Education and SB 1437

About a year ago the great Thomas Sowell wrote (“Dogma Versus Reality”) about the education of teachers. An opinion poll among professors of education, the people who train our public school teachers, is “very revealing as to what has been so wrong for so long in our schools.”

One question asks should teachers be conveyors of knowledge who enlighten their students with what they know? Or should teachers see themselves as facilitators of learning who enable their students to learn on their own?

Ninety two percent of the professors of education said that teachers should be facilitators rather than engaging in what is called directed instruction -- what we used to call just plain teaching. This theory has remained the prevailing dogma in schools of education all through the years when test scores stagnated and real inflation-adjusted spending on education skyrocketed.

Sowell asks: “What is more important in math, that children know the right answers to the questions or that they struggle with the process of trying to find the right answers? Among professors of education, 86 percent choose struggling over knowing.”

“This is all part of a larger vision in which children discover their own knowledge rather than have teachers pass on to them the knowledge of what others have already discovered. The idea that children will discover knowledge that took scholars and geniuses decades, or even generations, to produce is truly a faith which passeth all understanding.”

I wondered during the “New Math” craze how the average student was going to discover the product of 7 and 12 without memorizing the multiplication tables. Forget about multiplication, have you seen the deer-in-the-headlights look that comes over a cashier when s/he needs to make change without the cash register telling how much?

The other Ed School dogma that has been a disaster for public education is the focus on feelings over learning. My Zone Bridge partner Maggie tells me that she just attended a workshop on “Focused Learning” where the teachers were told that student performance depends on IQ (25%), Life Experiences (25%) and Self Confidence (50%). Apparently hard work and quality instruction are no longer considered important.

The legislation contained in California SB 1437 is another spectacularly bad example of educational social theory run amok.

Senate Bill 1437 expressly prohibits textbooks, instructional materials, and school-sponsored activities from “reflecting adversely” on transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality. For example, instructional materials could not only say “a husband and wife,” but must include “two wives who are married lesbians.”

SB 1437, Sec. 1 states: “No teacher shall give instruction nor shall a school district sponsor any activity that reflects adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion.”

Note the use of gender rather than sex and the addition of sexual orientation. Gender includes trans-sexuality and transvestitism while sexual orientation adds bisexuality and homosexuality, that must not be adversely reflected. Why trans-sexuality, transvestitism, bisexuality and homosexuality need to be reflected or discussed at all is a mystery to me.

But wait, school activities that might be deemed to “reflect adversely” on trans-sexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality could include prom kings and queens, boys basketball, girls synchronized swimming. Furthermore, showing videos depicting the traditional family or man-woman relationships would reflect adversely on other genders or sexual orientations as would omitting sex-change material in sex education class.

Because parental units are gender-specific, married couples or a family with a father and a mother could be prohibited from textbooks because their inclusion “reflects adversely.” Under SB 1437, Mom and Dad will be referred to as sperm doner and sperm receiver and school curriculums throughout California, in every grade K-12, would have to portray transsexual and bisexual “parents” as normal.

Recall that AB 606 tells school districts what pro-trans-bi-homosexual textbooks they must use. SB 1437 is even more specific as it dictates what California schools may not use (anything “reflecting adversely” on trans-sexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality by promoting traditional families).

In the amended version of the bill, the author Senator Sheila Kuehl (D) now openly and specifically requires positive portrayals of transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual lifestyles in ALL curriculum, for children as young as kindergarten.

SB 1437 continues the campaign of the Ed Schools and liberal politicians to replace traditional learning with social engineering.

The governor is doing a phone poll. If you care about families, call 916-445-2841.

The phone recording will ask:
a. If you want this message in english?: yes, press 1
b. Is this in regards to a legislation bill? yes, press 1
c. Is the bill sb 1437? yes, press 1
d. Are you in favor of this legislation? NO, press 2