Texas Republicans want to eliminate critical thinking

Aside from the hurr hurr politics stuff, this is totally dumb from purely a best practice educational perspective. Limiting HOTS instruction will actually limit the ability of Texan students to perform well on AP or higher level standardized testing. You cant reach the highest levels of Blooms without it.

Critical thinking is what we need to teach more of because I see people everywhere not doing it.

Can you guys just kick Texas out of the union or something? The dumbification of the U.S. is making us here in Canada somewhat nervous

I am the last person to defend Rick Perry and the Texas GOP, but I'm not buying this as an actual policy goal. I have not heard any hand wringing from my usual news sources.

It being in the 2012 GOP Platform document is unsurprising. The 2010 document was just as revolting and reactionary.

edit: also warpus, that jokes was funny like....the last 10 times you said it. Poland sucks.

I always figured this was the case but to have it in black and white writing, it just hits you!

Azale said:

I am the last person to defend Rick Perry and the Texas GOP, but I'm not buying this as an actual policy goal. I have not heard any hand wringing from my usual news sources.

It being in the 2012 GOP Platform document is unsurprising. The 2010 document was just as revolting and reactionary.

edit: also warpus, that jokes was funny like....the last 10 times you said it. Poland sucks.

Click to expand...

This is more or less true. But Texas' overemphasis on standardized testing in particular has really taken its toll on the intellectual capacities of the state's students. School districts are so afraid of losing state funding that they spend a ridiculous amount of time in test preparation, as opposed to, say, fostering a coherent grasp of the subject. A friend of mine is a psychologist who works mainly with teenagers and he's observed how even the smartest ones he sees these days are noticeably deficient in their ability to discuss a topic in depth.

We're lucky enough to live in an affluent district and my kids are going to one of the highest-ranked public high schools in the US. But if I lived elsewhere in Texas and I didn't have access to private school I'd be outta here.

duckstab said:

This is more or less true. But Texas' overemphasis on standardized testing in particular has really taken its toll on the intellectual capacities of the state's students. School districts are so afraid of losing state funding that they spend a ridiculous amount of time in test preparation, as opposed to, say, fostering a coherent grasp of the subject. A friend of mine is a psychologist who works mainly with teenagers and he's observed how even the smartest ones he sees these days are noticeably deficient in their ability to discuss a topic in depth.

We're lucky enough to live in an affluent district and my kids are going to one of the highest-ranked public high schools in the US. But if I lived elsewhere in Texas and I didn't have access to private school I'd be outta here.

Click to expand...

Oh I agree. Education is one of the reasons I am extremely wary about living in this state long term, even though I genuinely love it. It's utterly pathetic.

I just don't think this particular blurb from the GOP platform document is the thing we need to be getting up in arms about. I guess if it exposes how truly messed up things are in this state it could be a good thing.

I can see absolutely no good reason why any politician would want to prevent the next generation from aquiring "higher order thinking skills" ...
The only motivation I see behind this is:

1. Creating an uneducated lower working class while teaching the rich offspring as good as possible.
2. creating a large mass of people too stupid to disbelieve republican lies, thus making re-elections and government corruption easier.
3. make people more susceptible to religious teachings.

i don't even see how the given reason of strenghtening parental autority can be achieved by making kids dumber.

Aroddo said:

I can see absolutely no good reason why any politician would want to prevent the next generation from aquiring "higher order thinking skills" ...
The only motivation I see behind this is:

1. Creating an uneducated lower working class while teaching the rich offspring as good as possible.
2. creating a large mass of people too stupid to disbelieve republican lies, thus making re-elections and government corruption easier.
3. make people more susceptible to religious teachings.

i don't even see how the given reason of strenghtening parental autority can be achieved by making kids dumber.

Click to expand...

I don't at all accept this law, but I think you're overthinking this. Conservatives don't have a world domination plan. I'm pretty sure parents were getting upset about their children arguing with them.

Ziggy Stardust said:

The word "fixed" should never be followed by the word "beliefs" except as an example when talking about words which should not follow each other, or when preceded by "not so" or "hardly" or "you know what I find silly?" or ...

I haven't though this through. I'll come in again.

Click to expand...

Of course you can followed fixed with beliefs. For example
"This article fixed beliefs I had about the state of education in Texas."

duckstab said:

But Texas' overemphasis on standardized testing in particular has really taken its toll on the intellectual capacities of the state's students. School districts are so afraid of losing state funding that they spend a ridiculous amount of time in test preparation, as opposed to, say, fostering a coherent grasp of the subject. A friend of mine is a psychologist who works mainly with teenagers and he's observed how even the smartest ones he sees these days are noticeably deficient in their ability to discuss a topic in depth.

