Perhaps this is to be expected in a state that keeps reelecting intellectual featherweights like Gov. Rick “George W. Bush did a incredible job in the presidency” Perry and Rep. Louie “Terror Babies” Gohmert, and that has statehouse politicians who believe public schools are a commie plot but, even for them, this seems a bridge to nowhere too far. Of course, they have to stop voters from thinking critically — how will Republicans ever get elected if Americans start thinking?
Texas GOP: No More Critical Thinking in Schools
By Liana Heitin
Education Week
June 28, 2012 5:45 PM
Teachers, you may want to be sitting down for this one.
The 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform, adopted June 9 at the state convention in Forth Worth, seems to take a stand against, well, the teaching of critical thinking skills. Read it for yourself:
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) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
As a top commenter on a Reddit thread wrote about the language, “I was absolutely sure this had to be an elaborate fake … .” It’s not.
We at Teacher think this may be a kind of first. While the push for accountability via standardized testing—which the current Democratic administration has stood behind—has frequently been characterized as potentially undermining instruction in critical thinking, blatant opposition to teaching students to think deeply has not often (ever?) been a part of the policy conversation.
Read the rest here.
