Tennessee House Passes Bill That Lets Teachers Question Evolution In Science Class

[babylonsister]

Tennessee House Passes Bill That Lets Teachers Question Evolution In Science Class
Jillian Rayfield | April 7, 2011, 6:29PM


The Tennessee House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass a bill that would shield teachers from disciplinary action if they question the theory of evolution during class.

State Rep. Bill Dunn (R), who introduced the bill, said it was meant to promote "critical thinking" in science classrooms. But the bill's language is more open-ended. It lists "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning" as issues that "can cause controversy," and says that therefore, no school administrators or officials can prevent teachers from helping students "understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught."

To be fair, the bill does stipulate that "this section only protects the teaching of scientific information, and shall not be construed to promote any religious or non-religious doctrine."

But Alan I. Leshner, the chief executive officer of American Association for the Advancement of Science, argued before the bill was passed out of committee: "There is virtually no scientific controversy among the overwhelming majority of researchers on the core facts of global warming and evolution. Asserting that there are significant scientific controversies about the overall nature of these concepts when there are none will only confuse students, not enlighten them."

more...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/tennessee_house_passes_creationism-friendly_educat.php

[Skip_In_Boulder]

1. Yep, make sure the kiddies know

It was all magic.

[RainDog]

2. cool. teachers can tell students their religions are lies

when it comes to the part about denying evolution.

and they're protected now.

[HopeHoops]

3. People like that are, in fact, a good argument against intelligent design.

God wouldn't design dumbfucks. That's just simple evolution with defective genetics.

[theaocp]

4. Thanks for the opening, morans

I'd love to have this discussion in class. "Kids, today, we're going to apply the scientific method to Genesis. Everyone form a hypothesis and let's test it. What's that? We can't test for Gawd? Hmmm..."

I understand that's simplistic, but the Socratic discussions that could arise out of teaching that sort of shite in science class would be fun. Damn.

[d_r]

5. what I don't understand is

I thought all these thug teachers had this tenure and all this free speech and you couldn't fire them if you wanted to. So why do they need this "shield?"