Alkahest my heroes have always died at the end

June 13, 2008

Louisiana, setting the standard in science education . . .

Filed under: Personal,Religion,Social — cec @ 8:58 am

It’s things like this that embarrass me when I tell someone I’m from Louisiana.  The Louisiana House has voted overwhelmingly to pass the Louisiana Science Education Act which allows science teachers to use supplemental materials when teaching controversial subjects.  For those who haven’t been there, in Louisiana, controversial subjects include: evolution, global warming, Keplerian astronomy and the round earth theory.  Okay, I made the last one up – at least 85% of Louisiana households do believe that the earth is round.

Supporters of the bill say that it will promote critical thinking in science classrooms.  Well, hey, who couldn’t be against critical thinking?  Well, since the bill is supported by creationist Discovery Institute, I guess me.  But at least I’m in good company:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the bill would promote teaching creationism in public schools and said some teachers might use supplemental materials produced by fundamentalist Christian organizations.

“It’s time for Louisiana to step into the 21st century and stop trying to teach religion in public schools,” Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the organization, said in a statement. “Laws like this are an embarrassment.”

In essence, the bill allows science teachers to inflict their own opinions and beliefs on to students instead of teaching actual science.

Maybe I’ll start claiming to be from a more respectable state, like Mississippi. :-/

2 Comments

  1. I’m from Kansas! Really!! They’re way more respectable in their evolutionary education curriculum.
    Yeah.

    I remember in my 9th grade Biology class we were told that we had to skip the chapter on Darwinian evolution, but we could be told by our teacher that there was some interesting stuff in that chapter. I’m pretty sure we talked about the Lamarkian evolutionary theory in class, though.

    Comment by bryn — June 13, 2008 @ 4:04 pm

  2. This came across my GPGC-Alumni email list:
    Hi folks –

    The link to this item from Google news is
    http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2008/LA/204_louisiana_creationism_
    bill_is__6_17_2008.asp. I get the list updates in digest form, so if
    someone has already posted this, forgive the duplication. -Cal

    —–Original Message—–

    We need your help. Please contact Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and
    ask him to veto the Creationism Bill passed by the Legislature this
    week, SB 733. Faxes may be best, but telephone calls, snail mail, and
    e-mail can also be effective.

    Folks who are out of state, we need your help too. Part of the message
    the Governor should hear is what a bad image of Louisiana this
    legislation will present to the rest of the country.

    Contact information to send your message to the Governor, and more
    information about SB 733 can be found here:
    http://lasciencecoalition.org/ . To see what others are saying, go to
    Google News and search –Louisiana evolution–.

    Time is very short. The bill could literally be signed at any moment.
    The Governor has until July 8, 2008 to sign or to veto. Unless he
    affirmatively vetoes by July 8, the bill will become law, with or
    without the Governor’s signature.

    Please forward this message to all recipients you think appropriate. As

    a courtesy, please put all e-mail addresses in the “bcc” field, to
    protect others from viruses and spam.

    Thank you for your help.

    John Runnels

    Comment by Bryn — June 19, 2008 @ 1:36 pm

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