Thursday, December 31, 2009
More Flak from Proposed Berkeley Science Ban
Education Chris Thompson — Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Berkeley's reputation as a nest of goofy PC nonsense is being revived around the country, thanks to the unbelievably stupid proposal to end science labs at the high school and redirect the funds toward remedial education. Now, the tabloid conservative press has gotten of the story, and it's red meat to their readers. Here's Gregory Kane of the Examiner chain: "What do you expect in Berkeley, people?" Here's Town Hall's LaShawn Barber on Berkeley's achievement gap: "A logical response might be to beef up science programs in government schools, but logic is hard to come by in skin-deep-only-diversity-obsessed bureaucracies." And of course, it's hit the talk radio circuit. We tend to think that Berkeley's reputation as a den of hippies is hopelessly out of date; the city's defined more by liberal white-collar professionals these days, and few things grate on us more than lazy writers reaching for an obsolete stereotype in lieu of looking at the city as it really is. But then Berkeley goes and does something like this. And presto, we're back to hearing jokes about Jerry Garcia and flower power. We're officially annoyed now.
Comments (4)
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Exactly. Those who are annoyed need to WAKE UP and stop this insanity. What is obvious here? Really. A is A. So Berkeley tears down the high achievers so those struggling get, what is it exactly they are getting??? The lazy conservative network doesn't have to work hard to mock this ridiculous view of education. On the other hand, dumb down future Berkeley white collar liberals and maybe we can keep them out of positions of power in the future.
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Of course much of this confusion might have been avoided had East Bay Express reporter Eric Klein done a better job on the story in the first place. The lab component of science has been moved to classes before and after school, rather than regular science class (science used to be double period classes, but that gummed up scheduling for other courses), and this isn't for white students, but for all students. If the extra labs are canceled, it won't be a racial thing but a budgetary thing. The Chronicle did a better job in its coverage.
I am also a Berkeley High parent, and there are several problems with this decision. It has been reported that the school Administration violated the CA Education Codes (what a surprise BHS does this a lot) and also did and end-around the Governance Committee. That is very troubling. Regarding the "extra" period comment above - when to school on the east coast and had to take my electives during "zero" period, or after school. I did not get to take more than 1 or 2 "elective" classes during my regular school time. At BHS they allow student (through the "small schools" program) to stack a lot of their normal class time with what would have been "elective" classes when I was in school. I believe that is what has made BHS have to offer Lab classes for those "zero" period and "7th" period time slots. All-in-all BHS keeps experimenting with too many schedule changes and special programs and now they have bumped up against a wall due to budget problems, etc.. BTW, don't forget to mention that several times a month BHS starts at 10am, what??? That's right, for those of us over 40 - did your school day ever start at 10am?
I'm a Berkeley High School parent and I am totally against this proposal. But let's get the facts straight: Science labs will NOT be eliminated by this proposal. Right now, science labs occur either before ("0" period) or after (7th period) the regular 6-period school day. So lab classes, unlike all other classes, meet 6 times per week. However, these classes used to have TWO lab periods per week, for a total of 7 class meetings until 2003. This proposal would end the EXTRA period, so that labs had to take place during one of the normal 5 class meetings. I don't know what is normal elsewhere, but that is how labs were handled when I was in high school. I was never on a bus at 6:30 am headed to Chem Lab once a week in 1975! And I don't know how many other kids are these days anyway. But, given Berkeley High's traditional commitment to science instruction, this reduction to an already decimated program seems like a really bad idea.
On the other hand, I suspect that a lot of the crowing and cat-calling in the media is from commentators who spend a lot of time arguing for Intelligent Design to be taught in science class, so we do not expect serious discussion from them.
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