"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Time to Think Critically about Critical Thinking

Stephen Colbert on the Texas GOP's view of critical thinking...

(for mature audiences)


In contrast take a look at the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education's platform. It starts with...
To build a school, family, and community partnership that fosters learning, creativity, critical thinking skills, and success among our children...
See also, Valerie Strauss' analysis at Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really.

To be fair, the Texas GOP claims that the plank was included in their platform by accident.
“[The chairman of the Texas GOP's Education Subcommittee] indicated that it was an oversight of the committee, that the plank should not have included ‘critical thinking skills’ after ‘values clarification,’” Elam said. “And it was not the intent of the subcommittee to present a plank that would have indicated that the RPT in any way opposed the development of critical thinking skills.”
It seems that the Texas GOP's Education Subcommittee could have used someone with critical thinking skills...

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Stop the Testing Insanity!


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