That sounds like all those cryptologists who devise unbreakable algorithms.
Well, I mean. They can’t break their own crypto, and they’re super smart, so it must be unbreakable, right?
4 Likes
Utter fantasy. There is literally nowhere on this planet that gender and race *do not affect social standing". It is disingenuous at best, driving trollies at worst to claim that gender and race played no role in these two individuals as they progressed through their career, or in how individuals voted - be it in the primary process, or the national election. And that’s only the tangible effects. Passive racism or misogyny affects every aspect of society as well in as simple ways as subconsciously “going with your gut” to decide who gets the promotion, or the endorsement, or the donation. It’s a big part of why these two aspects of society are so difficult to curtail in the first place.
I desperately hope the day comes where your statements can be truthful. But they are currently not and continuing to attempt to defend them will be construed as nothing more than bad faith arguing in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
23 Likes
Margaret Sanger’s interest in eugenics seemed to come from two places: Decoupling the idea of birth control from the morality police and tethering it to the much more respectable realm of science, and also addressing the abysmal infant mortality rates amongst her patients/clients. Fewer pregnancies would result in healthier children. Sanger’s own mother had been pregnant 18 times in 25 years, with only 11 live births, and only 10 of the children living to adulthood; Sanger’s clients were often in much worse shape.
But I suspect Sanger isn’t being covered in the curriculum, either.
4 Likes
Mmm - I disagree. First off I am not arguing that she SHOULD be left out of a HS curriculum. Only that I could see why it isn’t required (and the article states Clinton just isn’t required, she isn’t banned or removed from text books per se.) Second, what is common knowledge and very relevant for current events, may be less relevant 5, 10, 15, 20… years from now.
Like I asked before - who was the Secretary of State under Kennedy? A period of time that saw a TON of historical happenings which reverberate today, but most people won’t know. Even though one may cover the events he was part of, his name may not actually come up, or may mention something he did with out delving into who he was.
Or perhaps the late Geraldine Ferraro is a better analogy. The first female vice president candidate representing a major party and would have been the previous high mark to inspire and had an accomplished career of her own, but is now mostly a foot note. I remember her because I lived through the election, but this was just as big of a deal then as many feel Clinton is now.
But, did you remember she was part of Clinton’s 2008 campaign? And then she got into trouble for various comments about Obama? I didn’t. I am not sure I even heard about it in 2008. I just wanted to make sure I was remembering right skimming the wiki article and saw it. But it just illustrates what one finds super important at one time gets lost in the shuffle.
Are you a teacher in Texas/or in Texas (nvm, looks like the answer is yes, which subject)? I did note in the article something about it saving 30min of instruction. So their instructional outline is that structured state wide? What would have that 30 min entailed, a short biography synopsis? Does this mean she may still be mention as it pertains to events she was part of (like the election). The watch dog person seemed to think she and others may still be touched on if not focused on.
Fair point - I only went through 8 of them. Leave it to the 7 I didn’t look at to throw the numbers outta wack. And fair point @Mindysan33 had earlier there didn’t seem to be a history major on the board. One would hope they have some as part of the department doing the work.
My point was it appeared most of them were at least directly involved in education and not just politicians or outsiders like DeVos (though looking through the ones I skipped earlier, they do have some like that.)
I agree it may be politically motivated for exclusion. And again not saying she SHOULD be exclude. I just disagree with it “erasing” her from history. If everyone not mentioned in HS history was “erased” we’d have like, what, 50-100 people left?
As a professional academic historian then, are you seriously worried that Texas is going to forget who Hilary Clinton is because of omitting her from a text book!?!?
Hilary hatred is so rampant and vile it’s half of the reason Trump is in office now!!!
It’s politics now, history later.
( Pray it’s not the mushroom clouds )
Nope, not at all an outlier. CA also has state standards that various textbook publishers must include if they want to be considered as a possible textbook/curriculum provider. (School districts, even some individual schools may adopt from a list of approved choices that meet the state standards.) I will say, if my memory serves, that the standards are created by a bipartisan committee of politicians who receive heavy input from college history professors. (It’s been 12 years since I looked.)
Also, this:
As a former teacher, I can’t stress that a person who earned an Ed.D is not even comparable to a person who earned a Ph.D in history.
11 Likes
Eugenics problems have a bad history, no question of that.
I have to wonder though,
if there had been some kind of effective eugenics program based on intelligence would we be talking about “President Trump”!?
