Quo Vadis GOP?

[Sheilbh]

Yeah same here-ish. The coalition made big education reforms based on Sweden but it is within the public school sector. Schools were allowed to leave local authority rule to become "academies" or specialist schools who deal directly with the Department for Education. The funding for education is tied to each kid (like a voucher) plus a "pupil premium" for social and education issues to encourage schools to want those kids.

We also have a national education regulator who inspects schools and issues league tables. The theory was that it would encourage choice, so schools would expand if they were good and shut down if they were bad (which has sort of happened) as well as allowing the creation of "academy groups" of schools including those set up by private schools to spread "best practice" etc.

I think it has sort of worked. It's the only policy from the coalition that hasn't already been reversed and I don't think Labour is proposing to undo it - they'd maybe change it but the fundamental structure would stay. There are some issues with it that still need fixing though. The big mystery here is the success of London schools which no-one can really explain (so can't replicate).

Edit: Oh and the UK has state funded faith schools - but we have a national curriculum so they still have to teach broadly the same stuff.

[crazy canuck]

Edit: Oh and the UK has state funded faith schools - but we have a national curriculum so they still have to teach broadly the same stuff.

I think this is the critically important part.  Here each province mandates the curriculum, and in BC all schools must follow/incorporate that curriculum.  The schools and individual teachers get to exercise their judgment as to how best to teach it, but there would be no such thing as a school deciding that it would be a great idea to teach creationism as science. 

[Sheilbh]

Yeah absolutely or school boards deciding to teach about slavery as "involuntry relocation".

It sounds very similar there's a national curriculum of things that must be taught, but that's only a small part of it. The bigger bit is a broad structure and "output" requirements of what a pupil should be able to do, but they could be taught many different things to meet that output. Generally schools get to pick that because there are multiple exam boards who create curriculums and materials that meet the requirements of the national curriculum - but could have totally different topics, set texts etc (I don't know how it works in science or maths where I assume it's more standardised).

Edit: And obviously nation = to England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own education departments and Scotland and Northern Ireland have different education systems/structures.

[Jacob]

Somehow I don't think the school boards in Arizona is going to do much do keep those sort of ideas in check for long.

[The Larch]

Ohio seems to keep steadily going down the drain.

Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust 'from the perspective of the Nazis'

State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur made the comments when explaining to a local news station why she believes that "divisive concepts" should be taught from multiple points of view.

[The Minsky Moment]

Ohio seems to keep steadily going down the drain.

Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust 'from the perspective of the Nazis'

State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur made the comments when explaining to a local news station why she believes that "divisive concepts" should be taught from multiple points of view.

I assume she would also support teaching the burning of Christians from Nero's point of view.  Consistency and fairness and all that.

[The Larch]

Ohio seems to keep steadily going down the drain.

Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust 'from the perspective of the Nazis'

State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur made the comments when explaining to a local news station why she believes that "divisive concepts" should be taught from multiple points of view.

I assume she would also support teaching the burning of Christians from Nero's point of view.  Consistency and fairness and all that.

Depends. Do you think it's a "divisive concept"?

[Valmy]

I think what the Nazis thought is already taught for free all over America and on the internet.

But also I think in most classes covering this topic the crazy shit the Nazis thought is usually taught. Though the sheer depths of lunacy and idiocy of the Nazis is hard to fully explain in just one class.

[Sheilbh]

I read similar about some school board in, I think, Wisconsin wanting to add the novel When the Emperor was Divine to the curriculum. I understand it's about the internment of a Japanese-American family.

There was a big row because this was unbalanced and someone suggested that to balance it students should also learn about the rape of Nanjing.

On the one hand it's good if students learn about the Chinese-Japanese war. But I think it's mad as balance against a book about American internment of Japanese people.

[Valmy]

I read similar about some school board in, I think, Wisconsin wanting to add the novel When the Emperor was Divine to the curriculum. I understand it's about the internment of a Japanese-American family.

There was a big row because this was unbalanced and someone suggested that to balance it students should also learn about the rape of Nanjing.

On the one hand it's good if students learn about the Chinese-Japanese war. But I think it's mad as balance against a book about American internment of Japanese people.

It makes perfect sense if you view it as a race thing. That a book about Japanese-internment makes white people seem evil so it is comforting to remember that Japanese people are also evil so it all balances out.

See this is why we need to learn about the Nazi point of view so things like this make sense.

[grumbler]

Students cannot truly appreciate the horror of the Holocaust unless they are taught the Nazi POV on the process.  They tried all sorts of methods of mass-murder and settled on gas chambers and Zyklon-B not because it was the most evil approach possible, or the most humane approach possible, it was because it was the cheapest approach possible.  Conspiracy (the 2001 film) is a terrific horror movie, made even more horrifying because it is 100% true.

[viper37]

Herschel Walker just proved (again) what a massive risk he is for Republicans

Here's what the Georgia Republican Senate candidate said about climate change during a recent campaign event:

"Since we don't control the air, our good air decided to float over to China's bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then – now we got we to clean that back up."
[...]

[HVC]

Well at the very least he's a good case study to show that playing football causes brain trauma.

[The Brain]

I read similar about some school board in, I think, Wisconsin wanting to add the novel When the Emperor was Divine to the curriculum. I understand it's about the internment of a Japanese-American family.

There was a big row because this was unbalanced and someone suggested that to balance it students should also learn about the rape of Nanjing.

On the one hand it's good if students learn about the Chinese-Japanese war. But I think it's mad as balance against a book about American internment of Japanese people.

Well, a book about how Americans of German descent were NOT interned combined with a book about Auschwitz-Birkenau might be instructive.

[The Minsky Moment]

Herschel Walker just proved (again) what a massive risk he is for Republicans

Here's what the Georgia Republican Senate candidate said about climate change during a recent campaign event:

"Since we don't control the air, our good air decided to float over to China's bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then – now we got we to clean that back up."
[...]

He just finished himself.  Everyone knows you can't rely on a running back to control the air game.