We're lucky enough to live in an affluent district and my kids are going to one of the highest-ranked public high schools in the US. But if I lived elsewhere in Texas and I didn't have access to private school I'd be outta here.

Click to expand...

Oh, you're so Austintatious Keep it weird, duckstab.

It's not just Texas that's suffering from standardized testing mania. No Child Left an Elective pretty much sees to that. Which reminds me of

Goodhart's law, although it can be expressed in many ways, states that once a social or economic indicator or other surrogate measure is made a target for the purpose of conducting social or economic policy, then it will lose the information content that would qualify it to play that role.

Click to expand...

(source)

and the related Campbell's law -

What Campbell also states in this principle is that "achievement tests may well be valuable indicators of general school achievement under conditions of normal teaching aimed at general competence. But when test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways. (Similar biases of course surround the use of objective tests in courses or as entrance examinations.)"

Click to expand...

But, while the whole USA has this problem, I'll take your word for it that Texas has got it worse.

Campbell nailed it. Such obvious nonsense still manages to make me terribly mad. No matter in what (developed) nation.

Save_Ferris said:

I don't at all accept this law, but I think you're overthinking this. Conservatives don't have a world domination plan. I'm pretty sure parents were getting upset about their children arguing with them.

Click to expand...

God forbid children arguing with parents.

madviking said:

God forbid children arguing with parents.

Click to expand...

I think that's what the 4th commandment does...

"12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."

Ok not really but I could easily see certain people arguing that it does.


I'm not sure I believe this but is there any reason to believe that maybe these critical thinking teaching styles aren't actually working very well? I mean certain teaching styles just don't work at certain ages.

If they legitimately want to stop critical thinking then I give up.

Most of the research I have seen has shown that corporal punishment is counter productive. Those who are prevented from getting their way because of violence are much more likely to try to use violence to get their way. Being beaten as a child is very bad for mental development, and even rather mild occasional spanking strongly correlated with IQ scores 3 to 5 points lower than those of children who were not spanked.



Critical thinking should very much be encouraged, not discouraged. Blind submission to authority is usually not a good thing. The role of parent is not to impose their preferred form on order on their children, but to teach their children who to make better decisions for themselves. Parents should not force beliefs on children, but should explain why they believe what they believe.




As far as the other issue addressed in the video but not the text of the opening post, I could see reasons not to support the renewals of at least portions of the Voting Rights act of 1965. I do not in anyway support limiting the franchise based on race, but I don't have a problem with prerequisite testing to ensure literacy in English. As I have often stated before, I really think that Citizenship should never be granted except to those who willingly agree to sign a citizenship contract after testing has ensured informed consent.

madviking said:

God forbid children arguing with parents.

Click to expand...

You know parents. Schools aren't changing their policies, angry parents are making them.

madviking said:

God forbid children arguing with parents.

Click to expand...

Aye. Children who argue (as long as it's done calmly, and rationally) are shown to be better at reasoning, which means that they're more likely to "say no" to drugs, gangs, etc.

warpus said:

Can you guys just kick Texas out of the union or something? The dumbification of the U.S. is making us here in Canada somewhat nervous

Click to expand...

Look at it this way. The really backward states are in the South. Canada should be relatively safe. Mexico and the nearer blue states are an entirely different story.

Aroddo said:

I can see absolutely no good reason why any politician would want to prevent the next generation from aquiring "higher order thinking skills" ...
The only motivation I see behind this is:

1. Creating an uneducated lower working class while teaching the rich offspring as good as possible.
2. creating a large mass of people too stupid to disbelieve republican lies, thus making re-elections and government corruption easier.
3. make people more susceptible to religious teachings.

i don't even see how the given reason of strenghtening parental autority can be achieved by making kids dumber.

Click to expand...

They have been stating effectively the same thing for decades by complaining that colleges are far-left conspiracies to brainwash their progeny and by insisting that textbooks be modified to suit their own way of thinking. I'm really surprised that some seem to be so unaware that they have always felt this way. But what has been missing up until now is the Republican Party specifically stating that they think education and critical thinking are inherent evil, even though they have insinuated as much for decades.

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." Karl Rove

ParkCungHee said:

Of course you can followed fixed with beliefs. For example
"This article fixed beliefs I had about the state of education in Texas."

Click to expand...

If you move to Texas, those fixed beliefs will not be challenged.

With or without that document.

Formaldehyde said:

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." Karl Rove

Click to expand...

You know it's bad when you can't tell parody and reality apart anymore.