Should Students “Tote ‘em, Quote ‘em and Use ‘em in Class?”
There are two subjects sure to stir debate in Oklahoma: Football and Religion.
I’ll decline to discuss the former — that’s been done enough this week. My last post here was about a call-to-action by a New Jersey Christian activist to bring Bibles to school this week to coincide with See You at the Pole day.
Bob Pawson urged children to take their Bibles to class and quote passages they felt were relevent to their class subject. (Not sure how that would work in Algebra….)
I asked news.ok readers what they thought of Pawson’s campaign, and whether they’d support non-Christian groups doing the same thing. What if Muslims brought the Quran to school?
Here are some responses emailed to me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com.
Claude of Yukon said the real question is “Are we a nation under God as our national flag salute states or is it under Allah or Buddha.” Claude goes on to say, “We should study the Bible that expresses our belief in God and is commonly accepted by our religious traditions of all faiths — not the Bible of some foreign religion.”
Does Claude know that the Bible originated outside the United States?
Cheryl of Warr Acres said Pawson’s campaign could lead to chaos in the classroom. “Some with fervent views on their beliefs might resort to physical violence,” she wrote.
Robert, a high school teacher in Oklahoma City, said students have the right of religious expression, as long as it doesn’t disrupt regular classroom activities. He said the Bible is a great source of literature and helps put other works in perspective.
“For example, I am teaching the early English epic Beowolf. The monster Grendle is said to be the off-sprig of Cain, the first murderer in the Bible. Most of my students don’t know who Cain was or the story from Genesis.”
I even had an e-mail from Pawson himself, who saw my earlier posting. He said the campaign is intended to generate dialogue, not disruption. He said Muslim students should bring their Qurans and prayer rugs because everyone has equal rights under the constitution.
What do you think? I’m open to further discussion on the matter. Football? That’s another matter.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
*Footnote to baseball history
Branding irons typically are used to mark livestock or steaks. One will be used to mark an asterisk on the baseball that earned Barry Bonds his record-breaking 756th home run.
More than 10 million votes were cast in an eight-day period over what to do with the ball.
Overall, more than 80 percent of voters felt the ball should go to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. – but 47 percent of the voters wanted it branded first as a reminder of the allegations that Bonds used steroids.
Another 34 percent of voters thought the ball should be bestowed without being branded, and the other 19 percent wanted it blasted into outer space.
The poll was sponsored by a man with a brand of his own – Marc Ecko, a fashion designer who paid $752,467 for the ball.
To see news clips of Marc Ecko and get to YouTube and MySpace forums about the vote, go to http://www.vote756/marcecko.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Staff Writer
Assessing the school assessment
The Oklahoma students who took the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress exams are likely proud of the test results that were released Tuesday.
The scores show that Oklahoma was only one of 14 states whose students made gains in both grade 4 and grade 8 math since the 2005 assessment. Grade 4 reading scores also went up; grade 8 reading scores remained unchanged.
Nationwide, scores rose for both grades in both subjects. However, actual state scores are below the national averages.
About 2,800 Oklahomans took the four NAEP exams — about 40 percent were minority and more than 50 percent qualified for free or reduced lunch, a poverty indicator.
But scholars at Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom, a nonprofit policy research foundation in Washington, caution that the students’ gains may not be worth much celebration.
“While scores did generally improve, today’s NAEP results are nothing to write home about, nor are they any indicator that No Child Left Behind is doing any good,” said Cato policy analyst Neal McCluskey.
“Score improvements were small and either only continued increases taking place before NCLB, or actually slowed or stopped overall improvement rates,” he said.
Check out http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard for more details on the test results.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Writer
Written off
The American Association of Handwriting Analysts is worried that cursive instruction is being written off in schools.
Iris Hatfield, who developed a program designed to revive cursive teaching, says that “handwriting represents a highly complex method of expression” that stimulates the brain by requiring memory, fine motor skills and visualization.
The irony is that her StartWrite program, available at www.NewAmericanCursive.com, helps teachers create handwriting lessons using a computer – the very thing that the association acknowledges has put a cramp in writing styles.
My seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher made the class practice our handwriting before she would start our science lesson for the day. Do you think all teachers should do that?
Tell me, should schools be sure cursive practice doesn’t get written off, or has the widespread use of technology eliminated the need to know it? Or, are other subjects just more important for teachers to spend time on? E-mail me your thoughts at wkleinman@oklahoman.com.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Writer
What’s in your book bag?
A Christian activist from New Jersey is asking students to bring Bibles to school this week and use passages in assignments and classroom discussions.
Bob Pawson says he scheduled the “academic evangelism” event to coincide with a nationwide See You at the Pole event Wednesday.
