Louisiana wants to Warn you about Evolution

I first noticed this yesterday as a post by the NCSE on Facebook and then saw today's post over at Louisiana Coalition for Science. The second post give a pretty good summary of the whole history of the attempts to teach creationism in Louisiana. Pretty much this story boils down to there are forces within the Louisiana state education board to put warning stickers on the textbooks teaching about evolution in that it isn't completely true. This isn't the way science works as I have said many times before science is supported by evidence that has been found and experimented on over multiple trials, just because you don't believe it doesn't make it not true. You don't want to learn the science that is fine you just need to find the evidence that supports your claim. Anyway read the second post up above to find out more.

Prior posts on the problems of science in Louisiana
The state wants to cut the Louisiana Geological Survey
Creationism Lives on in US Public Schools
An attempt to get Creationism in one Parish's schools
Warning about Creationist materials being handed out in schools

The Texas Governor Candidates stance on Evolution

The San Angelo Standard Times has an article out that discusses the two governor candidates views on education, I recommend that everyone voting in the next governor's election should read it. Most of what they say is pretty standard stuff that governor candidates will say during an election year about education. You know stuff like, "Public education will remain a priority." The distinction comes when both candidates were asked about their views on evolution. As PZ pointed out Governor Perry says this:

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.

Governor ID and creationism aren't allowed to be taught in science class in the USA due to violation of the 1st amendment's separation of church and state. Don't believe me see Kitzmiller v Dover.

Bill White, the Democratic nominee, is less straight forward with his answer:

Educators and local school officials, not the governor, should determine science curriculum.

While I don't disagree with his stance in saying the governor should stay out, that is after all not in their job description, but the question didn't ask for what he thinks about evolution. I know he is a rational person and in the state of Texas saying the wrong thing about evolution can be the difference between getting elected and not so I am sure he said the right thing politically but I would like to see someone in politics in this state say what they really think about evolution.

Wait someone has, and they are running for school board no less. Rebecca Bell-Metereau has actual experience teaching as well. You can vote for her to get some money from the Democrats here.

Creationism on hold, for now

A little over a week ago I wrote a post about Livingston Parish School Board talking about trying to teach creationism in their science classrooms. I ended that post with this:

There is some good that I can see with the school board finally deciding to teach creationism. This will give the ACLU a chance to sue over this bill and to finally get it struck down and prevent other schools from going through the same thing. Lets just hope that is what happens.

Well it turns out that the school board decided not to teach creationism this upcoming year, although they put a group together to study if it is feasible. Why? Well an article published by the Baton Rouge Advocate says this:

A decision to teach creationism could become expensive for the parish school system, said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“If they were to do it, they could anticipate that any litigation would result in them not only losing, but having to pay enormous legal fees,” she said. “They would be wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money on a battle they can’t win.”

Livingston Parish School Board President Keith Martin, who acknowledges that the parish school system faces major financial challenges, said the cost of litigation does have to be taken into consideration.

“A lawsuit is something you always have to factor in because of finances of the board,” Martin said.

While this is not the way I would have preferred to have seen this happen I am glad that at least for the next year they will not be teaching creationism in Livingston Parish.

There is one problem, however. They have not completely taken the idea of teaching creationism off of the table for the 2011-2012 school year. As I said earlier they have formed a committee to look at the possible options. The lawyer for the school board does seem to think that teaching creationism is illegal.

Tom Jones, the School Board’s attorney, said a board member brought the issue up when evolution was mentioned as being part of the state’s 2008 Science Education Act.

Jones said his previous research indicated that under the U.S. Constitution public schools can’t teach religion or the religious theory of creationism.

“Without a doubt it’s a constitutional issue,” and state law does not supersede the U.S. Constitution, he said.

Mr. David Tate the person who first brought up the issue of teaching creationism doesn't seem to get it though:

Tate said teaching evolution as a theory is fine, but there are other ideas.

“Creationism is another thought of how things came into being,” he said. “Give every theory due time” in the classroom.

To the citizens of Livingston Parish Mr. Tate is not helping your cause. He is holding you back do not support him in upcoming elections (I don't know when he will be up for reelection sorry) and listen to the experts, if for no other reason than you risk hurting the financial situation of your schools.

And it begins

So I have covered the controversy about the Louisiana State Board of Education allowing the teaching of creationism in the science classrooms (here, here, and video here). This morning I came across this article. The article discusses the fact that the school board in Livingston Parish, LA is considering teaching creationism in science class.

