Texas to stop teaching "higher order thinking skills".

[QUOTE="ShadowMoses900"]

Texas is very big and diverse, this is just a small thing at best and doesn't represent the entire state. Of couse people on here have little real life experience and have probably never even left their state, let alone their house on a regular basis. So I expect lot's of generalisations.

Go to Dallas or Austin, you will see a ton of people from all walks of life including many liberal democrats. Just some of the small towns in Texas are supportive of things like this as they haven't changed much. They are a bit isolated, but to generalise everyone in Texas is naive and ignorant.

Blood-Scribe

The GOP has become very partisan now, if you are not a hardcore super conservative fanboy then you are deemed a socialist and black listed from the party pretty much. It's evident when non radical Republicans like Hunstmen (was my personal main candidate of choice) were ignored and glossed over, despite having the best chance at appealing to voters on both sides and having the most sound and realisitc policies.

I just don't like it when people generalise an entire population of people. I've been to Texas before, it's so diverse it's really hard to pin down. Sure some places may be very conservative and may be in favor of actions like the one being discussed, but there are plenty of other places there that are not like that. Another example is Florida for example, people on here assume it's a red state, but it's not, it's actually a swing state. It's voting demographic is too diverse to pin down.

There is nothing wrong with having some conservative views mind you, nor is there anything wrong with having some liberal ones. It's only bad when you take it too far.

[QUOTE="Blood-Scribe"]

[QUOTE="ShadowMoses900"]

Texas is very big and diverse, this is just a small thing at best and doesn't represent the entire state. Of couse people on here have little real life experience and have probably never even left their state, let alone their house on a regular basis. So I expect lot's of generalisations.

Go to Dallas or Austin, you will see a ton of people from all walks of life including many liberal democrats. Just some of the small towns in Texas are supportive of things like this as they haven't changed much. They are a bit isolated, but to generalise everyone in Texas is naive and ignorant.

ShadowMoses900

The GOP has become very partisan now, if you are not a hardcore super conservative fanboy then you are deemed a socialist and black listed from the party pretty much. It's evident when non radical Republicans like Hunstmen (was my personal main candidate of choice) were ignored and glossed over, despite having the best chance at appealing to voters on both sides and having the most sound and realisitc policies.

I just don't like it when people generalise an entire population of people. I've been to Texas before, it's so diverse it's really hard to pin down. Sure some places may be very conservative and may be in favor of actions like the one being discussed, but there are plenty of other places there that are not like that. Another example is Florida for example, people on here assume it's a red state, but it's not, it's actually a swing state. It's voting demographic is too diverse to pin down.

There is nothing wrong with having some conservative views mind you, nor is there anything wrong with having some liberal ones. It's only bad when you take it too far.

But that wasn't what I was trying to get at. My point was that since the Texas GOP is in control of both houses of the legislature, the governor's office, and essentially has the TEA in its pocket, the educational reforms outlined in the 2012 Texas Republican party platform could very well be implemented. This is further compounded by the fact that, as you said, the GOP is very partisan (especially here), and as such they usually stick to party lines and will likely try to follow the platform to the letter.

So yes, some people on here are being overly dense and seem to think that the educational revisions proposed somehow represent the state as a whole and are making really dumb comments about Texas as a result. But make no mistake, this wasn't put forth by a small fringe group of lunatics. These people are in control of our legislative body. The looming threat of further lowering our state's educational standards is very real.

.

chessmaster1989

well said, or done

I had to live in Texas for a bit. Not my favorite place....LJS9502_basic

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]I had to live in Texas for a bit. Not my favorite place....dave123321

[QUOTE="dave123321"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]I had to live in Texas for a bit. Not my favorite place....LJS9502_basic

That's no country for old men.

This is why I'm moving after college....It's things like this that the stereotype of Texans are dumb, ignorant people...Anybody know a decent place for a Computer Scientist?

ExtremeGamer93

Yeah, Texas - it's where the job are ;)

[QUOTE="whipassmt"]

[QUOTE="Sword-Demon"] yeah, but that authority shouldn't stem from keeping their child from learning enough to possibly question them. chessmaster1989

Schools definitely should teach kids critical thinking/reasoning. It's the most important part of an education. I'm not sure how this is an issue for debate.

The only thing is that the article doesn't go into detail on exactly how their going to do that or the specifics of what they're going to teach. That's probably where the controversy lies. In other words, there's probably a lot more to the story, as usual.

Now did they actually say they dont want to teach "higher order thinking skills" or is not making every student read Paul Krugman considered not teaching higher order thinking skills?

sonicare

That's exactly my point. Obviously most of the people jumping to conclusions in this thread were never taught critical thinking skills.