Now you too can take the Oklahoma teacher test without giving your name to PragerU. The list of 34 questions has been revealed! These guys are obsessed with religion and sex, the stuff teachers don’t usually deal with, and there’s very little that is content-appropriate.
For instance, should we really care about the details of an authoritarian loyalty oath?
Question 33 of 34:
Which of the following is a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance?
A) Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness
B) Of, by and for the people
C) One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all
D) One nation, Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all
“Under god” was an addition made in the 1950s during the Red Scare. We’re not going to discuss that, though.
Some of the questions are misleading.
Question 9 of 34:
Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?
A) It protects religious choice from government control
B) It makes Christianity the national religion
C) It bans all form of public worship
D) It limits religious teaching in the public square
Yeah, “A” is the official rationale, but this is PragerU — what they really want is “B”.
Four of the 34 questions are about propagandizing for their binary view of sex.
Question 2 of 34:
What is the fundamental biological distinction between males and females?
A) Height and weight
B) Blood type
C) Personal preference
D) Chromosomes and reproductive anatomyQuestion 3 of 34:
How is a child’s biological sex typically identified?
A) Parental affirmation of child’s preference
B) Personal feelings
C) Visual anatomical observation and chromosomes
D) Online registrationQuestions 4 of 34:
Which chromosome pair determines biological sex in humans?
A) AA/BB
B) XX/XY
C) RH/AB
D) EX/XQQuestions 5 of 34:
Why is the distinction between male and female considered important in areas like sports and privacy?
A) For equity in minority communities
B) To preserve fairness, safety and integrity for both sexes
C) To increase participation in sports
D) To enhance the self-esteem of transgender children
They are very concerned with chromosomes. Haven’t they gotten the word that the excuse of the day is gamete size, rather than chromosomes? Also, chromosomes are not typically evaluated when assigning sex.
Look over all the questions yourself. You be the judge whether these are an appropriate assessment of general teaching ability and qualifications, or just a test of conservative political ideology.
To answer the question in the title, some unqualified billionaire gave him a lot of money.
And this is what the Trump regime is trying to replace PBS with.
Is this a trick question?
The same way Robert Kennedy Jr. became the leader of Health and Human Services and thus NIH and the CDC.
He is a kook and a crackpot with no medical training and one of the worst people our society has produced.
The same way Kristi Noem became the head of DHS and Tulsi Gabbard became the head of National Intelligence.
Incompetent, crazy, and viscous ideologues with no other training or qualifications.
The same way Donald Trump became president of the USA.
Ignorant, dumb, cruel, and intent on wrecking the USA.
The same way anyone got a position in the Trump regime.
Not an American but rather an Aussie typing here and yet I’m pretty sure that B is both false and directly contradicted by the USA’s First Amendment i.e. Constitution. The document that is rather than the sailing frigate aka “Old Ironsides” and the subject of a famous poem..
Oh better that her shattered hulk should sink beneath the waves..”*
Seems to be the wishes of Prager-peeeew for the Constituition the document rather than the eponymous ancient naval vessel.
.* See Oliver Wendell Holmes epic poem which I loved as a kid when I was into ships here :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ironsides_(poem)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: How do you tell a male chromosome from a female chromosome? You look in their genes! (Jeans-get it?)
Oh, PZ, man, you gotta start at the TOP!
I told my PhD geologist wife to pretend she was applying to be an 8th grade physical science teacher in Oklahoma. (Spoiler alert: She got all the questions right even though a couple of them were by process of elimination or knowing the INTENT of the test.)
OK, you’re an 8th grade science teacher. Question 1:
According to the Supreme Court cases Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), who has the ultimate right to direct a child’s education?
A. The Superintendent of Schools
B. The parents
C. The Board of Education
D. The federal Department of Education
WTF, right? 1920’s Supreme Court decisions. Again, W T F ? ?
Doc Geologist got the right answer, B, by knowing the INTENT of the test and the “conservative” constant bleating about “parental rights.” Doc Bill, of course, had to Google the cases and whattya know, they only relate tangentially to “parental rights” and more to do with state laws.
I must say, taking this test turned both of us from deep red Marxists into deep red Christian nationalists! OK, must run, we’re off to a book burning!
Question 9 of 34:
Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?
A) It protects religious choice from government control
B) It makes Christianity the national religion
C) It bans all form of public worship
D) It limits religious teaching in the public square
To resolve any confusion: A is the answer they give credit for (the only one that lets you move on). B is the answer they secretly would like to see.
Since this is Dennis Prager, I think answer B is probably there as a trick. Obviously the correct religion is Judeochristianity.
Even worse about adding “under God” to the pledge during the Red Scare is the reason that “teh commies” were publicly associated with atheism: They rejected centuries of near-theocracy by the Orthodox Church in Russia and the Catholic Church in south/eastern Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire — theocracy leading to economic stagnation and just a few (million) miscellaneous-and-needless deaths, not to mention virulent antisemitism. If one actually reads political writings/letters from across the “left to right spectrum” (misleading but dominant in American discussion) from the 18th through the first half of the 20th centuries — at least in those Eastern/Central European languages — disdain for theocracy is a common theme. The context, reasoning, and rhetorical lead-up to Lenin’s, Bakhtin’s, and “fellow travelers”‘s rejection of religion and embracing of atheism are mysteriously omitted (even in translation). It’s an example of soundbites overwhelming actual understanding, made worse by mistranslations.
Recognizing the self-defeating irony of adding a theocratic element back in — in support of J. Edgar Pinktutu’s self-contradictory vision — would have required paying attention.
With leaders like tRUMP, Roadkill fucking Kennedy, jr, Prager, mofo mikey johnson, the vancehole and so many more, this magat cult is, in an ignorant, murderous, bigoted yet effective manner, drastically driving the E.Q. (Enlightenment Quotient) of this country down the Death Spiral. Pretty soon all the knuckle-dragging, drooling rtwingnut xtian terrorists will be bludgeoning anyone who exhibits rational logical thinking, polysyllabic communication, compassion and honesty.
PZ wrote: These guys are obsessed with religion and sex, the stuff teachers don’t usually deal with
I reply: You are correct, but also, they demand that history (and the propaganda of it) be prostituted to meet their own corrupted dishonest view point.
So help me dog!
Note it says nothing about protecting people from the religious choice of others.
@8
Right wingers love to whine about Catholic priests who got beheaded in the French Revolution or the repression on religion by the Soviets.
Gee, I wonder if it had anything thing to do with religion being cheerleaders and apologists for the tyrannical monarchs who were oppressing their people.
All I can say to those conservatives is a sarcastic “Boo hoo.”
I’m sure it changes according to whatever they perceive as convenience and mood.
Power protects power. It’s hard for me to imagine a church that actually gives a care about the poor that lasts longer than the photo op.
… the excuse of the day is gamete size…
“Gametes? You mean, like, spermies and ovums? Precious bodily fluids? Only COMMIES want to teach prevert porno like that to our kids!”
/comstock
There seems to be a contradiction between questions 2 and 5. (Unless I’m mistaken and one plays sport with one’s “chromosomes and reproductive anatomy”. (I mean, not like I’m saying that doesn’t sound fun.))
So, in answer to the multiple choice question of how important pragerU is, the correct answer is: E) none of the above.