Re: Louisiana: Jindal signs creationism bill into law

On Jun 27, 3:36 pm, "George" <Geo...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<jspace...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:94fa58aa-f7d0-4b6e-9f8d-99201b23dda1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





From the article:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune
Thursday June 26, 2008, 10:10 PM

Gov. Bobby Jindal attracted national attention and strongly worded
advice about how he should deal with the Louisiana Science Education
Act.

Jindal ignored those calling for a veto and this week signed the law
that will allow local school boards to approve supplemental materials
for public school science classes as they discuss evolution, cloning
and global warming.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will have the
power to prohibit materials, though the bill does not spell out how
state officials should go about policing local instructional
practices.

A subject of considerable debate, but receiving few "nay" votes, in
the legislative session that ended Monday, the bill is lauded by its
supporters as a great step forward for academic freedom.

Critics call it a back-door attempt to replay old battles about
including biblical creationism or "intelligent design" in science
curricula, a point defenders reject based on a clause that the law
"shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine .¤.¤. or
promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion."
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Read it at
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/science_law_could_set_tone...

Right. So if it is not a "rear-entry" law, then what, exactly, are they
going to teach as an alternative to evolution, since the courts have already
spoken on the matter od creationism and ID?

The truly clueless might teach YEC or OEC (and quickly get in trouble)
but most will probably just teach a lot of "do we really know that?"
and then proceed to use data and arguments that have beem cherry
picked for them to promote unreasonable doubt - be it about evolution,
anthropogenic global warming, etc.

What we need to emphasize is not that they *add* supplemental
materials, but that, by doing so they effectively *censor* from
students the material that has actually earned the right to be
taught.

Another line of argument we need to pursue more is that, even if the
teacher has leaned the "don't ask, don't tell" approach and does not
teach any particular alternative to evolution, most students will
infer their favorite "revisionist prehistory" as the default
alternative and this is important - will *not* get to critically
analyze *it*.

Revisionist (pre)history effectively taught on the taxpayers' dime. It
takes a lot of chutzpah to support that *and* call oneself a
conservative.


What supplimental materials are
they going to add to education about cloning?  I can well guess what will be
included in supplimental materials about global warming, since Louisiana is
an oil state.

George


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: John West hopes Louisiana bill will get Explore Evolution into
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  • Re: Arkansas: Panel to consider evolution critique
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  • Re: Florida: Ben Stein weighs in on evolution fight
    ... TALLAHASSEE -- In the latest evolution battle, ... Stein will show his new documentary challenging mainstream science ... documentary or his ''academic freedom'' bill to destroy evolution. ... could name any teachers in Florida who have been disciplined for being ...
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  • Re: Michigan: Fight over teaching scientific theories likely to
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  • Re: Commentary: Religion in the classroom not detrimental
    ... I would like to congratulate the Sooner State for producing a new bill ... Growing up I, like most students in America, attended a public school. ... I recall learning evolution around the seventh grade and it was taught ... that while looking at the pictures in my science book of apes morphing ...
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