“The only people keeping Bibles out of America’s public school are us Christians,” Pawson says on his Web site, bringyourbible.com.
Some separation of church and state folks are concerned about the project, but say there’s nothing unconstitutional about bringing Bibles to school.
What do you think? Certainly the Bible is a work of literature and a great inspiration to Christians, but does it have a place in a science classroom? Would the discussions it generates lead to classroom disruptions or thought-provoking debates?
What if a Muslim group was pushing a similar agenda: toting the Quran to class? Would that be OK too?
Let me know your thoughts at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Anybody got 110 candles?
This week I learned more about the histories of two of Oklahoma’s institutions for higher education.
Both were gearing up to celebrate milestone anniversaries.
Oklahoma City Community College will celebrate its 35th birthday on Tuesday. OCCC is one of the state’s newer two-year colleges but also one of the fastest growing. It opened with 1,049 students in 1972 but now is the fifth largest higher education campus in Oklahoma with nearly 20,000 students.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University is one of our oldest institutions, established a decade before statehood. Tomorrow they celebrate 110 years of educating students, having grown from 58 students attending classes in a rented church building in 1897 to a main campus in Alva and branch campuses in Enid and Woodward.
Many more Oklahoma colleges and universities will celebrate milestone anniversaries in coming months and years. The events are a reminder of the continuing will of Oklahomans to better their lives and provide quality education to future generations.
Happy Birthday to them all!
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Barry Bonds baseball: Bestow, brand or banish?
I saw Barry Bonds hit his 758th home run in San Francisco last month. I don’t know where that ball is now.
I do know where his record-breaking 756th home run ball is — in your hands.
Fashion designer Marc Ecko paid more than $750,000 for the ball that broke baseball legend Hank Aaron’s home run record, and he wants the public to decide what to do with it.
Until Sept. 25, you can cast your vote. Should the ball be bestowed to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.; branded with an asterisk as a reminder of the steroid dispute surrounding the record and then given to the Hall of Fame; or blasted into outer space and banished forever?
Go to www.vote756.com/marcecko to vote, and visit the forum on NewsOK.com at http://newsok.com/article/3129752 to tell us why you think the ball should be bestowed, branded or banished.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Staff Writer
Dell-ightful donation
My last computer was a Dell. It got me through college.
This morning, 60 Dells were unveiled in a refurbished lab at the KIPP Reach College Preparatory School in Oklahoma City. Hopefully those computers will help the students get to college.
The KIPP School serves 280 fifth- through eighth-grade students in a building on NE 13.
“This computer lab truly was a community effort,” said Mautra Staley Jones, director of development and marketing for KIPP, in a press release. “From Flintco’s ceiling tiles, StapleGun’s graphics and Dell’s employees who painted the room, polished the floor and installed computers, this lab will bring a world of opportunity to the fingertips of KIPP students for years.”
In the same way the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust works to get technology into more schools, the new Dell Community Computer Lab is another example of how community establishments in the state pool their time and resources to give students more.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Staff Writer
Tax-free spree?
By all accounts, Oklahoma’s first back-to-school sales tax was a big success — for shoppers at least. (The state lost $6.4 million.)
For one weekend last month, no tax was charged on most clothing for children and adults. The event aimed to give a break to families preparing for the start of school.
Now one state lawmaker, Sen. Don Barrington, wants to expand the sales tax holiday to include school supplies. Items would include paper, notebooks, crayons and calculators. Barrington says he’ll introduce legislation to this effect next session.
While the proposal is likely to be met with enthusiasm, it also could lead to lots of questions. Would computers be included since they are pretty much essential to education today? What about text books? The average college student pays $900 a year on assigned texts, according to the General Accounting Office.
What do you think? I don’t think saving 8-cents on a box of pencils is that great a deal, but getting hundreds off the price of a laptop would get my attention. E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
CAN you believe it?
I’m not a wine snob. Really. Although I’ve learned that expensive wine usually tastes better than the cheap stuff.
But when wineries began replacing corks with screwtops, I was a little concerned. Wasn’t the cork an integral (and sometimes frustrating) part of the experience?
I got over it. I like the ease of opening a bottle now. No more screwing with the corkscrew.
Well, now there’s another development that has me whining. An Argentinean company is ditching the bottle completely and putting their Iron Wine in 8- and 12-ounce cans. Like Budweiser. Or Diet Coke.
The company says the new packaging is more convenient. You don’t even need a glass.
Excuse me, but I don’t want my fine wine to be THAT convenient. Swigging from a can seems just wrong.
However, I have an open mind. If said-company wants to send me a sample I’d be happy to pop the top. In the name of research, of course.
Susan Simpson, Staff Writer
