal people might venture out one day – and find a lone surviving book – Harry Potter.
Can you imagine what kind of religion would develop around that? lol
And the poster shows its true agenda.
“Human-induced Global Warming slips back into the cult-thought mentality”
“enviro wackos are the new nazis”
Come on, you left one out.
“Burn oil. Fill my pockets. Who cares about the other folks as long as I GET MINE!!!!”
Ever so appropriate for one of our two fossil fuels shills. I see sherri and paulie were up EARLY to be the first on the threads with their oil spills, er, I mean oil SHILLS!
Cha-ching!!!!!!
Teachers don’t make more money than RNs, they are underpaid for the job they do.My son in law is a teacher and so is one of my best friends, they make enough to get by and that’s all. It’s just their dedication to the kids and the love of teaching that keeps them there.On a different note, we desparately need RNs…I wish more people would choose that profession. You can make very good money if you’re in the right place.
G. Sheridan, you are a genuine oddity here.A conservative athiest, or agnostic, whatever.
My hat’s tipped to you for not toeing the party line on this.
(I’m not admitting to a compliment here, but it’s close. I’ll have to mark the calendar so I don’t do that again too soon) HA!
Okay, that’s enough nicey nice.I don’t want KFG to think I’m gettin’ soft.I strongly agree with KFG on “green” issues in general.Enough corporate welfare for the oil business, while they trash the environment.For God’s sake people, what are we leaving for our kids and grandkids?Our society MUST find alternative fuels if we are to survive.If you don’t believe in global warming as man-made, then I’ll bet a buck two ninety-eight that you believe that the chances of mutually assured destruction, in the fight for dwindling resources will be our fate.
Mary, our local community college has an excellent nursing program, and has for many years. They can’t graduate them fast enough. I don’t know about entry level pay, but I have an acquaintance whose RN spouse travels from town to town as a temp and makes BIG bucks.He quit his factory job to be a house-husband!
Mary, on the teachers vs. RNs pay issue, you’re comparing apples and oranges for many reasons, ranging from healthcare and retirement benefit differences, to job security differences, to working hours–how many teachers work from 7 PM to 7 AM?, how many must be at the school for 50 weeks, 2000 hrs/year?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that American teachers earn, on average, $37/hr. Maybe the government’s statistics experts are performing erroneous calculations. For example, they may be inadequately crediting at-home work time, such as lesson preparation and homework and test grading. At any rate, I doubt that American RNs earn an average of anywhere near $37/hr, which translates into ca. $70,000 for a full-time nursing job. You have to be in high-cost-of-living areas like New York City and LA to see this level of average compensation. In these places, teachers are earning averages of $60,000 and they are not working 2000 hours.
Tracy, travel time is implicitly “bundled into” the specified workplace compensation. Lawyers get to bill their clients at full hourly rate for their travel time. If nurses did this their specified “hourly wage” would drop significantly.
Being away from home and family is a heavy cost born by travelling RNs is a heavy cost to them and their loved ones that forces contracting agencies to offer above-regular-job wages. Consider the husband who has to manage a household on his own. Kids who don’t get to see their mom, enjoy her cooking, consoling after a bad day at school, help with school homework projects, or goodnight kisses.
I have not kept up with this matter in very recent years, but historically “locum tenens” registry jobs have been like substitute teaching: no retirement benefits. Instead of employers paying 403-k contributions, pool nurses have had to fully self-fund IRAs. In the past, those who went fully into pool work, as opposed to half-time+ regular employment plus some pool work, RNs had to purchase self-insurance for healthcare. Perhaps this has changed. I hope so. But if registry jobs are paying beyond-regular-job hourly wages, I doubt this is the case.
heartlander..
one other item I didn’t see you mention. Malpractice insurance.. another cost to all RN’s .
Do all nurses have to have malpractice insurance? I did not know that. I could see where ARNPs – those who can prescribe medications – might need malpractice insurance, but I did not think that was the case for all nurses.
You might have figured……….. heartlander chimes in when it comes to bashing public education and teachers. I thought this thread was about throwing out the creationism/science standards for real science based standards. Here’s an interesting thought: heartlander claims to be an MD but has gone on record as supporting creationism “science” over real science. Would you ever want this “MD” to treat you or your family?
Nurses’ professional liability insurance costs are absorbed by their employers, i.e. hospitals or doctors. Nurse malpractice is rare. Most often an employing hospital has defective policies and procedures, or a wayward doctor connives a nurse into ignoring such, putting the nurse into a conflicted position between masters. Nurses are trained to follow policies and procedures, AND to follow doctors’ orders. Which can be really stressful. Hospitals generally leave physician conduct to peer physicians to deal with. But if a doctor admits a lot of patients to a hospital, and /or refers a lot of patients to other physicians, money may override good judgment.