What about voluntary, non-profit eugenics, like: “have you got an IQ less than 85, how would you like a FREE vasectomy?”
I thought one of the reasons for concern over what Texas does is because the curriculum is the same statewide, it uses the same books, and thus it impacts the books that are made because it is such a large market. While I am sure it isn’t alone, don’t most states have more options. Like you said, they state BoE has a list of approved books, but school districts have some leeway with what they get to pick?
over the course of 24 years i have taught 5th and 6th grade math, 6th grade science, 6th grade social studies, and i am now teaching financial math to senors and juniors.
yes and no. it is highly structured but some parts of the curriculum are worded in very vague terms which allow individual teachers or districts to bring their own interpretations and methodologies to those parts. in general, the math courses and the social studies courses have the most daunting challenge in the race against time, although some grades have it worse than others. 6th grade math in which close to 70% of the material is introduced to students for the first time in that grade is a much more difficult race than 5th grade math which consists of only about 20% new material and the rest is material that is brought to mastery from previous grades.
if you’re interested you can find the detailed curriculum document here-- https://tea.texas.gov/curriculum/teks/
keep in mind that, regardless of the subject you teach, if you have any students who are designated as english-language-learners, limited-english-proficiency, or english-as-a-second-language you are also required to use all appropriate measures from the “english language proficiency measures” which must be documented in your lesson plans.
the following link takes you directly to the curriculum standards for high school american history-- Redirect
6 Likes
Agreed. I should clarify that as a history subject, I believe Hillary being a woman is historically important. My original response was to someone saying she should be in (presumably) high school textbooks because she was the first female candidate. I strongly disagree that should be the deciding reason for her inclusion. If it’s the reason, then relegates it to the level of trivia. Like who was the first candidate from New York? Reduces her and her career to just her gender.
If the historical context for is presidential elections, then the deciding reason is because she was a candidate. Her gender might be part of the discussion, but it wouldn’t be the main reason to include her.
If the historical context is role of women, then her gender becomes more relevant.
To try and summarize: Give the woman some credit and explain why she should be in a textbook based on her accomplishments. If the #1 reason is she’s a woman, you may want to try again.
Agreed. She was more qualified. That’s the point. So why the need to appeal to gender?
Same with being in a history book. Does her gender suddenly make her interesting or historical? It adds context and is certainly interesting and often important in her development. But it’s rather unkind to use it as the pivotal reason.
Switching gears:
-
Why is there such a race?
-
How does it compare with the Common Core standards? Did Texas sign up for those? I know states can have standards that EXCEED Common Core, so does Texas do that?
because they’ve crammed so much into a particular course. having lived with these curriculum standards for close to 15 years it’s almost like asking “why is water wet?”
the teks came out about 8 years ahead of the common core. far from signing up for it, it is illegal for any public school district in texas to use common core standards. whether the teks exceed the common core, since we can’t use them i’ve never looked at a correlation. as a guess i would say that it probably does, but that is purely a guess.
8 Likes
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
5 Likes
4 Likes
When selecting one thing from many candidates, the chooser that goes first has tremendous power to eliminate variance on dimensions he or she doesn’t like.
Suppose 5 people want to pick one piece on a chess board. Each gets to eliminate half. The first eliminates all the non-pawns. The second eliminates all the black pawns. But 3-5 can pick anything they like from what’s left!
So if Texas’ curriculum means major publishers simply don’t write (as many?) textbooks that include the removed info…
Are you seriously saying that “Hillary haters” are as good a source of information about Hillary Clinton as textbooks? Sure, the haters will keep her name alive, but mightn’t it be worthwhile to try to have some accuracy as well?
6 Likes
History books are chalk full of firsts. You know, the important pivotal stuff in our civilization’s development. The things that help us better understand the world in which we live.
Like young women and minorities being able to think to themselves, “Well hot damn…I actually could be the POTUS,” as they dutifully memorize the names and pictures of the 40+ old white dudes who came before.
Hilary being a woman isn’t important in and of itself. But her accomplishments as a woman in this moment in time sure as fuck are.
13 Likes
Yes, but with math, are they like a year ahead of neighboring states? Or half a year? If they are cramming so much so fast, are they actually outpacing others?
Every time you say that word, I think Tek War.
More anti-Common Core rhetoric. I mean, odds are the standards are already similar, so how can you make it illegal if they are the same?
And a state can adhere to CC while having their own standards. It is just their standards meet or exceeds CCs.
