Two years ago, a bunch of teachers produced a reasonable revision of South Dakota’s K-12 social studies standards, only to see their work ripped up by Governor Kristi Noem and supplanted by an alien set of inferior and impractical standards written by intellectually insurrectionist Hillsdale College and rubber-stamped by a gaggle of Noem’s handpicked partisans. One core and contentious feature of the radical Hillsdale standards is to remove inquiry-based learning, which standards author and Hillsdale professor William Morrisey deemed “outside the scope of a standard“—which is code for “Kids need to think less and memorize and regurgitate the Party line.”
Well, Governor Noem better get out her thinking hatchet again. The Department of Education let a bunch of actual teachers work on the K-12 science standards, and those darn teachers went about preserving and promoting that nutty idea that kids ought to think in school:
Engineering standards are not standards that are taught as a stand-alone lesson or skill. Engineering, Technology, and Application of Science Standards go hand in hand with inquiry-based learning. This is an approach to learning that encourages students to engage in experiential learning and problem-solving that will meet both the standards of the discipline and the engineering [Science Standards Advisory Committee, proposed K-12 science standards, 2023.09.15, p. 6].
The teachers propose no radical changes to the current science standards, which were adopted in 2015. They leave intact the standards on global climate change and evolution that prompted the state Board of Education to attach a disclaimer acknowledging “particular sensitivity” among the public on those two scientific phenomena and encouraging Neanderthal parents to subvert science with myth at home. The teachers don’t mention this sensitivity and parental freedom to subvert their work. They continue to insist to high schoolers that “common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence” (9-12-LS4-1). The mild revision also preserves standards calling on high school students to think about how to reduce human impacts on biodiversity (9-12-LS2-7, 9-12-LS4-6).
Asking for trouble, the teachers add an earth/space science standard (6-8-ESS1-4) that has middle schoolers “Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.”
And in their most nefarious hippiedom, those sneaky teachers change an “and/or” to an “and”. A kindergarten standard (K-ESS3-3) that read “Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment” now would read, “Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and living things in the local environment.” The teachers aren’t just avoiding a trademark fight with Disney. By striking the “or”, the teachers strike the suggestion that elements may stand alone and emphasize the idea that all things stand in relation to each other as part of an inseparable, integral whole. If Corey Lewandowski notices that, he’ll roll over and whisper to Kristi, It’s socialism! Globalism! Gaia worship! Aaaaggghhh!!!
If Governor Noem doesn’t notice the science teachers’ persistent dedication to inquiry-based learning and reasonable science teaching, these revised science standards will go through the six-month public review process before the Board of Education Standards. The first public hearing on the science standards is at Northern State University in Aberdeen on Friday, October 20, starting at 9 a.m. Interested parties may register to testify for or against the revised science standards here.
Discard myth and fables, embrace evidence, and the world starts to make sense and becomes predictable. It’s really that simple.
Tasking middle schoolers with ““Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.” is an outdated standard that these students need just “prompt” their AI to accomplish.
A proper standard would be to use “inquiry-based learning” to predict how Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history will metastasize into near and distant hypotheses about human and AI interface.
This will be a test for the Governor. If she again throws out the work of the teacher group in favor of outside, political influences, then that should mean that no other teacher group will participate in this sham curriculum process in the future. SD educators have to be smarter than Charlie Brown when it comes to this kick. Local school boards need to take up this political battle if THEIR teachers are being disregarded.
Yeah, kids need to learn about evolution no matter what their parents believe or don’t believe.
In recent years the field has become very interesting with new evolutionary mechanisms being uncovered in epigenetics. Some of these have implications in passing immunity on from mom to babies. and in how genes may be turned on and off, for example, by environmental contaminants.
And how do you actually learn how to do science if you don’t do inquiry-based learning. You would have to throw out all the bio, chem and physics experiments.
