Opportunity for "Critical Thinking" Missed by Hard-Line Educrat Darwinists

Perhaps retired Bishop Allison's measured letter can contribute to the debate over evolution versus intelligent design. Note the irony of the anecdote at the end.

                                                         
Sep 30 2014 12:01 am
                                                            Not so random
Frank Wooten's Sept. 27 column on "Natural selection: Keep faith in science" is based on popular misunderstandings regarding issues of 100 years ago. The issue confronting us today is whether random chance can account for the created order or whether there is scientific evidence for intelligent design in nature.

Biologist Michael Behe has more recently shown that cilium, a microscopic hair-like organism that keeps foreign objects out of our lungs, is so irreducibly complex that it takes an act of credulity to believe it just happened by chance given the limited time of the planet's existence.

Of course, this does not prevent such credulity on the part of scientists already committed to a natural self-explanatory world.

But Wooten seems unaware of Behe, Stephen Meyer, Jonathan Wells, William Dembski, all (and many more) credentialed scientists that, on the basis of science, perceive intelligent design in creation and not mere random chance.

Last year's "Mere Anglicanism" conference featured famous scientists who believe nature discloses more than random chance. (CDs of these addresses are available through the office of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina on Coming Street.)

Especially interesting and even delightful are the addresses by Dr. John C. Lennox, professor of mathematics at Cambridge University. Dr. Stephen Meyer related a telling anecdote:

A Chinese paleontologist was lecturing at the University of Washington on the astonishing findings in China from the pre-Cambrian era, turning Darwin's bottom-up assumptions to top-down developments.

One American asked if he were not uncomfortable speaking skeptically of Darwinism coming "as you do from an authoritarian country."

The Chinese scholar smiled and replied, "In China we can question Darwin, but not the government. In America you can question the government but not Darwin."

C. FitzSimons Allison
Retired Bishop, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina
Indigo Avenue
Georgetown

A New York Teacher's Disgust with Common Core Standards

 As reported by Diane Ravitch last month

"Common Core was imposed on teachers by non-educators. We were fed a lot of mistruths along the way, as well. However, there would be no backlash if the CC founders gave us an educationally sound reform package.

We are rejecting CC primarily because the standards in ELA are un-teachable and un-testable, abstract and subjective thinking skills - essentially content free, the math standards are the SOS shifted around in developmentally inappropriate ways using unnecessarily confusing pedagogy, and the tests tied to teacher evaluations have become the epitome of educational malpractice. 

Furthermore, the notion of producing educational excellence with standards that cannot be changed, altered, deleted, or improved, is insult to our profession. And until the ESEA is dealt with by Congress, we are stuck inside a very deep hole, whether we support the CC or not."

Respect Teachers' Labor, Too!

While the rest of the world seems to have decided that what's wrong with education is its teachers, teachers, unionized or not, are not at rest on this Labor Day.

Teachers, as professionals, do not get overtime pay, yet most of them are at work more than sixty hours per week. Think of the typical high school English teacher, or any teacher, for that matter, who assigns essays and papers to students. Most have student loads of 100 to 150; that's 100 to 150 papers for every assignment. What percentage of those teachers will sit down tonight (if they haven't already done so) and grade papers for hours? A low guess would be half, and the other half are planning their lessons for the coming week.

A creative teacher's mind is always at work figuring out what to do with his or her students on so many levels. And everyone who's ever sat in a classroom thinks he or she can expertly tell a teacher what he or she has done wrong. Baby boomers are retiring in droves, and they are the last generation whose numbers were boosted by the lack of opportunities for college-educated women.

While English teachers work the same long hours as executives for half the pay, if that, and American society gives little respect to any job that doesn't pay well, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

Who would be a teacher?

Charleston's Kobrovsky Says, "Put a Grade on It"

Whether students receive conduct grades in the State of South Carolina depends on the policies of each school district. If State Board of Education member Larry Kobrovsky has his way, all students will receive such grades.

"Effort, punctuality, and neatness" would receive letter grades under the system. Charleston's Kobrovsky believes that such "skills" (let's call them habits?) are necessary for success. Such grades would stress personal responsibility.

Maybe these standards could be written so that parents can understand them, unlike some of the more esoteric standards for Common Core.

CCSD Values Form over Substance with June Make-up Day

Just when you thought the Charleston County School District couldn't get any sillier, it proves you an optimist!

