New legal threat to school science in the US

[Indenturedebtor]

Source: New Scientist

...
The act is designed to slip ID in "through the back door", says Forrest, who is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and an expert in the history of creationism. She adds that the bill's language, which names evolution along with global warming, the origins of life and human cloning as worthy of "open and objective discussion", is an attempt to misrepresent evolution as scientifically controversial.

Forrest's testimony notwithstanding, the bill was passed by the state's legislature - by a majority of 94 to 3 in the House and by unanimous vote in the Senate. On 28 June, Louisiana's Republican governor, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, signed the bill into law. The development has national implications, not least because Jindal is rumoured to be on Senator John McCain's shortlist as a potential running mate in his bid for the presidency....

...
The strategy being employed in Louisiana by proponents of ID - including the Seattle-based Discovery Institute - is more subtle and potentially more difficult to challenge. Instead of trying to prove that ID is science, they have sought to bestow on teachers the right to introduce non-scientific alternatives to evolution under the banner of "academic freedom".

"Academic freedom is a great thing," says Josh Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California. "But if you look at the American Association of University Professors' definition of academic freedom, it refers to the ability to do research and publish." This, he points out, is different to the job high-school teachers are supposed to do. "In high school, you're teaching mainstream science so students can go on to college or medical school, where you need that freedom to explore cutting-edge ideas. To apply 'academic freedom' to high school is a misuse of the term."


Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926643.300?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=top1_head_New%20legal%20threat%20to%20school%20science%20in%20the%20US

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Blargh. Do these morons ever give up?

[BOSSHOG]

1. Conservatives want the academic freedom to be stupid

and they want everybody else to be free to be stupid too!!

Piyush is nothing more then a typical conservative valued ugly republican snake in the grass, and he hasn't had a very good month or so with his handling of the legislature's attempt to give themselves a pay raise. It must really suck to change your name so white people will like you. I guess he's ashamed of his heritage.

[depakid]

2. "Do these morons ever give up? " Nope- and there's no appeasing them

Give fundamentalists and extremists an inch- and they'll want a yard. Give them a yard, and they'll want a mile.

Write them an opening, and they'll abuse it- both by spreading religious dogma AND costing their districts scarce money and resources that could be better spent .

[northernlights]

3. they can force feed them whatever crap

they want in h.s. When they get out into the real world, they'll learn reality or fail. Period.

The university where I'm studying med lab technology is in a blue state, ranging from moderate to total rightwingnutcases. The professors are used to their pathetic, local christian conservative indoctrinated students. They straighten them up very quickly.

[Indenturedebtor]

5. I went to a state school in Indiana. We had a few of those slip upwards into college through the

cracks in standardized testing. I don't think that any of them graduated. I studied Psych and took a lot of other science classes, and let me tell you that the Professors would begin nearly every single semester saying "In this class we assume that evolution is a fact" or "We assume that the universe was created through understandable and measurable processes" etc. It was almost as though they had a meeting and decided to pinpoint those morons from the beginning and get it all out of the way. And sure enough in nearly every class some person with eyes set too close together would start a ruckus. "Please stay after class so that we can discuss this." One prof even said "This isn't mythology class, if you want to swap stories we can talk about it in my office between 2 and 4 tomorrow. Please make an appointment with the TA" :rofl:

My personal favorite was an Astronomy class (which I hated because we spent half the semester learning about the history of Astronomy), when a girl tried to argue with the professor about Astrology. Bwahahahaha pwnage.

[litlady]

10. In one of my freshman science classes, a student complained...

she was truly upset that the teacher was discussing evolution and denying creation. Guess what the name of our course was? "Human Evolution"

I had a student myself that was upset that a film I showed did not agree with their young earth creationist perspective.

[LeftyMom]

12. We had a few in my anthropology classes.

Why on earth would they take physical anthropology of all things? The whole class is about how humans evolved.

[benld74]

4. Both my daughters schools teach these things,,,

it is called Religion Class! Science is a seperate class altogether!!

[winter999]

6. Here's a proper response:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=15-answers-to-creationist&print=true

[LeftishBrit]

7. Disgusting...

I agree with Rosenau's comments here.

While I think our national curriculum is sometimes a bit *too* directive, at least it prevents this sort of crap. Academic freedom doesn't mean freedom to teach non-science as science. And how will the children get science-related jobs and college places in the future, when they have to compete with people who actually got a 21st century education?

[BootinUp]

8. The vote margin makes me want to puke. nt

[CatFelyne]

9. Intellectual casualties

Louisiana may have just rendered their educational system meaningless with this law. If one thinks that this law is just going to be for scientific education, think again. Louisiana's concept of "academic freedom" could and likely will be applied to all subjects. It's going to be difficult to take an individual educated in this state seriously in many arenas.

Applying to colleges or graduate schools? Applying for any kind of scientific or technical job?
The expected reaction for admission committees and potential employers is for them to be very careful when considering anyone who was educated in Louisiana. Scientific journals and the peer review process may also add additional scrutiny for Louisiana scientists.

Personal irony - I'm in a graduate program in the life sciences in Louisiana. Research work: some stem cell stuff, mostly nuclear transfer (cloning). Makes me wonder if finishing my thesis now is even worth it. Glad I got into a PhD program up north before this law passed.

Words escape me, but after being down here almost 3 years I'm not surprised by this at all.

[Kool Kitty]

11. Ah, Bobby the Exorcist strikes again.

He would be funny if he wasn't so fuckin' scary.

[Solly Mack]

13. ...

"...the proposition that life is too complicated to have arisen without the help of a supernatural agent."

LMAO

Why not just proclaim, "I'm too special and unique to be anything other the product of some supernatural force. But since it's too complicated to really understand, it's also too complicated to explain - so just believe! Take it on faith!"

or the shorter version,

"I'm just too fucking stupid!"