Many hospital administrators’ income has become based on their employer hospitals’ revenue and profit margins. Overworking nurses is a way to boost hospital profits. Under this condition, nurses are more prone to make mistakes. Fatigue does this to anyone.
The vast, vast majority of nurses want to do a good job, and they do a good job. But they cannot help it if somebody “above them” who puts personal income above patient welfare compromises their performance.
Heartlander,
Well put. I have seen some of the matters you describe.
ALL caregivers have or should have liability insurance.
And most are covered by employers.
MOST nurses want to do their jobs well, but there are a few who take it upon themselves to report only what they feel is important, or to judge the patient.
And yes, fatigue and overworked is a big problem. Freaking paperwork is about half the problem.
Heartlander, I don’t know how long you’ve been a MD, but when I was in nursing school they were telling us that we absolutely were liable for our own actions regardless of what the doctor said. And that it was our duty and responsibility to refuse orders that could cause harm.
Kindof like the Army, yes you have your orders, but you’re still responsible for your actions (or lack of).
“Apophis”, you have a serious inferiority complex.
I identified myself. You have never done this.
You say parents clamor to get their students into your classes. So prove it by who you are, what classes you teach, and where.
Vaughn Tolle has identified himself. I know a private school administrative person at a school where I have taught who wears a Colby sweatshirt, and I just realized last week, “Oh, Tolle and Tolle?” A very sweet person, I might add.
Anyway, “Apophis”, Dr. Steve Abrams is a real scientist. He knows a lot more physiology and pharmacology than you will ever know. His scientific knowledge is tested on a daily basis. If his clients’ pets and livestock were not given scientifically-sound veterinary medical care, they would die unnecessarily. In treating livestock, he enables ranchers to keep solvent. If he didn’t know biologic science, his practice would distintegrate.
The late Stephen Gould, Richard Dawkins and Ken Miller got faculty positions at a time when higher education offered expansionary faculty positions, which subsequently closed up. In my era, many scientist-students were forced to find non-university-faculty careers. Gould admitted being pre-med but flunking O Chem, thus forcing him to find an alternative career. Too bad he struggled with science, but paleontology was easier to get into. Dawkins is a social scientist. Miller, whom I have corrresponded with, gets his federal grant money by towing the party line, and hs textbook money similarly. He says he believes in God, but can’t support ID/creationism, because if he did, his funding would dry up. Ca-ching often overrules intellectual honesty.
Anyway, “Apophis”, you’re just a cyberspace blogger with no revealed real-person identity. Even if some public school parents choose you, which you have not ever factually established, let’s see, that’s people who don’t specifically pay you, who have to submit their children to compulsory “education” choosing a person whom “public education authorites” create a limited-choice palette of teavhers to select from
That would NOT make you a GREAT TEACHER. In substance how would selection of the choice of lesser of evils make you a “Great Teacher”? Sorry, it would not.
I could suggest that in your self-proclaimed expertise on rocks, you crawl under one, but that would express the level of civility that you do.
Nurses can make over $70,000 a year if they’re in the right field. Some years I’ve made more than that. Most nurse anestisists make over $100,000 a year.Nursing pays well.Liability insurance is no big deal, any nurse can easily afford it.
Mary, you’ve moved the goal posts. You started with RNs. Now you’ve gone to RNS in SOME FIELDS, as well as nurse anesthetists. You’re not talking about AVERAGE-PAY RNs.
Teachers make on average 38k which is over 18 dollars an hour.
With 20 years experience that goes up to 55k a year or 26 dollars an hour.
That’s not too shabby really.
My source:
payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary
As a nurse you can make a good living. It depends on what you do. It also depends on where you live. My sister-in-law makes over 45 dollars an hour and last weekend the hospital needed a nurse so badly they paid her $300 on top of her hourly wage. She lives in KC. From the day I started working I’ve never made less that $40K and make a lot more now. However it is really hard work and if I had it to do over I would have done something else.As far as liability insurance I have carried my own for years. It is very affordable as long as you aren’t sued. Even though hospitals will cover the nurse in a lawsuit they can turn around and sue the nurse personally if a case is won against the hospital. People make mistakes and I would hate to lose everything I have because something I did harmed someone.I still think teachers are underpaid and that if there was better pay it would attract more quality.
Golly kids, I understand Randy is going to have a Christian baiting contest at the next Bund, I’m sorry, Blog get together. Afterwards there will be a cross burning out back of The Eagle offices.
Every time I read this filthy rag I suddenly realize what it must have been like to be a Jew and pick up a copy of Der Sturmer.