This school year, students used up all extra school days built in for bad weather, not for hurricanes or tropical storms but for ice. Then ice forced CCSD into further closure. In order to compensate for those instructional days, the Board of Trustees, acting upon the superintendent's recommendation, changed June 6, which had originally been a "teacher workday," to a make-up day.  The action seems sensible until you realize what it means.

On June 6, CCSD will run its full bus contingent, feed students, and cool all its buildings for a fraction of enrolled students. How can I predict rampant absenteeism so far in advance?

By June 6, CCSD will have held its graduation ceremonies. Testing will be completed. Textbooks will be packed away.

So, what will the expense of running the schools on that day accomplish?

Babysitting.

SC State Board of Ed Stubbornly Approves Discredited Sham VAM

How many edublob members does it take to change a lightbulb? None, apparently. They would still be arguing over the merits of changing to wind turbines to power the light.

Despite the presence of level-headed Larry Kobrovsky and the prevalence of studies discrediting the practice, the State Board of Education, top-loaded with edublob members, voted to approve using VAM (value added measurement) for teacher evaluation. The practice treats students as though they are vehicles on a Ford assembly line. You know, one teacher adds the brake pads, another checks that the screws are tightened properly.

Here we have a situation where the assembly-line model of schooling has been discredited for decades, perhaps even a century! But schooling must now use the models provided by business.

VAM will not improve student outcomes. Where it has been used so far, the results have been erratic, to say the least. No study has shown that it has improved teaching, and year-to-year results for individual teachers have been ludicrous. Unmotivated teachers are not the problem. If someone proposed using VAM to evaluate parents instead, imagine the uproar and reasoning put forth as to why it would be unfair.

To top off its pig-headedness, the Board also voted to support Smarter Balanced testing. Let's hope the state legislature has more sense.

Governor (and Candidate) Haley on Common Core

From EdWatch:

South Carolina Gov. Haley Vows State Will Ditch Common Core
By Andrew Ujifusa on January 17, 2014 2:49 PM

In a clear signal that the Common Core State Standards are in hot water in South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley told a meeting of a local Republican Party women's club that she was determined to ditch the standards this year because, she said, "We don't ever want to educate South Carolina children like they educate California children."
In a speech to the Greenville County Republican Women's Club on Jan. 16, according to theAnderson Independent Mail, Haley, a Republican who's up for re-election this year, said, "We are telling the legislature: Roll back common core. Let's take it back to South Carolina standards." She added that if Senate Bill 300 (introduced last year for the state's 2013-14 legislative session) reaches her desk, she "absolutely will sign it." In that bill, there's no pause, no mandated review period—just a straightforward move to remove the standards from the state.
A few days ago, my colleague Michele McNeil discussed how in his State of the State speech, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, also a Republican, made remarks that seemed to indicate Indiana would be backing away from the standards. But he wasn't absolutely clear, and the state is officially undertaking a complicated review of the standards. There's no such fuzziness about Haley's remarks, and if you think the race to drop out of common core is a competition, then South Carolina might have just shot into the lead.
Back in 2012, South Carolina was one of the first states to actively and officially consider dropping common core, as my colleague Catherine Gewertz reported. That effort fizzled but didn't truly die, as it turns out. Remember, the common core was adopted in South Carolina in July 2010, before Haley was elected, so she doesn't have a real policy or political investment in the standards the way other governors do.
South Carolina state Superintendent Mick Zais, a common-core opponent, has decided not to run for re-election this year, but there's a decent chance that his replacement will also oppose the standards.

Now, where does Sheheen stand? 

Autocrats at Charleston's Breakfast Table: Budig and Heaps

The op-ed commentary appearing in Thursday's paper purports to pinpoint the errors of today's attempts at educational reform as seen through the eyes of a former university president and a former College Board vice-president. Basically, Gene Budig and Alan Heaps complain that efforts are too disparate and too messy because so many voices contribute to the national discussion. 

What our two "experts" really hate is the democratic process. As they succinctly put it, "In most countries, policy is made by a central authority." They decry the American process: "Here, school policies are made by a wide array of actors, all with their own ideas and agendas: federal, state and local governments, public and private schools/universities, unions, think tanks and foundations, book publishers and test makers, and student and parent groups." Imagine. Even bloggers express opinions.

Golly. If only Budig and Heaps could control reforms in education, its problems would be solved.

