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Holding up the teaching of evolution as the example of Texas education is disingenuous at best. Yes, Texas has a history of doing very odd things as it relates

Holding up the teaching of evolution as the example of Texas education is disingenuous at best. Yes, Texas has a history of doing very odd things as it relates to topics like sex education and evolution but these things are so tiny in the broad context of a K-12 level education that they are effectively meaningless. When it comes down to it, whether a kid is taught evolution or some far-fetched creationist theory about the creation of the world matters little in the quality of their education as it relates to their success on leaving high school. That's what kids should be compared on and if I were guessing, I'd guess that's the standard here. It's fun to take easy potshots at Texas based on backwards beliefs in the origin of the species but in the end, kids ability to read, write and do math are far more imporant.

SamAtt 17y ago
I'm just replying to draw attention to your very important point. There is content and there is methodology. Texas might be teaching backwards content but the question this series of articles has been raising is whether the methodology used in their schools is more effective. So unless the content is so backwards as to be more simplistic (say if they were leaving evolution out completely) I don't see how their backwards beliefs are relevant.
jbooth 17y ago
It's not disingenuous, it goes to the core of what people believe education should be. Most of us believe education should be about imparting knowledge as well as "how to think". It should not be about ideological indoctrination. We're not communists. EDIT: heck, the soviets even did a better job than us of teaching math
- doki_pen 17y ago
  Ideological indoctrination is an important part of the US education system. But we should be indoctrinating children to the American philosophy and not some anti-american religious ideas. This builds a stronger society and goes a long way to destroy tribalism.

SamAtt 17y ago

I'm just replying to draw attention to your very important point. There is content and there is methodology. Texas might be teaching backwards content but the question this series of articles has been raising is whether the methodology used in their schools is more effective. So unless the content is so backwards as to be more simplistic (say if they were leaving evolution out completely) I don't see how their backwards beliefs are relevant.

jbooth 17y ago

It's not disingenuous, it goes to the core of what people believe education should be. Most of us believe education should be about imparting knowledge as well as "how to think". It should not be about ideological indoctrination. We're not communists. EDIT: heck, the soviets even did a better job than us of teaching math

doki_pen 17y ago
Ideological indoctrination is an important part of the US education system. But we should be indoctrinating children to the American philosophy and not some anti-american religious ideas. This builds a stronger society and goes a long way to destroy tribalism.