Weiss for Kansas schools

Like many other Olatheans, I am a strong supporter of public education and know how important a solid educational foundation is for our children and our economy. Because of this, I strongly support Don Weiss for the Kansas Board of Education.

Weiss is committed to maintaining strong education standards, to preparing students to compete in a global marketplace, to promoting economic development by demonstrating Kansas’ interest in creating a solid science and research environment, and to restoring dignity and respect to the reputation of Kansas’ historically outstanding educational system and to the state Board of Education.

We could not find a better advocate for quality public education in Kansas than Don Weiss. I urge Kansans to vote for him on Tuesday.

Micheline Burger
Olathe

Comments

[tomw]

"The fossil history could be presented in detail without mentioning the Theory.."

Really? Should we just say we found these old bones, shells and traces, but we don't have a clue as how they got there? Or that we found them in no sequence, but rather just willy nilly? Or that there's no pattern to the rock strata in which they are found? Or that we have no idea why the most simple life forms are in the oldest rock?

".. the Theory, which in any event does not offer any whys or hows as to species changes."

I have no idea where you got such an incorrect notion.

"As to the standards, just what changes were made in the body of the standards? So far as I know, none were. The changes made, and they were minor, were in the opening paragraphs."

So why did the board (with Bacon in agreement)waste so much time and money forming a committee (whose recommendations they ignored..70%+ voting for those recommendations) and then hold tax payer funded public hearings, when EVERYONE knew the outcome of the hearings before they began?

[cooker_fox]

Specifics of what was changed: They have deleted text defining science as the search for natural explinations of observable phenomena, bluring the line between scientific and other ways of understanding. Emphasising controversy in the theory of evolution and distorting the definition of science. This has lead to the national achadamy of sciences and the national science teachers association not giving KS permission to use their texts. Our kids will not be well prepared for the rigors of higher education. It will put our our kids at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.

[cooker_fox]

Perhaps eng you should do some research before you spout off. Try this link...

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html

And intorduction to "EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY"!!!!

Here is the opening sentence. "Evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology. It unites all the fields of biology under one theoretical umbrella. It is not a difficult concept, but very few people -- the majority of biologists included -- have a satisfactory grasp of it. "

As to the standards, the general thrust of the revisions seems to be the idea that science as practiced by the vast majority if scientists is some kind of religion. Since it is some kind of religion then why not introduce other religious beliefs? So, the first questions to tackle is this very basic question. the revisers make much of the idea of methodological naturalism. They do not mention metaphysical naturalism. In fact, they confuse the two. They are quite correct when they assert that hypotheses about natural processes of evolution are formulated under the general approach of methodological materialism. They are quite wrong when they claim that this leads to anything scientifically or constitutionally problematic. It might be problematic if what science was advocating was metaphysical materialism, but a commitment to methodological materialism is not a commitment to metaphysical naturalism , as any good philosopher can tell you. In fact, everyone who problem-solves uses methological naturalism. When we are faced with a puzzle or wish to accomplish some task, we switch to the mode methological naturalism and see natural explanations or solutions. Imagine if I went to my automechanic and he said: It might be the brakes or it might be an evil spirit. Should I give equal weight to the "evil spirit" hypothesis? After all, someone probably believes it, this mechanic for one. This is the same princple that the new science standards are espousing when they deemphasize evolution in the standards.

Understanding evolution is required to understand the fossil records, geology records, and biology our students must be taught to fully understand the life sciences.

There are 4 members of the school board that have actually said that evolution is a farce. And they are making the decisions for MY kids? I think not! They are nothing more than religious zealots and should have no place in teaching anything but sunday school.

[Engineer]

tomw
Really, it seems to me that biology could be covered quite well without The Theory Of Evolution. The fossil history could be presented in detail without mentioning the Theory, which in any event does not offer any whys or hows as to species changes. But in this matter we are once again getting off into our own controversy.
As to the standards, just what changes were made in the body of the standards? So far as I know, none were. The changes made, and they were minor, were in the opening paragraphs.

[tomw]

"The Theory Of Evolution is not the Science of Biology."

That's a rather bizaare statement, but it is certainly a major part of it, therefore it is an important building block in a "hard science" education."

"Most of the furor on the matter was raised by those who had never read the standards and knew only what the Media had said about them."

I've read them and they should have left them alone. The large majority of the science standards committee approved them and the board did not like them, so they held a sham hearing to change them. Wasting MY money.

"As to Mr. Corkins, can you point out any mistakes he made?"

I never said he did. What I said was they wasted MY money to train an unqualified man for the job.

[Engineer]

tomw
The Theory Of Evolution is not the Science of Biology. It in essence is a history of change without any explanation of how one species evolved into another. In any event, the teaching of that theory was not removed from the standards. Most of the furor on the matter was raised by those who had never read the standards and knew only what the Media had said about them.
As to the actual standards, they were unchanged in any version that I read. As to Mr. Corkins, can you point out any mistakes he made?

[Engineer]

big dreamer
How do we evaluate the effectiveness of a school? Before NCLB there really was no recognized system. Just what is a school to strive to do? Make great efforts to see that the academically talented are challenged to the fullest of their ability, or produce a uniform output of equally mediocre students?

[tomw]

"The Theory Of Evolution is not an importamt building block in a "hard science" education."

Since when is biology not a "hard science"?

You can't have it both ways. The board made unneeded changes or they wasted MY money. In my opinion, they did both. Then they hired Corkins and wasted even more of MY money. Then they had to hire people to train Corkins and wasted even more of MY money.

[Engineer]

cooker
The actual science standards were not actually altered, the only thing added was a statement in the preliminary clauses. On top of that, The Theory Of Evolution is not an importamt building block in a "hard science" education.

[big dreamer]

The Kansas State School Board is the perfect example of a reason why politians should not, let me repeat that POLITICIANS should NOT, have anything to do with education. Keep the decisions of education in the hands of the educators using a community based board and have little or no state board of education. Historically, until the 1950's, the Federal government left education up to the states. Starting with Eisenhower, the President and the federal government as a whole has become increasingly involved in education without doing the research necessary to determine effectiveness of their ideas. In the past decade, the federal government has all but centralized the education system of America. They are quickly taking away the opportunity for states, districts, schools, and teachers to be creative in solving the problems of education. Their blind policies and their lack of respect for the education system are evident in the direction they are taking education. Until NCLB, people knew there were issues in the public schools but no public school was failing. Enter the federal government and suddenly we see the same thing but we turn it into a negative instead of stepping up to the plate to help. The fact is, schools are not worse than they were we just are seeing them differently due to different standards of measurement of success. If the federal government would have stuck to policies directed at helping students and teachers instead of trying to legislate curriculum without offering fixes to society, we may get some change.

The direction education needs to go is smaller not larger. Districts not federal level oversight. Like the community college, K-12 needs to be accountable to the community they are in! Sorry, I am being unclear right now...I am very passionate about education and change and fully believe it is headed the WRONG direction.

[cooker_fox]

Don will help promote strong school standards to prepare our kids for
the global marketplace. He will help to promote economic development by
demonstrating the State's interest in supporting strong science standards and research environment.

The current conservative board has made Kansas a laughing stock around the country to the degree that even Subway Sandwich shops have run ads critical of Kansas Science standards. If we want to be able to attract good teachers, science based businesses, and research programs to this state we need a strong state school board that supports true science standards and not some religious ideology that the current board supports.