Having lived in Louisiana I am personally surprised that it took 2 years for some school board to decide to take up teaching creationism. There are also plenty of areas that I figured would have tried to teach it before Livingston Parish. But what really got to me was this:

Board Member David Tate quickly responded: “We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?”

Fellow board member Clint Mitchell responded, “I agree … you don’t have to be afraid to point out some of the fallacies with the theory of evolution. Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom.”

No this isn't the way that classroom policy should be determined just because all of you believe that creationism is correct doesn't mean that it is correct. The way that they are handling this is no better than the way Texas handled the social studies curriculum earlier this year (here, here, and here). While I am perfectly fine with teaching the "fallacies" with evolution filling in these gaps with creationism is not the way science works, just because we don't know the answer right now doesn't mean that we won't in the near future.

There is some good that I can see with the school board finally deciding to teach creationism. This will give the ACLU a chance to sue over this bill and to finally get it struck down and prevent other schools from going through the same thing. Lets just hope that is what happens.

Do you even know what you are talking about

I want to preface this post by saying I am slightly inebriated after that tough loss by VT in the quarterfinals of the NIT earlier tonight, I have a feeling I might regret this in the morning. Since I came across this earlier today I figured I would post on it.

Today's article comes from the Florida State University paper and is entitled Texas steers 'right'. Now the joke of the headline is the first line of the actual article but it also seems to be that the author is saying that Texas was right in the way in which they changed the history books recently.

Of course, denial of America as an exceptional country is a hallmark of modern liberalism. The left feels guilty that, despite its imperfections, the United States stands light-years above other nations in terms of freedom and opportunity for self-advancement. They degrade our Founding Fathers as little more than land-owning slave masters, while saying little, if anything, about the slavery that still exists in parts of Africa and the Middle East

I don't know of any liberals that do not view the US as an exceptional country they just view the US as a country that has flaws like every country that ever has or ever will. The US absolutely stands above other countries in terms of freedom but we do not stand up there as perfect, gays and lesbians do not have the same rights as most people among other flaws that we must all overcome.

Our Founding Fathers were clearly noble men but they were just men. They were flawed and lived in their time as we live in ours. People will look back on us now and will realize that we are not perfect. This is important to point out in history class, US history in particular, because it instills in all of us that we can be great people. By knowing they owned slaves and that they were not perfect we can see their flaws and learn from them so we don't make the same. You know why slavery in parts of Africa and the Middle East is not mentioned in the same class as the fact that our founding fathers owned slaves? Because that is world current events this class on the founding fathers would be U.S. History.

He goes on to say that the books not saying that Reagan was the only one who ended the cold war is wrong. I will admit that Reagan helped but it was much more complicated than that. He ends with this:

American students’ performance in math and science has plummeted relative to other countries over the years, probably in part due to other countries’ teachers not being fixated on leftist indoctrination strategies and actually doing their jobs.

This decision in Texas is cause for an optimistic appraisal of the state of affairs in American education. In a time in which the left is making one shamble after another in Washington, and people are becoming ever more discontented with them, it seems a les-than-prudent [sic] time for aging hippies to continue using the public schools as a venue to spew their long-discredited baloney.

Math and science performance has plummeted because we are afraid of offending someone. Evolution is a theory yes but in science that means it has been 99% proven but we don't talk about it to the extent that it deserves, and I could go on. The fact is that I came out of high school an ultra conservative so no our public education system is not "fixated on leftist indoctrination[...]".

The decision in Texas is a cause for sorrow. Thomas Jefferson and many other important Americans have been stricken from Texas history books, see my post for yesterday (here). Have you ever thought Mr. Berkowitz that maybe what you were being taught in high school about our history being flawed was true. Remember if we assume that we are always right and that everything that is going wrong is someone elses fault we end up in a position we don't want to be in.

Stop Politicising our class rooms

AronRa makes some great videos on YouTube and I highly recommend him for any of your evolution needs (if you will). He has also been a strong advocate against the current Texas Board of Education and their politicising of every topic (see here). Well he recently came out with a new video and since I was busy last week only just got to see it today. It is really well done and pretty much points out how much the current board is a failure:



Sign the petition (here)! and remind me not to ever let any kids I might eventually have go to school in Texas.