Florida: Proposed evolution compromise angers some educators
- From: Jason Spaceman <notreally@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:15:58 -0500
From the article:-------------------------------------------------------------------
Leslie Postal | Sentinel Staff Writer
3:21 PM EST, February 16, 2008
Some of the educators who helped devise Florida's new, controversial science
standards said today they don't like a last-minute alternative put together
by the Florida Department of Education.
They called it a weaker version that compromises scientific knowledge to
mollify opponents.
The new proposed standards -- to be voted on Tuesday by the State Board of
Education -- have created statewide controversy because they would, for the
first time, require teaching evolution in Florida's public schools.
In the alternative version, the phrase "the scientific theory of" is
inserted before the word evolution. The same phrase would go in front of
some other topics, too. The revision was a response to "public input,"
state officials said Friday.
But several of the more than 60 scientists and science teachers who helped
devise the new standards said today they were not happy with those changes
and that, based on their own e-mails and phone calls, felt a majority of
the group disapproves.
"I do not like the compromise document because it is clumsy, makes too much
of science questionable (given public understanding of theory) and fails to
clearly distinguish between scientific fact and scientific theory," wrote
Gerry Meisels, a professor of chemistry at the University of South Florida,
in an e-mail to state officials.
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Read it at
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-evolution1708feb17,0,5651287.story
J. Spaceman
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