Large swaths of American students may soon be deprived of a 19th-century science education because of Texas. Normally, in the 21st century it's a good thing to say, "I'm not getting a 19th-century science education."
But that's not so much the case when the education you're getting is an 18th-century one.
The state of Texas may soon adopt a new official science curriculum that forces teachers to cast doubt on evolution, as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. [We're a bit behind on this one (as we are on everything, due to a vacation last week), but this warrants a "better late than never" response.]
Why's that bad? Don't Texans already disdain science? They might, but the issue here is that textbook publishers can't afford to ignore as large a market as Texas'. So they'll have to include creationist babble to please the Texas school board head who thinks the Earth was created 10,000 years ago (yeah, like I said, this is 18th-century stuff) in their textbooks. And those textbooks will be standardized and sold nationally to keep costs in check.
Texas, you are going to fill the entire nation's children's heads with science-hating nonsense. Let's all join hands and get ready to jump back to an agricultural-subsistence economy. Thanks, er, "y'all."
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It goes further than this... we're gearing up for a panel next week to consider the role of teaching (about) religion in Texas Public Schools. The speaker is a Biblical Scholar who has done a great deal of work to uncover what is morally, ethically, and legally suspicious about religious education in public schools.
ReplyDeleteHere are some of their studies and publications about how deep and how weird some these positions are - http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=publications
I'll let you know how it turns out.
My research continues... http://www.creationevidence.org/
ReplyDeleteThis is something wacky.
Lisa, you absolutely have to make the trek to Petersburg, KY to visit the Creation Museum. It absolutely made my summer last year (along with your wedding, of course.) I've also been meaning to write something for the Cookie Monsters - perhaps when I enter the ranks of the unemployed in two weeks, I can dedicate more time to that.
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