The writers do not mention the Common Core, but, given its supposed standardization of what students learn, they must favor its implementation. After all, the College Board is positioned to gain millions from changes in curriculum and testing that Common Core demands.

Apparently we need an educational Stalin in this country to set us all straight.

P & C Ignores Sen. Scott's Points About Parental Responsibility

Read the State's account of Tim Scott's speech on education; then read that published by our own cherished rag. You'll wonder if they're writing about the same speech!

While the former's account emphasizes Senator Scott's emphasis on parental responsibility, using his own life and rise from near-poverty as an example, Charleston's reporter ignores this topic entirely. Instead, if you read the local paper, you'll think Scott spoke about the need to look abroad for fixes to our educational system.

Somebody's got it wrong. Why do I think it's the anti-Scott Post and Courier?

P & C headline: "Sen. Scott says education improvements can be learned from overseas."

State headline: "Tim Scott says parents, not government, hold key to education success."

Berkeley CSD Honors Daniel Island Commitment: Why Doesn't CCSD?

Imagine. Ten years ago the Berkeley County School District agreed to keep a K through 8 school on the property donated to it on Daniel Island. Superintendent Thompson recently was reminded of the agreement. That means that Daniel Islanders have won their battle, at least temporarily, to keep those grades on the Island.

Too bad that the Charleston County School District doesn't stand by its commitments in a like manner. The property that contains Memminger Auditorium, now used by the city for performance events, was given for the purpose of educating students in perpetuity. In fact, the remaining auditorium was built as part of the original Memminger School.

Let's hope there's more long-term honor in Berkeley County!

Balog's Odds on Improving Education Need Critical Thinking

Melanie Balog needs to opine on subjects she understands. Education is not one of them.

First, she startles readers with the idea that "nearly half of public students" in the United States live in poverty. She bases this misleading conclusion on a report that in 17 states, mostly southern, a majority qualify for free or reduced lunch. Apparently Balog has ignored that no one checks that those who apply for such lunches are in fact eligible! As with other well-meant programs with no checks and balances, such applications have soared.

Balog also doesn't seem to understand that school enrollments rise and fall periodically due to demographics. What a shocking thought, apparently, that more students are in southern schools than a decade ago! Somehow Balog buys into the idea that this growth means resources are spread too thinly. Doesn't she realize that those very school districts she worries about are spending more per child than they ever have before? How does that translate to "thinner resources"?

She also seems surprised to find that "'many families with school age children have not yet reached their maximum income potential,'" as quoted from Joan Lord of the Southern Regional Education Board, and so, young families must be "boosted."

Shock and awe? Balog must have come from an unusual environment where families with the youngest children were the highest earners. La-la land, perhaps.

In a report on achievements in southern states in the last decade Balog was able to find one bright spot for South Carolina: graduation rates rose faster than the national average. Now South Carolina is up to 66 percent graduating, or to put it another way, only one-third of students entering ninth grade drop out of high school. Should we brag about that?

Most of SC's "overage" is due to a drive for better record-keeping, not necessarily more graduates. If Balog had been paying attention, she'd know that.

Educational Shibboleths and Lack of Memorization Hurt Students

Repeat after Briana Timmerman: "Critical thinking skills good; memorization bad."

If that shibboleth reminds you of the mindless repetition of Animal Farm slogans, it should. It falls in the same category of nonsense.

That's the gist of her statement as Director of the SC Education Department's Office of Instructional Practices and Evaluations made this week to the state Board of Education. Several members objected to the "materialistic bias" of new state standards under consideration, but apparently no one objected to the following: "the new standards require students to develop higher order thinking skills and focus on problem-solving rather than memorization." It appears that even conservative members don't understand the effects of such a goal. After all, who can argue with "critical thinking"?

Timmerman herself is a victim of lack of factual knowledge, as her answer to one board member's question indicated. She did not know what "irreducible complexity" is as applied to biological systems. Her response was that ignorance doesn't matter because students will be asked to "evaluate the evidence."

That is just the point about the necessity for memorization. If the only "evidence" a student having no factual knowledge can use consists of what is in the textbook, the student (and society) is at the mercy of textbook writers. How will students "think outside the box" when they have no "furniture of the mind" (as I call it) to challenge accepted "truths"?  Maybe you would assume that Abraham Lincoln could have picked up the telephone and had a long-distance conversation with Grant during one of his battles. Maybe you might think that Grant was a Confederate general. I've known students who did.

