Patt Morrison for Thursday, May 12, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 12, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:39

OPEN

 

 

1:41:30 – 1:58:30

Secularism as a major? Pitzer College believes in it

The religion-in-schools debate is back, except this time it’s about secularism in schools—at Pitzer College, to be specific. This small liberal arts college in Claremont, CA has announced that it will soon become the first college to offer secularism as its own major. The major will be made up of professors from the history, philosophy, religion, science, and sociology departments, who will teach courses such as “God, Darwin, and Design in America,” “Anxiety in the Age of Reason,” and “Bible as Literature.” The founder of the major, professor Phil Zuckerman, says that the major is not about debating if God exists. Rather, he says, it’s about studying the fact that 660,000 Americans join the ranks of those claiming no religion each year and asking who these people are, what they believe in, and why they are nonreligious. Zuckerman argues that this “huge wave of secularism” is not being studied and needs to be. Does secularism need to be studied separate from religious studies? If Christianity, Judaism, and Islam do not have their own majors, should secularism? Is not believing in something a belief?

 

Guests:

Phil Zuckerman, PhD, professor of Sociology, Pitzer College

CALL HIM:

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

Teacher tenure targeted:  legislature goes after maligned & sacred seniority

The bill put before the California Senate Education Committee on Wednesday morning, amidst the din of protesters and TV cameras, would have allowed school districts to base layoffs on teacher performance rather than teacher seniority.  The bill, if it had passed, would have effectively ended the decades-old practice of teacher tenure and shifted the profession toward a more performance-based model.  Alas SB 355 was killed in committee late Wednesday afternoon in the face of fierce protests organized by teachers unions looking to save their sacred principle of tenure, the same principle that is so maligned by education reformers.  Tenure allows the protection of the state’s most senior teachers under numerous scenarios, most importantly when teachers are facing layoffs.  Reformers want layoffs or any firings to be based on performance rather than seniority.  Although the bill is dead it’s probably just the first shot in a long battle on education reform—should teacher tenure stay or go?

 

Guests:

UNCONFIRMED

State Sen. Bob Huff, R-29^th District (Diamond Bar); Chairman of the Republican Caucus

 

David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association

HE CALLS US:

 

 

 

2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler’s Germany

Hitler and The Third Reich are both seldom seen as being topics to laugh at. That is unless you’re Rudolph Herzog: in which case you’ve already written a book about how funny both are! Additionally, if you were Rudolph Herzog, you’d know about the hippest comedy scenes in Germany, the whispered jokes, the smoky anti-Nazi cabarets and everything in between – all during the 1930s, of course. These all might get a German at that time killed for laughing. For those of you who are not Rudolph Herzog, you may listen to the show wherein he discusses his new book Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler’s Germany. We promise the Gestapo will not be coming after you if you laugh during this interview.

 

Guest:

Rudolph Herzog, director of the documentary “Third Reich” and author of Humor in Hitler’s Germany

IN STUDIO

 

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org