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Christopher Alexander: Finding patterns, and God, in urban design
From the BatesLine Bookshelf, a very occasional feature on authors and books that have influenced me: Christopher Alexander was an architect, but he might more appropriately have been called a philosopher of the built environment. He spent his career trying to describe and name the qualities that make a place...
Gist gone
Happy news late this afternoon that Deborah Gist has resigned as superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools. Gist resigns as the state's largest school district faces a hearing on Thursday at the State Board of Education on the loss of its accreditation. The threat to pull accreditation stems from poor academic...
Do all cultures share the same values?
A recent tweet from Jeremy Tate, founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test (CLT): Classical education is fundamental an educational [sic] it what it means to be fully human. It is not a politically conservative alternative to the already politically hijacked mainstream education. Instead, it is an education in...
2022 Tulsa School Board general election: BatesLine ballot card
Published April 3, 2022, postdated to remain at the top of the page until the polls close on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Tuesday, April 5, 2022, is general election day for K-12 school board seats in Oklahoma. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Seats on technology...
Coronavirus cluster at Arkansas church shows asymptomatic spread
A large cluster of Chinese Communist Party Bat Virus cases has emerged in rural Arkansas, apparently the result of asymptomatic spread at a March 6-8 church event, may trace back to the headquarters of Assemblies of God World Missions, based in Springfield, Missouri.
Tulsa School Board Office 5: Scott Pendleton questionnaire response
Scott Pendleton, candidate for Tulsa Public Schools Office 5, responds to the BatesLine questionnaire.
Tulsa School Board Office 6: Jerry Griffin questionnaire responses
Dr. Jerry Griffin, candidate for Tulsa Public Schools Office 6, responds to the BatesLine questionnaire.
Oklahoma Supreme Court 2018: Yes to Wyrick, no to the rest
Conservative political consultant Holly Gerard explains why she'll vote to retain State Supreme Court justice Patrick Wyrick: Patrick Wyrick is my pick to retain - he has been flat-out fantastic. He argued successfully before the Supreme Court in support of the Repeal of Common Core when State School Board Members...
Tulsa City Council District 4: No endorsement
"I shall show my contempt by going down to the polling booth, taking my form, crossing both their names out and writing 'GET KNOTTED' in." -- Tony Hancock, Hancock's Half Hour, "The Election Candidate" I share The Lad's sentiments about many of the races on the August 28, 2018, runoff...
Donald Chasteen for Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner
Incumbent Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak has hit his term limit. I will be voting for Donald Chasteen to replace him. Donald Chasteen is a Shelter Insurance agent based in Inola. He served as a Tulsa firefighter from 1988 to 2002. In 2006, he founded the Inola Wrecker Service, providing...
John Wright for Tulsa County Assessor
To shake my political writer's block, I'm starting my 2018 Oklahoma primary coverage with those candidates whom I wholeheartedly support. First on the list is John Wright. No one is better prepared than John Wright, in both temperament and professional experience, to serve as our County Assessor.
NSU Women's Studies is an evangelistic enterprise, not an academic discipline
Here is a press release from a month ago about the Center for Women's Studies at Northeastern State University. NSU is funded by the taxpayers of Oklahoma (with additional subsidies from people who shop in Broken Arrow) and governed by the board of regents of the Regional University System of...
2016 Oklahoma Republican runoff endorsements
Originally published on 2016/08/20. Post-dated to remain at the top of the blog through the primary. These are all open seats in Tulsa County that drew large candidate fields in the primary, and no one candidate received a majority of the vote. Click the links for more detailed information....
Hack-proof your mind
Is the current generation of Americans especially susceptible to propaganda and emotional manipulation? Early this past summer, Stella Morabito wrote a column for The Federalist called How to Escape the Age of Mass Delusion. Morabito pondered the startling turnaround in societal norms on sexual identity issues, the backlash against modest...
OKWU's Piper: Personhood is more than proclivities
As many conservatives attempted to explain to their libertarian-leaning friends, the push for "gay marriage" was never about liberty; it's about coercion -- forcing Americans, under penalty of law, to treat same-sex pseudogamy as the equivalent of natural marriage. Five black-robed tyrants have imposed their religious views of human sexuality...
Election day 2014 in Florida -- and the aftermath
It was a good day, a better day that anyone expected, a real wave election. The reaction of my local liberal friends on Facebook reveal their contempt for the state where they live, their bigoted opinions of conservatives, and their disconnect from political reality. One wrote a very apt "chin-up"...
Roy Clark, Jana Jae, Tulsa Playboys to perform at Gilcrease Museum Helmerich Center opening weekend
This coming weekend, September 6 and 7, 2014, is the opening weekend of the Helmerich Center for American Research, a unit of the City of Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum. The new facility is adjacent to the museum on Gilcrease Museum Road. A weekend full of free events is planned, including Native...
Oklahoma Primary 2014: BatesLine ballot card
Here are the candidates I'm recommending and voting for (when I can) in the Oklahoma primary elections on June 24, 2014. (This entry will change as I decide to add more detail or discuss additional races between now and election day. The entry is post-dated to keep it at...
Fallin signs Common Core repeal
Good news from the State Capitol this afternoon: Governor Mary Fallin Signs HB 3399 to Repeal and Replace Common Core Standards New Standards will be developed in Oklahoma and Increase Academic Rigor OKLAHOMA CITY--Governor Mary Fallin today signed HB 3399, a bill that replaces the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)...
In praise of rote memorization and drilling, phonics and math facts
Ace has a lengthy piece taking down "cargo cult" educational practices like "Whole Word" and "number bonds" and praising rote memorization: "Common Core Is Pretty Dumb." So sure-- the accomplished 6-year-old readers are indeed mostly using whole word, at least for common words. Spoiler alert: That's because they already went...
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