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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > January > 27
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Invention Convention postponed
Springfield City Schools has postponed tonight’s district Invention Convention competition, according to district officials.
The competition will be held Thursday, Jan. 29, at Snyder Park. The community is welcome to view the entries from 5:30 to 6 p.m. and after judging, which will likely end around 7 p.m. The event ends at 8 p.m.
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Could Texas evolution battle spill into Ohio schools?
One of the great education debates of the last several decades has popped up again.
It’s a few hundred miles away — the Texas State Board of Education split over evolution during its ten-year review of science standards — but could reach to other states, according to reports.
Here’s the deal. Moderates and liberals on the state board wanted to get rid of language that insists teachers include “strengths and weaknesses” of theories in their discussions.
This addendum was put in 20 years ago and proponents of teaching evolution in schools say it opened the door to teaching creationism in science classes.
That debate could go on and on and I’m sure some of you would like to share your opinions on the subject. But alas, that will have to wait for another blog.
What I’m concerned with today is a section about six paragraphs in the Times’ piece and a notion I’ve seen in other articles as well:
Whatever the 15-member board decides then will have consequences far beyond Texas, since the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the nation. The new standards will be in place for the next decade, starting in 2010, and will influence the writing of the next generation of biology texts, which the state will order this summer.
So what they decide to do down in Texas, or New York or California or Florida, could impact Ohio’s students?
In terms of student population, Ohio is one of the larger states but there are still some out there that are bigger. California and Texas are two of the biggest.
In this case, Texas could have adopted a more conservative position than Ohio has in regard to the evolution debate. It’s easy to imagine another state, New York or California, for example, making a decision that would adopt a more liberal position on an issue.
Every state has its own standards, and many textbooks are based on those, of course. In some cases, those standards are slightly more specific. Social studies, for example, because some of the standards deal heavily with local and state government and history.
But science is an area where textbook companies can afford to be a bit more general because, really, chemistry is chemistry no matter where the lab is, right?
If textbooks did include a concept that Ohio standards didn’t touch on, of course teachers could just skip it in the books and most kids aren’t cracking open their textbooks at home to see what else is in there. But some might be or, more likely if they’re like I was about 10 years ago, they’re flipping ahead when they’re bored in class.
Picking textbooks is a long, involved process because they are used for so many years. And teachers do supplement their books often with other materials, for example to address new concepts not included in old books or address other standards.
Does it concern you that decisions in other areas could affect the information Ohio students have in their books?
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