Thanks to Martha Burtis, who just visited our STEMmED project here in San Juan, I learned that, in a masterpiece of nonsense, the Republican party of Texas issued he following interesting point in its 2012 platform: namely, the abolition of critical thinking –because it undermines parental authority.
This is how Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post reports it (Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really“):
“In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff department, here’s what the Republican Party of Texas wrote into its 2012 platform as part of the section on education:”
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
This is so Middle Ages, folks. Challenging student’s fixed beliefs? Really? Like for instance teaching Evolution?