Toto, I don't think we're in the 21st Century any more...
We must be in the 19th!
The Schizophrenic State of Kansas, where moderates in the legislature were successful in defeating an anti-gay-marriage amendment to the state constitution*, is also inflicted with a State Board of Education that seems to be confused about when they live, if not where.
Conservatives on the 10-member board want to change the state's standards to emphasize learning about Kansas and the United States. Opposed is a bloc of three moderate Republicans and two Democrats who contend that students need an understanding of the world as a whole.
The world is “completely interconnected and getting more so every day,” argued Sue Gamble of Shawnee, a moderate Republican. “I think it is perfectly reasonable in the 21st century to say that on a piece of paper.”
Conservative Republican Steve Abrams of Arkansas City said he was not suggesting that classes exclude the study of other countries. However, he said, because there are only so many hours in a school day, “you have to emphasize something … We are not citizens of the interdependent world; we are citizens of the United States and citizens of Kansas.”
[source: KC Star, July 9, 2004. Registration may be required to read full content Here's the good news: The standards the committee is drafting refer to the overall goals students should meet. The standards are then broken down into benchmarks that identify more precisely what students should learn and will be tested on. Because Abrams did not propose any changes in the indicators or benchmarks, the material that students study would not change, even if the standards are changed. This is essentially the same bunch who temporarily excised evolution and modern cosmology from the official list of what young Kansans should know. What will they stop thinking of next? ----------------------------------------- * - Missourians are not so lucky: an amendment referendum will be on the ballot for the statewide primary election, August 3