Repugs Deny Gravity; Demand Schools Teach That Sun Revolves Around a Flat Earth
This isn't about education. This isn't even about freakazoids demanding their myths be taught instead of actual science.
This is about repugs not just in Kentucky but right up to the
Willard/Eddie presidential ticket throwing temper tantrums and demanding
the world bow to their insane infantile demands.
Linda Blackford at the Herald:
Kentucky's Senate Republicans pushed successfully in 2009 to tie the state's testing program to national education standards, but three years later, they're questioning the results.
SNIP
In an exchange with officials from ACT, the company that prepares Kentucky's new state testing program, those lawmakers discussed whether evolution was a fact and whether the biblical account of creationism also should be taught in Kentucky classrooms. "I would hope that creationism is presented as a theory in the classroom, in a science classroom, alongside evolution," Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, said Tuesday in an interview.SNIP"Republicans did want the end-of-course tests tied to national norms; now they're upset because when ACT surveyed biology professors across the nation, they said students have to have a thorough knowledge of evolution to do well in college biology courses," said Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, chairman of the House Education Committee.
SNIP
Another committee member, Rep. Ben Waide, R-Madisonville, said he had a problem with evolution being an important part of biology standards."The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science — Darwin made it up," Waide said. "My objection is they should ensure whatever scientific material is being put forth as a standard should at least stand up to scientific method. Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny."SNIP
State and federal courts have ruled that creationism is a belief, not science, and therefore should not be taught in science classrooms, but instead in comparative religion classes, Holliday said. "I think the key is we could debate the science of this forever, but we hope our kids understand the theories behind evolution," he said. "We think our kids need to be critical thinkers to be able to reason between the two."
SNIP
Helm, the coward, declined to comment because for years now Kentucky science teachers have been threatened with firing for even mentioning the word "evolution" in the classroom. Instead, they are forced to use the term "change over time," which is worse than meaningless.Vincent Cassone, chairman of the University of Kentucky biology department, served on the committee that developed the standards."The theory of evolution is the fundamental backbone of all biological research," he said. "There is more evidence for evolution than there is for the theory of gravity, than the idea that things are made up of atoms, or Einstein's theory of relativity. It is the finest scientific theory ever devised."David Helm, president of the Kentucky Science Teachers Association, declined to comment, other than the official statement of the national group, which says:"The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) strongly supports the position that evolution is a major unifying concept in science and should be included in the K-12 science education frameworks and curricula ... NSTA also recognizes that evolution has not been emphasized in science curricula in a manner commensurate to its importance because of official policies, intimidation of science teachers, the general public's misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, and a century of controversy. In addition, teachers are being pressured to introduce creationism, 'creation science,' and other nonscientific views, which are intended to weaken or eliminate the teaching of evolution."
I personally know of one former high-school biology teacher who took a demotion and re-assignment to a punitive classroom situation rather than compromise principle so egregiously.
Wonder why so many voters fall for obvious repug lies and vote against their self-interest? This is why: repugs are deliberately moronifying the public school system.
5 comments:
Don't move to a state with a heavily Evangelical population.
It's been like this since before Mencken's day.
Whole US states totally dominated by crackpot cultists who think Cain killed Abel from a saddle on a dinosaur.
Indiginous Americans:
"We also demand that creationism be taught.
How the Earth sits on the back of a giant turtle, and people were made out of mud, and how...
What?
In the what?
Bible?
6 days and then he rested?
6 DAYS?
That's absurd!!
And only a White God would need to rest.
How can God need to rest?
If he's ALL POWERFUL, how does he get tired?
Your creation myth is stupid!
And then when the mud people..."
Creation is in the eye of the religious zealot.
And you can always pull your peckerwood child out of PUBLIC school, which we all pay into, and send them to a PRIVATE school, at your own expense. It's the least you can do for your God, is spend some money, isn't it?
Oh, and you still pay school taxes - no application.
And at that PRIVATE school, I could give a shit what you want your little feckin' peckerwood morons taught.
Have at it.
Leave the rest of us the feck alone!!!
Victor,
The results of decades of schooling in so-called “Christian academies” all over the Evangelical South and heartland are there to see at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, tax exempt status and all.
And they are there to see in the Kentucky legislature where Republicans are looking for ways to force creationism into that state’s biology classes while removing the teaching of evolution.
And they are there to see in the potency of the right wing, clericalist counter-revolution all over the country, directed at undermining all the most valuable and key results of the sexual revolution.
But the horrific political consequences of decades of parentally sponsored and subsidized religious brainwashing are only one reason to care what these numbskull parents do to their kids.
Another is regard for the kids, themselves, of the same kind that makes us refuse to allow parents legal immunity for refusing medical care with fatal consequences under cover of the free exercise clause.
Free exercise cannot be a license for child abuse, no matter how much and how loud the angry, stupid protests from a cherished audience of Fox Nation.
America isn't ready for this, I know, but the truth is that religious indoctrination is, just exactly as Richard Dawkins and others say, also a devastating form of child abuse and contrary to the legal right to a decent and truthful education that I would prefer, and I think you would prefer, every child to have.
“Freedom from religion” is a slogan nearly all Americans find offensive and disgusting, I know.
But it is exactly what this ongoing culture war is all about.
Yup, they want the whole country to be as dumbfuck ignorant as they are. It's called leveling the playing field.
Very minor case in point: at my local Hastings in north Texas (Wichita Falls, to be precise) the other day, I was buying a used book, "The Third Reich In Power". The dust cover was a photo of a bunch of young uniformed German girls waving swastika pennants. The girl at the checkout looked to be in her mid-20's or so. She looked at the book with a puzzled expression, then said, "Third... Rich?" I bit my lip & just said, "Reich... it's a German word." She never showed a sign that she had a clue.
One of the things that happens when you have history classes, even "advanced placement" classes, usually being taught by coaches.
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