Educational Standards

Texas Education Goals: DO NOT TEACH CRITICAL THINKING!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Texas state government is promoting a concept of education that DOES NOT TEACH CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS!

Imagine this: The second largest state in population and land area, the state which sets the standard for most textbook sdoptions nationally, because of their large student and youth population, has set a goal of discouraging thinking, analyzing, interpreting of learning materials!

How backward can Texas be, which is already in the bottom ten on most educational standards under Governor Rick Perry!

The right wing evangelicals and Tea Party activists are at work, and they do not wish to encourage young people to develop their own ideas and thoughts!

After all, IF young people think, analyze, interpret, and challenge, that is a threat to parental authority and religious doctrine, which promotes obedience without question!

What kind of future does this nation have if we allow what Texas is doing to, effectively, promote obedient people who have no thoughts, who are KNOW NOTHINGS, such as Governor Rick Perry himself?

This is the problem of states rights, and is an argument for nationalizing the educational curriculum, as that is the only hope for high educational standards and the ability of America to compete in the 21st century!

The Republican Party Advocating The End Of National Commitment To Education Standards: A Tragedy!

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The Republican Party has declared war on the US Department of Education, and in so doing, will doom American education for the long term, if they are successful in winning power, and succeed in abolishing a department first started under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as part of a larger cabinet agency, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953, and created separately in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter.

When Ronald Reagan came to the Presidency, he was dedicated to the abolition of the department, but dropped the idea, but it has come under attack ever since.

The attack on the Department of Education, advocated by Republicans who wish to allow states and local districts to control education without oversight, would bring about an education system which would promote mediocrity in educational offerings in poor districts, making victims of economically disadvantaged students and disabled students.

If there are to be funds coming from the national government, and higher standards of educational attainment and greater accountability demanded, then local control will not work, as historically, no matter how many complaints there are about the national government, the corruption and incompetence of state and local governments in much of the nation is notoriously scandalous!

That is why we were caught off guard in the 1950s, when the Soviet Union was first in space, and made us aware of the need for federal involvement and investment in education at all levels, leading to the National Defense Education Act of 1958.

Not only is it essential to provide for poor, minority and disabled students, but also if Pell grants are ended, it will destroy the idea of advancing educational opportunity for low income college students, which can lead to a better economic future for them and their families.

So despite Michele Bachmann specifically calling for the total closing of the Education Department, and in fact because of the very obvious ignorance she displays in her own educational experience, federal involvement in education MUST continue unabated!