Herewith the crux of GOP goals: TX GOP declares NO MORE TEACHING OF CRITICAL THINKING
IN TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.The Texas GOP's declarative position against critical thinking in public schools, or any schools, for that matter, is now an official part of their political platform. It is public record in the Republican Party of Texas 2012 platform. With regard to critical thinking, the Republican Party of Texas document states: "Knowledge-Based Education - 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." (page 20, Republican Party of Texas, 2012).
Yes, challenging beliefs or claims is considered insubordinate, immoral and could lead to rebellion, disobedience or perhaps worse: revolution. For the Republican Party and their followers, thinking is subversive, imagination is a sin and the Republican Party in Texas and elsewhere is working to codify this into public policy. The plutocrats can't have a working-class citizenry that is asking questions of those in power, be they parents or bosses; instead, the people must be taught the ideology of what is morally acceptable, what rules and regulations to follow. and even more importantly, how to accept and internalize hierarchical authoritarianism. Critical thinking is a direct challenge to the "leaders" and their claims on authority, and any opposition to vertical arrangements is ethically unacceptable to those in power.
Reactionaries have long known that enshrining ignorance and hierarchy in both thought and practice within the school curriculum is essential if the control of young minds is to be accomplished softly and quietly yet profoundly through propaganda and perception management. In the quarters of obedience training, "education" has nothing to do with "schooling" under capitalism.
There it is, right out there for the plebeian 99% to see if they'd bloody pay attention. The oligarchs don't want a thinking 99% and the TX GOP is boldly, overtly going to damn well see that it happens.
The rest is at Truthout: Texas GOP Declares: "No More Teaching of 'Critical Thinking Skills' in Texas Public Schools"
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The proposed TX (R) platform wrt education isn't even that. Not using any commonly accepted meanings for words.
The proposed platform equates things that are different. Critical thinking and values clarification, for instance. Or outcome-based mastery and behavior modification (in any sense other than the trivial "thinking is behavior"
.
It's only coherent in a world that has a lot of ill-will towards education theorists. On the one hand, it's a world alien to most of DU. On the other hand, it's coin of the realm in some parts of DU--but in mirror image.
This is a conservative world where if you don't do what the (R) want, you have to have only the worst possible motives. To them, mastery learning and critical thinking are ways to dumb down students and destroy public education. It's part of the liberal plot to undermine traditional values and enslave America. People espousing this--even parents--only do so because they hate kids, even their kids.
If you plumb those websites (ick) you find these kinds of equivalents posited on a consistent basis. They've been around for a long time--I heard this kind of stuff back in the late '70s--and they cite examples quite well. Some examples are actually accurately portrayed. They find examples in which critical thinking isn't a fact-based heuristic but a means to an end, where outcome-based education is employed by a teacher or an author to achieve a social end. Where self-serving researchers redefine terms in hopes that nobody notices because they want to blur distinctions so to make their approaches seem non-controversial. (To be honest, I've seen that kind of thinking here, where true critical thinking automatically predisposes you to certain outcomes.)
