Posted on 02/17/2015 10:53:14 AM PST by GIdget2004
Some opponents of Common Core apparently have now turned their guns on Advanced Placement courses.
The legality of teaching Advanced Placement courses in Oklahoma public schools was raised Monday during a House Common Education Committee hearing on a bill aimed at the AP U.S. history guidelines.
That measure, House Bill 1380, by Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, would direct the state Board of Education to review those guidelines and bar the use of state funds for AP U.S. history courses.
During discussion and debate, however, it was suggested that AP courses are similar to Common Core, in that they could be construed as an attempt to impose a national curriculum on American schools.
It was also suggested that AP courses violate the legislation approved last year that repealed Common Core, with state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, saying she has asked the state Attorney General’s Office for a ruling on the matter.
That legislation gives sole control of curriculum and assessment to the state, although it was not immediately clear whether the requirement applies to all courses or only to required courses.
Although HB 1380 specifically targets U.S. history, a ruling that it violates state law related to curriculum and assessment could apply to all AP courses.
Advanced Placement is a nationally recognized series of courses and tests developed by the College Board, a private entity, with the assistance of high school and college faculty, that allows high school students to earn college credit. It is not required for high school graduation, and public schools do not have to offer it.
(Excerpt) Read more at tulsaworld.com ...
I took AP US History in 1975-76. Very challenging, and easily my most enjoyable class in high school. Our teacher had been a university history professor. While he was no doubt a liberal, he was not the oppressive overbearing liberal who brooked no dissent from his dogma. He was quite fair and even-handed.
Unlike the poli sci profs I encountered at the college level.
” I took AP US History in 1975-76. Very challenging, and easily my most enjoyable class in high school. Our teacher had been a university history professor.”
Same here, on both counts!
Thanks for those links. As an OK resident, I appreciate the background and have bookmarked them.
” Unlike the poli sci profs I encountered at the college level.”
What is poly sci anyway? It looked to me like an “anything goes” BS course of study. I skipped it in order to take more history courses.
This world is getting so upside down, all the more as the leftists gain power.
“In TX, the students pay.”
Instructors who teach AP courses are required to take additional training courses and most states/districts give them additional pay to teach those courses. Some districts/states pass that along to the students in fees; others absorb it.
There may be legitimate gripes about some courses, but to say that it should all be tossed out seems....misguided.
I can believe that. You can't rewrite chemistry to give a helium atom five protons instead of the two it actually has. But you can sure rewrite history. It's easy. Just throw in all sorts of personal slants. When it comes to AP History, I'll bet the conservative objections have merit.
I have heard that some history courses spend almost no time on things like the revolutionary war and the constitutional convention but chapter after chapter on slavery and civil rights and stuff.
Political Science, which my friend and I called “OBS” for “Opinionated B/S.” Along with a degree in German, it was my ticket to law school. I should have picked up a third degree in history, which I could have easily accomplished in four year, but it just didn’t occur to me at the time.
There was no question that the Political Science department at Indiana University was chock full of leftists, democrats and other outright communists. We had a grad student instructor who wore her Che fatigues to class every day. She was “down for the struggle” and ready to man the barricades; just as soon as she finished her latte. My “Comparative Political Systems” prof should have called the class “Soviet Communism Here and Now.” He wanted the workers to control the means of production and all that. Obviously he’d never spent a day of his life outside of academia. Having worked commercial construction the past summer, I knew how that would turn out.
I should have agreed with him, espoused the belief that students should control the means of production of grades, formed a “Council of Students’ Soviet,” and had the class vote ourselves “A’s.” The we could successfully dissolve the class and head to Nick’s for some brews. That would have been a far more productive use of my time.
I learned a lot about the left while I was there. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues drank the Kool Ade, and now have their hands on the levers of power in this country.
One of my kids took AP history three years ago. It was a sick joke. Take science or math AP, but not history.
“I took AP U.S.History in 1971. It was substantially non political. My understanding is that has changed. Now it it leftist, revisionist, PC History.”
I am finishing a semester in Honors History for college. It is on American History from 1945-Present. The text book reads like the Communist Manifesto. I had to tell my Professor that I am in my 50’s, lived through a good chunk of this and the book’s author is to the left of Lenin. He didn’t disagree.
We came to an understanding after the first week of the course. He can teach his mush to the young Stalinists and I won’t interfere by getting political. In exchange I can correct any comments by the students in our discussion threads that are not factual. And I will back it up by citing sources that are not right wing. He agreed.
Been the most fun 8 weeks of my life. One young lady went on about how much she hated Reagan, that he was a buffoon, that Gorbachev schooled him and actually won the cold war for the Russians, and was so happy that Reagan died of Alzheimers four months after he left office.
My response was priceless. “Lady, you’re an idiot and whoever you got your information from is also an idiot.” The teacher intervened and reminded the young lady that Reagan died several years after leaving office. And she still wouldn’t accept it.
The teachers may riding the same pay scale, but more teachers are required because of the additional teaching burden. Mean while, I've known kids who have used AP credits earned at taxpayers' expense to shave a semester off their undergrad degree at a savings of $22,500.
That’s the way it should be.
” Obviously he’d never spent a day of his life outside of academia. “
My parents were both professors. They often said that anyone who desired to teach college full time should be required to work in the private sector for a minimum of 2 years. I bought it then, and do to this day.
Thanks for the info. You have confirmed what others have told me.
You have a lot more patience than I do. Glad you had fun though.
” Take science or math AP, but not history.”
I took them all, including English. That was a long time ago.
I didn’t get any spoon fed leftism, but today is a different story, methinks : )
” I should have agreed with him, espoused the belief that students should control the means of production of grades, formed a “Council of Students’ Soviet,” and had the class vote ourselves “A’s.” The we could successfully dissolve the class and head to Nick’s for some brews. That would have been a far more productive use of my time.”
I beat one leftist professor at his own game. He was a doctrinaire Marxist. He was an a hole. I hated him. It was too late to drop/add.
I sucked up to him, playing the Marxist card all semester I got an A. The next year, I told him I was a YAF member, and a conservative who voted for Nixon. He got so mad, he trembled
I laughed.
I really hated this guy
LOL!
AP Literature is no cake walk.
All teachers are required to take Continuing Educ. Units in the summers be it AP or 1st grade teachers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.