Today's students are not expected to memorize too much information; the opposite is true. Ask any high school teacher trying to deal with their factual ignorance!

Here's a quote from Psychology Today that makes the point better than I can:

To return to the point of progressives that school is too hard, I have examined state science standards in great detail because I write middle-school science curriculum. The standards do not demand too much memorization. They don't demand enough, especially the kind of memorization where students have to know how to use knowledge in their thinking. 

I think that the low-level of memorization required of students today is a main reason why so many students have under-developed thinking skills. Too many of them mouth platitudes and parrot what others have said. They can't think on their own because they don't know enough to generate original and rigorous thought. Yet, too many educators dismiss the importance of memorization, assuming falsely that kids can think with an empty head. Educators tried that a few years back with "new math," which failed miserably. Now, it appears the same ill-begotten beliefs are re-surfacing in the context of state standards and accountability testing.

                                              --Author and Professor William R. Klemm, Texas A & M

Briana Timmerman needs to do a little critical thinking of her own!

What Lies Beneath Mount Pleasant's Invitation to Francis Marion U

Something lurks beneath the sudden push for a satellite campus of Francis Marion University to be located in Mount Pleasant. Only Mayor Billy Swails and maybe some members of the town council know. What it is, is neither need nor logic.

Swails's recent op-ed proves the point. He carefully documents the percentage of local freshmen at the College of Charleston but has no hard facts to back up his contention that "constituents have been telling us for years" how difficult it is for students to stay local in their choice of a four-year degree. "Accessibility and affordability" are his criteria.

Really? How many constituents complain about college options to their mayor? Someone has an ax to grind, and it's probably to make money.

Then there's the idea that his criteria must be met by a four-year school. Um, why?

If a student's scores and/or grades are not high enough to get into one of our local four-year colleges, why would we want to import a school whose standards are lower? Getting in to one of our local four-year programs in no way resembles getting into Harvard. In fact, for one of them, graduating from high school is enough!

Current in the national conversation is the discussion of the many college dropouts who are stuck with thousands in student loans and without a job justifying the debt. Swails apparently wants more of them. Anyone who believes that all high school graduates should matriculate at four-year colleges is delusional. What is the problem with proving academic dedication at a two-year college and then moving on to the four-year degree if it makes sense at that point?

Pointing out the virtues of the nursing program at Francis Marion is the final fallacy. First of all, the nursing program at FMU was run by MUSC until 2004, so those stats he's citing boomerang to another of our local choices for a four-year nursing degree. In addition, starting FMU with a "nursing" program is a red herring when FMU uses a 2 + 2 system towards its four-year nursing degree: the first two years are in the general college And, finally, someone should figure out if what the Lowcountry needs is nurses with four-year degrees! Certainly Swails hasn't provided any numbers for support.

Someone might just wonder if one of Swails's clients a building for sale that would fit his description of what the Council will look for.

Death of Parody in Little Rock School District

We've come a long way since 1957. Then the Little Rock school district became known for Governor Faubus's use of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the integration of Central High School. Those were serious times. Not any more.

This fall newly-chosen Superintendent Dexter Suggs set a new dress code for district teachers which was so reviled that he has postponed its implementation until next year--to give everyone time to get used to it. Among the usual strictures one was roundly opposed by organized labor: teachers must wear underwear at all times and females must wear bras.

How could anyone parody that?

Uneven Dispersal of Poor Readers Worsens CCSD's High School Problems

Having spent and touted the effects of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of dollars on its literacy initiatives, the Charleston County School District now proudly announces that only one out of eight of its entering ninth graders reads below the fourth-grade level.

I'm not making this up.

Well, in a class of 24 that would mean that three students could barely read--IF those students were dispersed evenly throughout the classes. They aren't.

How about CCSD's sharing with us the percentage that applies at North Charleston and Burke High Schools? Too scary? Imagine how the teachers feel!

It's pathetic enough that CCSD uses a benchmark (fourth-grade reading level) meant for elementary school. For full transparency, the district should publish statistics for those reading at least the sixth-grade level (for which some textbooks and materials are available) and those reading on grade level.

Maybe only one out of eight is reading on the ninth-grade level as well. Not a good thought.

Purpose of Assigned Summer Reading?

Does anyone else find it laughable that the venerable College of Charleston assigned a comic book as summer reading for its incoming freshmen? Surely they can read better than that!

And don't blame the English Department; a diversified committee adopted the book.