Wichita, as corrupt and bigoted as you think it is.
ooooooooooh, I think I struck a nerve with heartlander!
Here is how I see your assertion that I am a “nobody” because I will not divulge my real identity: Does a wise person do this? Is it truly intelligent do make personal information to the WWW? I say resoundingly, NO. So, screw you heartlander. Keep showing everyone your superiority complex.
Steve Abrams may be a VET, but he is no man of science. One cannot support creationism AND claim to be a progressive scientist. There is no more to say on that matter. A fundie is a fundie.
Lastly heartlander, you elitist jackass, I never claimed to be an expert in “rocks”. I have only stated that Earth Science was my area of specific interest. Get a life loser.
heartlander…my wife has always paid her own malpractice insurance, and she has worked hospitals, home health, surgery centers and rehab. Mostly in the Via Christi network. Could this a benefit she does not know about?
And.. in response to the comment Apophis made: I personally seek out doctors who believe the creation account. I WANT my doctor to know that I am a product of God, not just dust, water and magic, hopelessly destined to return to nothingness.
Gotta take issue heartlander.
Steve Abrams is NOT a scientist. His religous fervor has destroyed his credibility as such.
Abrams is a kook.
JR, you didn’t read what I wrote. You should try working with a vet, and then you’ll see he or she is an applied scientist. You can major in any discipline in college and go to law school. To go to vet school, you have to first earn a biological-field or chemistry degree, and earn high grades. You generally have to work with a vet as well. Then you take two years of graduate-level basic science. Then you spend two years learning how to apply biological science to heal sick animals, under the supervision of expert animal scientists.
When rural people depend on you to heal their livestock, which their livelihoods depend upon, if you don’t know biological science, you’re not going to be in practice very long. Actually, if you don’t know bio science, you would have been drummed out of vet school, or you never would have been admitted.
If you say he’s lost his previous scientific knowledge, I’d ask the owners of his patients about this. They’re in a better position to make the judgment than we bloggers.
“Apophis” I’d take you on in a battle of wits, but it would be unethical for me to do so, as you are unarmed.
“Apophis” specifically said, months ago, that a lot of knowledgeable parents want him to teach their children. He bashes me for criticizing public education.
He doesn’t see his own paradoxes. First, if knowledgeable parents want him, and their kids get into his classes, what about the just-as-talented kids who don’t get into his classes? If his peers were just as capable as he is, parents would have no reason to try to influence their children’s placement with him, would they? What about some kids who are more talented in science than some of “Apophis’s” students, but whose parents have not exerted influence, or have tried, unsuccessfully, such as perhaps because they were not “insiders” like USD 259 personnel or PTA leaders, or they lacked some sort of “status”, or they were not sufficiently “pushy”, e.g. pestering the principal until he or she gave in?
If “Apophis” really were committed to excellence in public education, he’d say, if he’s as good an educator as he claims to be, “We need majoor change. I don’t want to be a prima donna, I want a faculty of peers who are all excellent teachers like me. I can’t teach all the kids here, but all the kids here deserve teachers who are as good as I am. We have teachers who are not great teachers. They need to find other careers, because ‘good enough’ isn’t when it comes to shaping children’s lives.”
But methinks he likes being a top dog, which is an elitist ethos, he likes being stroked by parents who say, “We want our child to be in your class,” which is (their) effectively saying, “We don’t want our kids to be in So-and-So’s class, really.” So other kids get stuck with So-and-So. Tough luck for them. They should have chosen better parents.
The second incongruity is: How good is anyone or anything in a “free” authoritarian scheme in which most people are not free to make unfettered choices, such as what teachers their students get, or what schools their kids attend? “Apophis” fears vouchers, charters and other choice proposals. If parents have valuable vouchers that give them diverse choices, while imposing the responsibility to make wise choices for their children’s benefit, public educators like “Apophis”, or the less-than-excellent teachers he represents as a teachers association leader, fear that they won’t be chosen. “Apophis” mostly fears FREEDOM to choose. At least freedom to choose among OTHER people and their children.
Notably, it is an absolutely elitist proposition-really hubris–to hold that the public-education experts should control childhood education, for the reason that parents are incapable of managing their own children’s education. If that’s true, it’s unbelievable that humanity has survived this long.
But here too there is an incongruity. “Apophis” is an ardent unionist. Unionism is a marker of membership in the underclass. Its central thesis is that individuals cannot negotiate their own employment contract terms with fair results, so they need to gather themselves into an “army” to demonstrate sufficient strength, as a collective mass, to achieve fair contract results. This a blue-collar “herd” ethos. Which is also represented in lock-step seniority pay raises, irrespective of teachers’ teaching quality.
