| What’s wrong with ‘meep’? It’s all in how you say it
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| Danvers High parents recently got an automated call from the principal warning them that if students say or display the word “meep” at school, they could face suspension.Read more at www.salemnews.com |
| Principal Tells Students ‘Meep’ Is Off-Limits |
| Mr. SPIEWAK: We used to stand in front of this teacher’s room and we would use it, you know, meep, meep, whatever, when, you know, we all came into the school in the morning. We were asked to move, we were asked to stop using the word. Read more at www.npr.org |
| One wonders if Principal Murray considered how utterly ridiculous he would look if the story hit the media. One also wonders if he considered the likely effect his warnings would have on a student body composed of teenagers. Read more at www.wired.com |
| Thompson said the principal was right to put a stop to any planned disruption, but said he probably wouldn’t have gone so far as to threaten suspension over a word that has no real meaning, calling it the perfect way to start an “us versus them” situation.Read more at abcnews.go.com |
Threat to Black Colleges
November 17, 2009
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday proposed combining the state’s three public black colleges into one of the institutions, Jackson State University. While Barbour said that campuses would continue to exist at what are now Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University, the proposal marks the most dramatic state challenge in recent years to the continuation of some public black colleges — and the move comes in the state whose higher education system was the subject of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that governs college desegregation. |
| While his plan stressed that the various merged institutions would survive in some form, he also said that this major reorganization should result in the elimination of many programs, which supporters of black colleges fear will come largely from their institutions.Read more at www.insidehighered.com |
This is the project of a friend of mine. Check it out. Sphere College is at http://SphereCollege.org . Other item info | Item number: | 230385303325 | | Item location: | Phoenixville, PA, United States | | Post to: | United States |
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to ensure the long-term, sustainable success of Sphere College.Read more at cgi.ebay.co.uk |
Another one for the “things that make you go hmm” file. Seen on Crooks & Liars’ Twitter stream (j.mp/NWu8n). Texas school district apologizes for snubbing Obama speech |
| Posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 |
ARLINGTON, Texas — Arlington Superintendent Jerry McCullough issued a statement Friday apologizing for how the district handled President Obama’s live speech on Tuesday. |
The decision not to show the speech live to school children became particularly controversial after it became known that the district had previous plans to bus about 500 fifth-graders to attend an event with former President George W. Bush. The event, which is scheduled later this month at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, will be an announcement about a volunteer initiative for the 2011 Super Bowl. |
| “In retrospect, I can see how the district’s decisions concerning these two events could be seen as favoring one event over another,” McCullough said in his written statement.Read more at www.mcclatchydc.com |
Calvin College professors call for discussion about memo warning against homosexual advocacy |
by Dave Murray | The Grand Rapids Press
Friday August 28, 2009, 7:44 AM |
College employees received a memo last week saying the Board of Trustees has revisited issues surrounding the college’s position on homosexuality, concluding it is “unacceptable” for faculty and staff to teach, write or advocate on behalf of the issue. |
The college in 2008 affirmed its commitment to the Christian Reformed Church’s position on homosexuality: that the practice is sinful, but a person’s orientation is not. The board formed the Homosexuality and Community Life Working Group to discuss the implications of the college and church position and how it relates to the day-to-day life in the college. |
| Karin Maag, vice chairwoman of the Faculty Senate, said there are concerns about both the content of the letter and the process by which the policy was determined.Read more at www.mlive.com |
| State tells schools to teach Bible literacy but not how |
| A new state law requires that Texas public schools incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum. |
| But the law provides no specific guidelines, funding for materials or teacher training. So high schools are left scrambling to figure out what to teach and how to teach it. |
| Such broad parameters leave one of the most controversial topics in public schools virtually unregulated, say religious scholars and confused educators. They warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose – to examine the Bible’s influence in history and literature. |
“There’s an irony in this as well,” he said. “Teachers have to teach without the training the law requires.” |
STEWART F. HOUSE/Special Contributor Veteran teacher Vanda Terrell leads a Bible in Literature class at Plano West High School. She has no curriculum guidelines but is ‘driven by the connections in literature.’ Read more at www.dentonrc.com |
I’m actually clipping this not because I find the news particularly interesting or shocking, but because I find the wording of the excerpt from the biology textbook kind of interesting: “God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals. ” This emphasis on separateness and uniqueness seems characteristic of creationist thinking. Fundamentalist exams on a par with A-levels |
Evangelical course that treats Nessie as fact endorsed by government agency |
Exams for an Evangelical Christian curriculum in which pupils have been taught that the Loch Ness monster disproves evolution and racial segregation is beneficial have been ruled equivalent to international A- levels by a UK government agency. |
Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. |
Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie,’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur. |
No transitional fossils have been or ever will be discovered because God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals. Any similarities that exist among them are due to the fact that one Master Craftsmen fashioned them all.” Extract from Biology 1099, Accelerated Christian Education Inc. (1995) Read more at www.tes.co.uk |
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Education policy: who should be making the decisions? Thoughts from the 2009 Teacher of the Year
This year’s Teacher of the Year, Andrew Mullen, an ex-cop who started a new career teaching kids who’ve been thrown out of traditional school systems, sits in on a conversation between senators, governors, and other “education experts” and gives us his thoughts. Thanks to José Vilson for posting this.