Comments on: What Is So, So Wrong in Texas

By: Marianne Follis

Marianne Follis — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:38:55 +0000

I agree with Susan…this is about money, power and politics, all at the expense of our children’s education.

I am not sure whether I should laugh or cry…but I am embarrassed.

By: Linda Zajac

Linda Zajac — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:54:13 +0000

I think the small, vigorous man with a shiny pate and bristling mustache has too much power.

By: marc

marc — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:12:11 +0000

Susan:
That is wonderful news — but that suggests there is a kind of insane excercise going on here where the board is setting this ridiculous standards which teachers are happily ignoring — a dance which once again reminds me of the Soviet Unoin — where precisely because the Party said something was so, many people disbelieved it.

By: Susan Denney

Susan Denney — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:18:05 +0000

This is not about social studies education in Texas. This is about social studies textbooks and the gazillion dollars of profit they represent. The result is always a watered-down version of history that is acceptable to everyone, not just Texans.

The teaching of social studies in Texas is a different matter altogether. As a former high school teacher in Texas, I can tell you that I did not teach exclusively from the textbook and couldn’t name a colleague who did. If you read the social studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) carefully, you will find that children in Texas are expected to have a body of knowledge about social studies, yes. But, more importantly, they are supposed to be using original sources and doing their own research as early as kindergarten. Comparing and contrasting differing views comes in early as a skill elementary children should master. By the time a child is in fifth grade, the emphasis is on problem solving and decision making. All those thinking skills you mentioned are not only encouraged but explicitly required by the Texas TEKS.

By: ruth pennebaker

ruth pennebaker — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:13:14 +0000

You know me, Marc. I’ll defend Texas to my dying breath when it’s appropriate. Here, I won’t make a peep, though. It’s humiliating to those of us who live (and think) there.