No Outside Materials Allowed For AP History Class

[Kathianne]

Perhaps kids with higher IQ's should be forced to take stupid pills or something to give a fair advantage to less gifted?


Related a bit to another thread (http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?29590-Skip-Kids-School-Conference-and-go-to-jail-for-3-days&p=446704#post446704), but this is on an AP course, with requirements I've never heard from, indeed it's the antithesis of how AP teachers are taught to teach:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/history-students-virginia-prohibited-research-texbook/story?id=11918284&page=2


Students in one Virginia history course will have to
take what they learn in the classroom at face value, as
their teachers forbid the use of any outside
resources, including conversations with their
parents. A form titled "Expectations of Integrity" that
went home to all parents of students in Westfield High
School's AP World History course threatens
disciplinary action and a failing grade for students
who go beyond class handouts, their own notes or
their textbook for information for their assignments,
unless a teacher specifically directs them to do so.
"You may not use/access/refer to/peruse/skim/look a
t ANY Internet sites or Wikipedia or Encyclopedia
Brittanica Online or any other reference site available
online, including the Westfield High School databases
to help you answer questions," the form read...

...Principal Tim Thomas could not be reached for comment, but he told the Washington Post that he was reviewing the "Expectations of Integrity" and would decide whether the policy would stand.

He told the Post that the new rules guaranteed fairness among students and wouldn't give a student with more resources an advantage over the student who was limited to what was available in class...

[SassyLady]

Perhaps kids with higher IQ's should be forced to take stupid pills or something to give a fair advantage to less gifted?


Related a bit to another thread (http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?29590-Skip-Kids-School-Conference-and-go-to-jail-for-3-days&p=446704#post446704), but this is on an AP course, with requirements I've never heard from, indeed it's the antithesis of how AP teachers are taught to teach:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/history-students-virginia-prohibited-research-texbook/story?id=11918284&page=2

How absolutely assinine!!! Talk about dumbing down and indoctrination. They can only learn from materials directed/approved by the school. Well, color me stupid, but what if they already knew more than the other kids to begin with....because they have the resources available.

This is infuriating!

[SassyLady]

Pretty soon they'll be giving labotomies to the kids that have more brain power ..... so that poor little slow Johnny doesn't feel "less than".

No wonder America is losing ground to other nations....we are purposefully creating underachievers.

[Kathianne]

How absolutely assinine!!! Talk about dumbing down and indoctrination. They can only learn from materials directed/approved by the school. Well, color me stupid, but what if they already knew more than the other kids to begin with....because they have the resources available.

This is infuriating!

It certainly is infuriating, as well as condescending to all students in class, including any that might 'have less resources available.' A kid that is motivated enough to take an AP course, is motivated enough to get his butt to a library, with all the encyclopedias, online resources, and reference books they could want.

[Mr. P]

I see the NEA protecting incompetent teachers written ALL over this. What other purpose can there be to hold back student achievement? It is a Government school.

[Noir]

So there answer to 'some kids have better resources than others' is tell the better resourced kids to stop using them, rather than giving the lesser resourced ones access to such information =/

[Little-Acorn]

"You may not use/access/refer to/peruse/skim/look a
t ANY Internet sites or Wikipedia or Encyclopedia
Brittanica Online or any other reference site available
online, including the Westfield High School databases
to help you answer questions," the form read...



Is the paper version of Encyclopedia Britannica out too?

If a kid reads a copy of the Constitution, does he get an F?

If, God forbid, he comes home from school and walks through the living room while his Dad is watching Fox News, does he flunk?

And most contaminating of all: If he goes to church on Sunday and the priest gives a sermon where he quotes from the Bible, perhaps the kid should be thrown completely out of the course.

Sounds like a plan, eh?

May I offer a way to avoid all those pernicious outside influences? Just burn all the books that aren't specifically approved by the teacher of this AP History class. It's been tried before, after all.

Problem solved. No, no, don't thank me, happy to help out.

[Kathianne]

I see the NEA protecting incompetent teachers written ALL over this. What other purpose can there be to hold back student achievement? It is a Government school.

Actually, seems to be the principal's great idea. I haven't seen anything about the teacher's reaction, though obviously (s)he had to send the notes home to be signed.

[Kathianne]

So there answer to 'some kids have better resources than others' is tell the better resourced kids to stop using them, rather than giving the lesser resourced ones access to such information =/

His response, (the principal's) was that all the kids get an hour of time in the library. Seems he thinks it unfair that some may be doing more at home, ya know, homework? Perhaps, maybe because they signed up for AP, they are interested? Could that be, that they want to know more than what is given in class and text?

[Kathianne]

Is the paper version of Encyclopedia Britannica out too?

If a kid reads a copy of the Constitution, does he get an F?

If, God forbid, he comes home from school and walks through the living room while his Dad is watching Fox News, does he flunk?

And most contaminating of all: If he goes to church on Sunday and the priest gives a sermon where he quotes from the Bible, perhaps the kid should be thrown completely out of the course.

Sounds like a plan, eh?

May I offer a way to avoid all those pernicious outside influences? Just burn all the books that aren't specifically approved by the teacher of this AP History class. It's been tried before, after all.

Problem solved. No, no, don't thank me, happy to help out.

Once again, it's not the teacher. Seems to me this was ignorant enough without added hyperbole. Just me.

[Mr. P]

Actually, seems to be the principal's great idea. I haven't seen anything about the teacher's reaction, though obviously (s)he had to send the notes home to be signed.
How about this part??

The research regulations, new this year, are a collaborative effort developed by all those who teach the AP World History course, the only college-level advanced placement course offered to sophomores at the Fairfax County, Va., school. It's on page 1.