It is represented too in paying substitute teachers lower per-diem-equivalents than full-time teachers. The subs are not viewed to be members of the “herd”, deserving of equal pay, even though they are fully-trained and licensed, and, as importantly, their work is essential to the full-time teachers corps. (BTW, in nursing, temp nurses are paid MORE than full-time nurses, not LESS.)
This diminution of subs demeans children, because underpaid subs are not going to be your most-capable people, and they do not have an incentive to work hard the nights before class to ensure that the regular teachers’ lesson plans are fully carried out. (If temp nurses went to hospitals and were not filling in nearly “seamlessly” with high-level professional performance, they would not be hired.)
These considerations do not suggest, in the slightest, the harboring of expertise to “manage” children from the age of 6 to 18. Unless public schools’ mission is to train children for unionized jobs, as it was for most of the 20th century, but is no longer feasible.
If teachers cannot even raise themselves to the level of being true professionals, who are respected by society to the degree that they can individually negotiate their own employment contracts–and if some teachers do a better job they should be paid more than those who do a lesser job, irrespective of seniority, as most jobs represent in the vast majority of the American economy– how are schoolchildren going to learn how to individually negotiate their way through life?
This is an essential question because the vast majority of them are going to have to do this. They are not going to find secure, lifetime jobs, with great healthcare benefits, that will enable them to retire in their early 60’s with a decent pension. Nor are they going to find middle-class-income jobs that allow them to work in their employers’ quarters for only 6 hours per day, the rest of their work being done at home on their own timetables, with a 175-day onsite work-year.
Another essential matter is too-large teaching loads. Teachers are unhappy about this. But if they do not have the power to create a good work environment (for themselves and their charges), what lesson does this teach? “Yes this is crappy, but we can’t change things.” So that’s transmitting a defeatest attitude to children. (This is only the richest, most advanced nation on the planet, but we can’t fix too-high classloads?)
I noticed long, long ago, that most teachers, with occasional exceptions, did not teach children how to self-correct their errors. I have heard of a few math teachers—I never had one of these—who went beyond chanting, “Check your work,” who include in their lessons answer-check methods, and who do not credit correct answers, unless answer checks are shown. This quickly trains students to monitor their own problem-solving, and improves it rapidly. Why isn’t this an NCTM standard? Those of you who have kids in school should ask them if they are required to show answer checks for their problems to be credited.
Ask any employer about young people. They don’t have the ingrained habit of self-correcting their errors, unless they’ve been well-trained at home. Asian kids routinely get this training, for example.
Mathematics is a constructive field. University research mathematicians routinely write several-hundred-page proofs of single propositions. Elementary schools are using manipulatives, which is enables kids to do constructions.
But in middle and high school, math is still being taught as a “get the number answers” endeavor, in which the only goal is to simplify complicated expressions. Construction isn’t even taught until hs geometry, and then in precalculus and calculus, but most kids struggle in geometry, and never get to the latter courses. (Geometry should be taught after Alg II because proofs typically require 4-6 individual mathematical statements to be written by students. Alg I doesn’t provide an adequate preparation for this.)
I have had students create their own algebra problems, and then solve them. If you really want to teach kids how to solve algebra equations, the key is to teach them how to build equations. Then they can “disassemble” them. This also makes it much easier to teach kids how to later solve word problems. It’s easier for kids to first master mathematical composition, and then learn how to apply this skill to translating English sentences into mathematical-language expressions.
“Apophis” doesn’t understand that I’ve thought a lot about education, specifically in math, and have implemented practices that most schoolchildren don’t ever get to see.
Sorry, heartlander, you destroyed your credibility with this statement: “Dr. Steve Abrams is a real scientist.”
That’s like equating a barely-competent mechanic with a top-notch designer of high-performance cars.
Your anti-teacher rants are getting routine and predictable. How does tutoring a handful of gifted kids that you get to select qualify you as an expert on teaching?
Look as far as doctors go, I’ve known some who are very religious and still fabulous doctors, and I’ve known some who are just awful. Same for atheists.
It simply depends on the person.
And as someone who ascribes to no particular religion, I’ve seem amazing things, things you can’t help but think could only be by the hand of God. I believe in evolution, I think religion sucks. But I do think there has to be a God.
Whenever man can’t understand something, he automatically asumes it must be divine.There doesn’t “have to be a God” because there is a scientific explaination for everything, even if we don’t know what it is yet.
HeartlanderI’m an average nurse with an associate degree, yet I’ve had years where I has an annual income over $70,000. It all depends on where you are and what you’re doing. The average nurse makes a good wage….when I left the hospital, I was making almost $30 per hour. I could raise my family on that.Now I make more than that doing homehealth.
“had” not “has” I need to check my spelling before I post.
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