On 7/12/2012 11:41 AM, George Plimpton wrote:
On 7/12/2012 11:39 AM, Hawke wrote:
On 7/11/2012 11:03 PM, George Plimpton wrote:
On 7/11/2012 8:28 PM, Hawke wrote:
On 7/11/2012 2:45 PM, George Plimpton wrote:

This smear by the Post has already generated a response in Wikipedia:

The Texas Republican Party expressed their opposition to the
teaching of certain HOTS by including the following item in their
2012 Party Platform [3]:

"Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of
Higher
Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification),
critical
thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a
relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE)
(masterylearning)
which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of
challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining
parental authority."

However, the final wording of this item was evidently a 'mistake'
according to Republican Party of Texas Communications Director
Chris Elam who said, in an interview with talkingpointsmemo.com,
that the plank should not have included the phrase 'critical
thinking skills' and it was not the intent of the subcommittee to
indicate that the RPT was opposed to critical thinking skills".
When asked to clarify the meaning of the item he said, "I think
the intent is that the Republican Party is opposed to the values
clarification method that serves the purpose of challenging
students beliefs and undermine parental authority" [4].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_...hinking_skills


Whatever the truth may be you can't blame a rational person for
thinking
that in Texas they are opposed to teaching children to think
critically.

You're not a rational person if you believe that. The evidence doesn't
support the belief.


Most of the country sees Texas as a laughing stock.

Irrelevant. A rational person still *cannot* believe that Texas
Republicans oppose critical thinking ability. What they oppose is the
left-wing teachers' unions and "educrats" trying to sneak in
anti-western values under a fake name. Every right thinking person
opposes that.


I'm sorry you don't know it, but every time someone tries to teach
traditional ways of thinking they are rejecting critical thinking. When
you teach children to follow customs, tradition, and religious tenets,
then you are not teaching them to think critically. You are teaching
them to accept what is passed on to them and to not question it. That is
done in Texas all over the place just like it's done in Madrassas in the
Middle East. They teach children to accept and believe not to think
critically. That is what religious people do. They do this all over
Texas. So don't bull**** us, okay. People in Texas that have positions
in education teach religion over critical thinking all the time. If you
don't believe that then you've never been to Texas.

Hawke