Texas prepares for evolution vote with national implications

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/03/26/texas/index.html

Texas prepares for evolution vote with national implications


On Thursday and Friday, the Texas Board of Education will be holding one of the most important votes on evolution in recent years. The board is considering whether to adopt a new curriculum that will have teachers question aspects of the theory, suggesting that there are gaps in the fossil record, that life on Earth does not spring from a common ancestor and that cells are too complex to have evolved. That sort of thing is pretty common these days, but this vote could affect the rest of the South, if not the nation as a whole.

When it comes to textbooks, Texas public schools are the equivalent of McDonald's or WalMart. Because they're such a big customer, textbook publishers figure it's just easier to follow Texas standards, even for books sold elsewhere in the U.S. So this vote could mean textbooks that would be teaching Texas' anti-evolution curriculum to students outside of the state.

The new standards under consideration are of course not being presented as creationism, just as an attempt to make sure that students are taught everything about evolution, including so-called weaknesses in the theory. But the chairman of the school board, who's been pushing this, is a young-Earth creationist.

This isn't the first time Texas has talked about evolution and its textbooks; in 2003, our own Katharine Mieszkowski wrote about another attempt to attack evolution in the state's textbooks. Her article is here.

― Alex Koppelma

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Already happened. The young-Earth folks lost. Several posts here already.

[Orrex]

3. That's good news that I'd missed. Thanks!

[babylonsister]

4. Thanks, I missed that. I even did a search for 'evolution'

but nothing came up. Good news!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Here's a link to one on LBN. I didn't mean to be abrupt.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3801843

[babylonsister]

7. Thanks, and no problem. I didn't search lbn. nt

[Orrex]

2. I'd think that the York decision would have made this Texas case superfluous, but I guess not

Texas. Proudly leading the way into the past once again.

[damntexdem]

6. No, this involves the latest twist to avoid court decisions.

'Teach the strengths and weaknesses of evolution.' It isn't a new slogan -- in fact, today's vote was about retiring a year's-old requirement to that effect. But it's all the Creo nutcase right seemingly has left, except where they're simply urging that Dover and earlier decisions simply be ignored.

[Orrex]

8. Whoops--I mixed up Dover and York

Thanks for the correction!

[callous taoboy]

11. Not all of us, man. I teach science here and I donated every cent I could afford

to defeat this embarrasing piece of shit.

[Orrex]

12. Then you totally rock!

Sorry for painting with a too-broad brush--I certainly didn't mean to disparage those on the front lines!

:yourock:

[callous taoboy]

14. Thanks, and no prob.

[Zodiak]

9. This is also good to know

I can re-start applying as a biology teacher in Texas. There is no way I am returning if I have to teach anything but science in the classroom.

And you know what? The so-called "weaknesses" of evolutionary theory are already taught by responsible teachers who are knowledgeable in the subject. The problem to these nutcases is that the flaws in our understanding to not coincide with their REAL agenda, pushing religion.

I would be glad to debate with young-earth creationists about the difficulty in classifying spiders because of rapid adaptive radiation, or the fact that so many phylogenetic trees within whole classes are still not monophyletic. But of course, that requires one to be familiar with the scientific method and the intricacies of applying evolutionary theory to real-world observations.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Fuck these people.

Kick and rec for more attention.

[Juche]

13. I'd support it if they also taught everything about christianity, including so-called weaknesses

in that theory too. Just merge those 2 subjects into the same class.

For example, teach about the similiarities between Jesus and Horus (a fictional messiah who came 1000 years before him), teach about how Jesus was a solar metaphor for the winter solstice, teach how Jesus was never mentioned by any of the historians who were walking around in the area when he lived, etc.


I'd love to see their reaction to that, getting a taste of their own medicine.