Perhaps C of C is dropping the pretense of being an intellectual institution.

Addressing Sexting & Cyberbullying In Schools

Anyone who teaches in a school knows that cyberbullying is the new rumor mill, especially in middle and high schools. Combined with pictures, it can crush those both in and out of the "popular" crowd. Just as with cheating, students refuse to tell those in authority or ask for help. This attitude needs to change. Such treatment on an ongoing basis can, and has, pushed the vulnerable over the edge to suicide.

Do preteens and teens know that such messages fall under "Internet Crimes Against Children"? Only if they hear it from school presentations or parents. Google and Facebook aren't going to tell them.

However, as an article in last week's P&C reported, all students know such agression goes on in our community, and most have been touched by it in one way or another.

The problem of "sexting" becomes even more serious. It is appalling to suggest, as one recent article in the P&C did, that "they're going to do it, so let's show them how to do it safely." What planet does the author live on? There is no "safely" with pictures that can live forever and attract the attention of adult predators.

Ask yourself why a preteen boy would text a girl to send nude pictures of herself and why she wouldn't tell her parents about the request. Every parent or guardian should be vigilant in monitoring media use by his or her child. It's not a joke any more.

And don't think it doesn't happen here every day.

This Too Will PASS

For the 2009-10 school year South Carolina instituted a new state-wide test that supplanted the PACT. Developing the PACT cost five and a half million dollars; we can assume developing the PASS was likewise costly.

Now the state must drop the PASS by the 2014-15 school year, due to the adoption of the Common Core Standards. That means that the now obsolete PASS will have cost a million per year to develop. Did you ever sense that the developers of such tests are like pigs at the trough?

Another "homegrown" test for the Common Core Standards will surely cost as much to develop as the PACT did. Why would the state even consider developing its own when others are already in the works. Let's be comparable for a change!

Despite worries about giving up control of curriculum, Common Core Standards make sense. It's the CORE, stupid. South Carolina can add whatever it wants to supplement the core, as undoubtedly other states will do. The days are gone when all students stayed in the same school system or even in the same state for K-12. Not having a Common Core hurts them.

Preparation Essential to Burke's AP Success

At Burke High School's much-touted AP Academy, only one of 103 AP exams resulted in success last year. Very sad for the students, but hardly surprising.

Preparation for Advanced Placement classes starts in middle school if students have a hope of being successful in gaining college credits. Say what you like about the faults of Advanced Placement, the fact remains that no amount of bluster and spin by local superintendents can sway the results: either the students qualify according to this national standard, or they don't.


Why the Charleston County School District's efforts at creating the AP Academy at Burke High School should have cost $200,000 is something of a mystery. Are these expenses for additional teachers, new books and materials, or training for teachers? Thanks to CCSD's lack of transparency, we'll never know. However, it is not a mystery why only one out of 103 tests were passed.


The number of dollars dedicated to AP will not guarantee success. No amount of money will compensate for poorly prepared students facing the rigors of such courses. Not the most inspired teaching and/or dedicated studying will compensate if students are too poorly prepared entering the course. No books or materials will make up the gap between what should have been learned prior to the course and the actual AP course content.


Poorly prepared students will learn in the AP course, just not enough to qualify on a college level. Success on the AP exam does not require brilliance; it requires a certain level of competence entering the course and rigor and student dedication during the course. With more than a dozen years of AP teaching under my belt, I speak from experience.

CCSD for its own propaganda purposes started at the wrong end of the horse with Burke High School's AP Academy. At the latest AP prep should begin in the seventh-grade at Burke's feeder schools. Such preparation will require a Pre-AP track (gasp!), an anathema to the politically correct like Superintendent McGinley.

Then the question becomes, does she want a successful program at Burke or one just for show?

Vagueness on High School Diploma Credits

Instead of ranting against the reporters at the P&C, for a change I must take issue with one for the Associated Press. Never mind that the state legislative beat remains uncovered by our local rag.

A prefiled bill for the next House session creates a two-tiered diploma for South Carolina. One track would require 24 credits for those planning on college, and one require 20 credits for those not. Ostensibly, this is a cost-cutting measure, although it may turn out to be good policy.

So far, so good, as far as reporting goes.

But wait. Which four credits are deemed unnecessary by this bill? Nary a word. Is this a secret, or does the reporter (Seanna Adcox) show a remarkable lack of curiosity?

You decide.