[Kathianne]

How about this part??
It's on page 1.

Sorry, you're correct and I missed that,


...The research regulations, new this year, are a collaborative effort developed by all those who teach the AP World History course, the only college-level advanced placement course offered to sophomores at the Fairfax County, Va., school...

It's an insane policy.

AP, IB courses are college level and should be assumed to be taken by students that are motivated to go beyond the classroom.

[Little-Acorn]

Once again, it's not the teacher.
As if WHO enacted these silly regulation, makes the slightest difference.


Seems to me this was ignorant enough without added hyperbole. Just me.

As I said, I'm just offering a logical way to fulfill what the stated intention of the regulations was (forbidding students from "go[ing] beyond class handouts, their own notes or their textbook for information for their assignments..."). In fact, I added very little, just took the stated idea to its logical conclusion.

Or are you trying, Kathianne, to forbid us from going beyond the exact information provided in the OP? :poke:

[Kathianne]

As if WHO enacted these silly regulation, makes the slightest difference.



As I said, I'm just offering a logical way to fulfill what the stated intention of the regulations was (forbidding students from "go[ing] beyond class handouts, their own notes or their textbook for information for their assignments..."). In fact, I added very little, just took the stated idea to its logical conclusion.

Or are you trying, Kathianne, to forbid us from going beyond the exact information provided in the OP? :poke:

No Little AC, go ahead and rant all you like. Personally I like the idea of trying to be reasonable while coherent. In this case, if you read a bit, you'll find Mr. P corrected my take. I agreed. That's reasonable.

[Little-Acorn]

No Little AC, go ahead and rant all you like. Personally I like the idea of trying to be reasonable while coherent. In this case, if you read a bit, you'll find Mr. P corrected my take. I agreed. That's reasonable.

Kathianne, the only way we can maintain perfect reasonableness and coherency, is to never quote these leftists or examine their viewpoints at all. I choose not to duck that responsibility, but rather to point out exactly where it can lead. If that sounds like "ranting" to you, I suggest you listen to the language of people like Alan Grayson, Barney Frank, Jeremiah Wright, or any of a host of such infuential persons in our own society. Then you'll hear ranting.

Your own OP described a school group that was trying to forbid students from accessing any information they hadn't approved of. I pointed out that that group was far from the first to try that. Earlier groups, including certain ones in the 1930s, tried to do EXACTLY the same thing. They just used different tactics.

That's not a rant. It's just a fact. The fact that it's a very uncomfortable comparison, doesn't make it an inaccurate one.

[Kathianne]

Kathianne, the only way we can maintain perfect reasonableness and coherency, is to never quote these leftists or examine their viewpoints at all. I choose not to duck that responsibility, but rather to point out exactly where it can lead. If that sounds like "ranting" to you, I suggest you listen to the language of people like Alan Grayson, Barney Frank, Jeremiah Wright, or any of a host of such infuential persons in our own society. Then you'll hear ranting.

Your own OP described a school group that was trying to forbid students from accessing any information they hadn't approved of. I pointed out that that group was far from the first to try that. Earlier groups, including certain ones in the 1930s, tried to do EXACTLY the same thing. They just used different tactics.

That's not a rant. It's just a fact. The fact that it's a very uncomfortable comparison, doesn't make it an inaccurate one.

and I see partisan posts and articles from both sides. I grant that the left has a larger voice, but that doesn't discount bias from the right.

I'm for better government, not right ruled. Now that doesn't preclude that my 'hope' is misplaced, indeed as time marches on, I'm not certain we aren't heading for revolution of one sort or another. But, before I enjoin, I want to deplete all possible remedies.

[avatar4321]

This isn't about resources for everyone. This is about brainwashing children by telling them to regurgitate what they are told rather than explaining to them how to learn for themselves.

[Little-Acorn]

This isn't about resources for everyone. This is about brainwashing children by telling them to regurgitate what they are told rather than explaining to them how to learn for themselves.

And, more importantly, about keeping certain viewpoints away from them, so they believe only what you want them to believe.

This is called indocrination. It's the opposite of education.

[namvet]

little wonder parents are pulling they're kids out of public schools

[Kathianne]

And, more importantly, about keeping certain viewpoints away from them, so they believe only what you want them to believe.

This is called indocrination. It's the opposite of education.

I agree with your premise, the weird thing is, that most folks that think this way, don't know enough to indoctrinate anyone. Remember, Hitler was a loon, but a charismatic loon!

[SpidermanTUba]

Perhaps kids with higher IQ's should be forced to take stupid pills or something to give a fair advantage to less gifted?


Related a bit to another thread (http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?29590-Skip-Kids-School-Conference-and-go-to-jail-for-3-days&p=446704#post446704), but this is on an AP course, with requirements I've never heard from, indeed it's the antithesis of how AP teachers are taught to teach:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/history-students-virginia-prohibited-research-texbook/story?id=11918284&page=2



The teacher is trying to teach to the test. That's the point of AP classes.


Not always the best way. When I was in H.S., I took American History honors and got a 5 on the Ap exam. The average Ap score for the honors class was higher than the ap score for the ap class.

[Kathianne]

The teacher is trying to teach to the test. That's the point of AP classes.


Not always the best way. When I was in H.S., I took American History honors and got a 5 on the Ap exam. The average Ap score for the honors class was higher than the ap score for the ap class.

I'd say that's your school. Certainly not the norm.

[avatar4321]

little wonder parents are pulling they're kids out of public schools

I know. I really want to be able to home school my children. I hope it's an option.