It’s that time when universities get on their knees and beg the state for continuing support (hey, isn’t that all the time?), and my colleague Pete Wyckoff gave some testimony at the Minnesota capitol the other day. It’s good stuff that summarizes the financial dilemma students are facing everywhere as tuition climbs and the government cuts back.
Well, obviously, the problem isn’t the “screwing up”, it’s that the teacher was caught, so you make that more difficult. In this case, the Kearney school district has decided to ban tape recorders in the classroom. That sounds smart.
It makes me wonder how many teachers other than David Paszkiewicz are peddling ignorant cant in Kearney classrooms, that they have to make a special effort to protect them from exposure.
Oh, and my students can tape my classes any time they want.
I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.
I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.
The Little Professor has A Compendium of Professorial Magic that looks useful—I’m going to have to master these.
The list, though, is of low level spells. I think I really need an “Enchant Knowledge” area-effect spell that infuses all of the targets with mastery of the subject matter. It’s probably a ninth-level spell, I’m afraid, and I’m going to have to get more experience before I can handle it. (Knocking over creationists is probably analogous to fending off a kobold raid—tedious hack-and-slash that garners darned little experience, and they don’t even have any loot worth harvesting.)
Hey, I’m teaching a genetics class this term, and someone is taking one. I’m going to be spending part of my day setting up flies for an upcoming lab…this looks awfully familiar.
I was on the radio again this morning, this time to announce the upcoming Café Scientifique here in Morris, which was also announced on the university web page. Did you happen to tune in? Are you coming?
It’s going to be a fun one. The chemistry discipline will be putting on a show, with discussions and demonstrations of household chemistry.
Café Scientifique: Chemistry Style
A presentation by Joe Alia, Nancy Carpenter, Jenn Goodnough, Troy Goodnough, Ted Pappenfus and Jim Togeas.
Household Chemistry
Joe Alia: Joe’ll tell us what’s cooking in chemistry with the chemistry of spices.
Nancy Carpenter: What’s that smell?? Nancy tells us how chemistry is responsible for fragrances.
Jenn Goodnough: The chemistry of water. What does your water softener, RO system, Brita filter really do? What is the difference between deionized and distilled water?
Troy Goodnough: A brief discussion of some of the greatest chemistry advances, referencing the book Napoleon’s Buttons. Better living through chemistry…
Ted Pappenfus: The chemistry of beverages. Just try to make beer without chemistry. And where would your coffee be without caffeine?
Jim Togeas: From the realm of “don’t try this at home,” Jim will fill us in on some of his favorite experiments that were done throughout history.
Plus we’ll do a few demos and answer household chemistry questions from the audience.
That will be next Tuesday, 30 January, at 6:00 in the Common Cup Coffeehouse on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Morris. See? Now I’ve given you several days notice, plenty of time to get here, so even you readers in Addis Ababa and Alice Springs don’t have any excuse for failing to show up.
Sara at Orcinus has an excellent article on the UC/Calvary Chapel Christian School lawsuit, in which a Christian private school is suing the University of California system to require them to accept their dreck for credit. She’s right that the universities need to stand up for standards, but I do have some problems with her opening statement: it ignores some complexities.
Grrr. This story pisses me off beyond all reason. It’s a trumped up contretemps generated by one of our local Minnesota Republican hacks, griping about a UM faculty member using her campus email.
Some might be surprised to hear that I’m actually in favor of this change in the British school standards:
Teenagers will be asked to debate intelligent design (ID) in their religious education classes and read texts by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins under new government guidelines.
In a move that is likely to spark controversy, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has for the first time recommended that pupils be taught about atheism and creationism in RE classes.
The all-important qualifying phrase is “in their religious education classes“. It’s not science, so I’ll always oppose the inclusion of ID in the science curriculum, but I think that exposure to religious beliefs in a critical and secular context is a very good idea. That they’ll also discuss atheism is a significant bonus.
I also wouldn’t mind if the US schools included a comparative religion requirement — as long as a comparative perspective were actually enforced, and they weren’t used to indoctrinate kids into specific faiths.
Here’s a short summary of the new standards:
Pupils will be expected to understand terms such as creation, God as creator of the universe, intelligent design, the Big Bang theory, the sacred story and purposeful design, as well as words that are specific to a religion, such as Bible, Rig Veda, and Qur’an.
The new guidelines for key stage 3 (11 to 14-year-olds), published yesterday, say: “This unit focuses on creation and origins of the universe and human life and the relationship between religion and science. It aims to deepen pupils’ awareness of ultimate questions through argument, discussion, debate and reflection and enable them to learn from a variety of ideas of religious traditions and other world views.
“It explores Christianity, Hinduism and Islam and also considers the perspective of those who do not believe there is a god (atheists). It considers beliefs and concepts related to authority, religion and science as well as expressions of spirituality.”
There would be an epidemic of Head-Asplodey Syndrome if such a course were taught in US schools, I fear.
AND I’M NOT READY!
Can we have a couple more weeks of vacation, please?
Last day of classes: May 2nd. 30 lectures, 45 lab sections away.