John Oliver’s roast of homeschooling as a trope for child abuse ought to gather a wide audience. (Note the science lesson where dinosaurs walked the earth with people – living in harmony.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsZP9o7SlI
Jumping to local college . . . our not-so-bright engineer wannabes at SDSMT petition to have guns on campus. What could go wrong? What scientific – based, math -based, reasoning – based lessons did they miss in high school?
https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/mines-students-want-guns-allowed-on-campus/#:~:text=The%20School%20of%20Mines%20weapon%20policy%2C%20based%20on,a%20locked%20personal%20motor%20vehicle%20on%20university%20property.
sx123, I believe our religious friends would say the opposite. Biblical mythology doesn’t change, not even in the face of evidence to contradict. Once one decided that (your) god is infallible and you have a hotline into his (always a man) thinking, then all is as concrete as can be. The rest of the crazy, flexible, changing world is out of step.
The closing of the mind for religious reasons goes hand in hand with the closing of the mind in more ways. Accepting the leadership without questioning replaces doubt in matters that then go far beyond the church. The MAGA GOP depends on closed-minded idol/dogma worship from its followers.
“God is the most uninteresting answer to the most interesting questions”. — Hernan Diaz
Good quote, O. I just finished two Hernan Diaz novels. Very entertaining.
This one is appropriate for your Governor, in my humble opinion.
“My job is about being right. Always. If I’m ever wrong, I must make use of all my means and resources to bend and align reality according to my mistake so that it ceases to be a mistake.”
― Hernan Diaz, Trust
Saw a great quote: “If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you, you are a spiritualist; If you talk to the dead, you are a schizophrenic” Thomas Szaz
There’s good reason accredited university science curricula require laboratory credits and every reason inquiry-based skills must be developed early in the life of children.
Who needs science when some inbred, unqualified, magat moron tells you every thing his fauxknee kristian gawd wants you to know? Won’t take 17 years of schooling. Five years tops and then you are available at a young age to tarry in the salt mines for the wealthy for sub minimum wage and no benefits.
Were it not for national science accreditation societies outside state boundaries and beyond state control, left to its own, South Dakota would no doubt have eliminated university science laboratories long ago. Too much cost, safety liability, chemical waste and disposal costs, time (3 hours for 1 credit)—as it is, the laboratory experience in universities has been pared down to a bare minimum compared to what it was decades ago. As well as being taught by less-than full professors as I was fortunate to be taught.
Which all brings us to the rabbit hole of “parent’s rights” as dictated by the Moms for (ironic) Liberty groups, pushing their fundamentalist agendas onto ALL students.
Already our students learn in buildings adorned with “In God We Trust” and pop out of their desks each morning to pledge allegiance to “one nation under God.”
buckobear
Szaz’ medical paradigm is all too evident.
Arguably, the universe of a psychotic is much greater than that of a run-of-the-mill neurotic.
The former is attempting to repair a defect in the universe by an elaborate construction, while for the latter the entire universe revolves around a spouse, family, dog, house in a yard with a white pocket fence, bank account…
So-called “mental illness” takes a variety of forms.
Is there an unaccredited college or university (like Hillsdale is unaccredited) that even teaches science of any sort?
Richard Schriever
Tons of universities have no accreditation whatsoever and it would strain belief to think none would purport some science courses, such quality as they might or might not be:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_institutions_of_higher_education
My reference to science accreditation societies is exemplified by, for example, university chemistry departments which offer a chemistry degree. A university has its own accreditation agency. Additionally, however, a chemistry department within a given university may offer a chemistry degree which is certified (for it’s not a matter of accreditation per se)–or not-p certified–by the American Chemical Society (ACS), among the largest professional scientific organizations if not THE largest professional scientific organization. A degree certified by the ACS must meet specific ACS requirements in terms of prescribed chemistry coursework and credits, among other prescribed ACS standards, including but not limited to qualifications for its faculty, required instrumentation holdings within the department for student hands-on experience, etc.
An ACS certified degree is a filter used by many employers in hiring decisions.