New Hampshire's New Scopes Trial

[rug]

Saturday 7 January 2012
by: Staff, Diatribe Media | Report

New Hampshire took an early lead this year in the effort to dumb down school students and erode the separation of church and state in the education system by introducing two anti-evolution bills to its state legislature (h/t Mother Jones). The two laws are the first of their kind in the state since the late 90’s. According to the National Center for Science Education, House Bill 1149 would:

“[r]equire evolution to be taught in the public schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists’ political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism.”

House Bill 1457 would:

“[r]equire science teachers to instruct pupils that proper scientific inquire [sic] results from not committing to any one theory or hypothesis, no matter how firmly it appears to be established, and that scientific and technological innovations based on new evidence can challenge accepted scientific theories or modes.”

State Representative Jerry Bergevin, who introduced HB 1149, believes such legislation is necessary because he thinks evolution is tied to Nazis, communists, and the shooters in the 1999 Columbine massacre. According to Bergevin, the political and ideological views of Darwin and other believers and evolutionary scientists, along with their positions on atheism, must be taught to students as well. The New Hampshire Republican told the Concord Monitor:

“I want the full portrait of evolution and the people who came up with the ideas to be presented. It’s a worldview and it’s godless. Atheism has been tried in various societies, and they’ve been pretty criminal domestically and internationally. The Soviet Union, Cuba, the Nazis, China today: they don’t respect human rights.”

http://www.truth-out.org/new-hampshires-new-scopes-trial/1325956418

[Angry Dragon]

1. Bergevin must be trying out for the state idiot

I do believe he is ahead on points right now
as long as you don't count the republican presidential candidates
flocking in

[struggle4progress]

2. It's HB1148 not HB1149

Here's a link to the text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2012/HB1148.html

I think it's been sent to the House Education Committee. The docket currently shows a public hearing scheduled 2/14/2012 at 11:00 AM in LOB 207

The bill would amend

CHAPTER 186
THE STATE SCHOOL ORGANIZATION
State Board of Education
Section 186:11
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XV/186/186-11.htm

by inserting after paragraph XXXVI the following new paragraph:

XXXVII. Theory of Evolution. Require evolution to be taught in the public schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists’ political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism.

[MarkCharles]

3. One has to realize that people in NH get elected by...

as few as a hundred and fifty votes to the House of Representatives.

Small towns abound in NH. There are several where one or two churches sprung up in the last 15 years, and where people moved to NH just to be somewhere else than where they were before.

The Democratic Governor of NH will never sign a bill like this, even if it got through two houses of the state legislature.

No, those people of NH are smarter than this. THIS guy will NOT be re-elected. This bill will never get out of committee in NH. But in Texas, or OK, or Kansas, I'm not so sure.

Apologies to the people of TX, OK, and KS, but in NH, where I lived for over 5 years, I'm sure people there won't let such a silly bill get to the floor of the House.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And HB 452, already passed by both houses: schools must design curricula for any objecting parent

The state House voted 255-112 and Senate 17-5 to enact H.B. 542, which will allow parents to request an alternative school curriculum for any subject to which they register an objection. Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed the measure in July, saying the bill would harm education quality and give parents control over lesson plans.

"For example, under this bill, parents could object to a teacher's plan to: teach the history of France or the history of the civil or women's rights movements," Lynch wrote in his veto message. "Under this bill, a parent could find 'objectionable' how a teacher instructs on the basics of algebra. In each of those cases, the school district would have to develop an alternative educational plan for the student. Even though the law requires the parents to pay the cost of alternative, the school district will still have to bear the burden of helping develop and approve the alternative. Classrooms will be disrupted by students coming and going, and lacking shared knowledge."

Under the terms of the bill, which was sponsored by state Rep. J.R. Hoell (R-Dunbarton), a parent could object to any curriculum or course material in the classroom. The parent and school district would then determine a new curriculum or texts for the child to meet any state educational requirements for the subject matter. The parent would be responsible for paying the cost of developing the new curriculum. The bill also allows for the parent's name and reason for objection to be sealed by the state.

Hoell stressed the new law could allow parents to address both moral and academic objections to parts of the curriculum. The lawmaker said he could imagine the provision being utilized by parents who disagree with the "whole language" approach to reading education or the Everyday Math program.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/new-hampshire-legislature-curriculum-objection-law_n_1184476.html?ref=mostpopular

It applies to anything in schools, but you know where it will be used the most - religious objections to the teaching of evolution, and to sex education. Even if the schools manage to get the true cost to be taken by the objecting parents (how do you put a price on the disruption to the normal education?), I bet some fundamentalist money-bucket would pay on behalf of the parents - and then they get to crow "creationism is taught in our schools - it must be valid".

[MarkCharles]

5. Yes, this is a disgusting piece of legislation!

I think it will be burried within some other RSA's (state regulations) so that it will not disrupt classes nor schools that much.

In NH, I lived in a town with a public K-6 school, and all older students were bused elsewhere for JHS and High or technical high school, 16-30 miles away.

The K-6 school had 3 teachers for K-1 2 for 2-3, 2-for 4-5 and, 2 for 6th grade. Kids in grade 6 did some televised closed circuit TV courses with another school in the next town, and got out for apple harvest week, to help the local orchards. Some kids got up at 5 AM to milk cows, (yes, they were managing milking machines) for 3 months of the year at sunrise, then came to school for 5.5 hours before going home to milk cows again. Most of these kids didn't have a computer in the home, nor could they walk to the library before 7 PM when it closed.

Rural America, for sure, and lots of religious families.

I didn't teach or have anything to do with the school system then, but I knew that these kids were getting a second rate education, with some of the lowest paid teachers in the nation. NH is proud of low taxes, no sales or income taxes. This is the America of Republican dreams.