Re: Georgia: Church wants evolution theory out of science classes

On Jun 5, 3:02 pm, Paul J Gans <gan...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tim Norfolk <timsn...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 4, 8:38 pm, Free Lunch <lu...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jun 2012 09:13:33 -0700 (PDT), Tim Norfolk <timsn...@xxxxxxx>
wrote in talk.origins:

On Jun 3, 8:56 pm, Paul J Gans <gan...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tim Norfolk <timsn...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 2, 9:55 pm, Paul J Gans <gan...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tim Norfolk <timsn...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 2, 3:00 pm, Paul J Gans <gan...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
*Hemidactylus* <ecpho...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 05/31/2012 01:51 PM, Jason Spaceman wrote:
 From the article:
------------------------------------------------------------
VILLA RICA, Ga. —

A Carroll County church wants Georgia schools to stop teaching
evolution as fact.

Educators across the country are now developing what's called the
"next generation of science standards."

A member of the Villa Rica Church of Christ told Channel 2's Diana
Davis evolution should not be a part of those standards.

Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution is what almost all of us were
taught in science: Billions of years ago, we all evolved from a common
ancestor.

"It's bad science, and it's bad for the culture," according to Villa
Rica's Church of Christ's Bob Staples.

Staples and his church are fighting for schools to include another
view.

"What message are we sending to our children when they come away
saying, 'I'm an ape with less hair?'" asks the church pastor, Patrick
Gray.

Staples, who is a college math teacher, serves on a state committee
that is working to develop science standards for education.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read it athttp://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/church-wants-creationism-taught-georgi...
We are talking about Georgia :-) Should anyone be surprised?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/georgia-birther-hearing-obam...

And why is a math teacher involved in the setting of science standards?

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   --- Paul J. Gans- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Some of us do science as well.

Of course.  Some of us phsical science types do math very
well.  But in all my years of teaching the math department
never asked any physical scientist to be a member of their
curriculum committee.

The reason why I'm grumpy about this is that in most school
districts the high school science curriculum is a MESS.  It
is exactly why we get such a large fraction of the population
thinking that the earth is no older than 10,000 years and
doesn't understand anything you say to them about why we know
that is true.

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   --- Paul J. Gans- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
We always deal with the other departments on the curriculum. It's a
regular thing with engioneering, too. Every 10 years or so, they ask
us to look at the Calculus sequence to see how it can be streamlined.
By the time we finish, they usually understand why it is the way it
is. On the other hand, our college of education keeps trying to tell
us what to teach in our courses, AND how to teach them. We ignore them.

As well you might.  As a group they seem to be infected with the
dangerous notion that you can teach a person how to be an excellent
teacher.

If that were true, their classes would be the most popular on campus.
Unscientific study of that on my part over the years indicates that
the opposite is more nearly true.

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   --- Paul J. Gans- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

True on our campus as well. In addition, our particular college of ed
has a number of people who consider 'mere' content to be an add-on,
after pedagogy.

Are they under the delusion that all disciplines are taught the same
way? I do want to see someone try to teach history and accounting the
same way or math and sociology (as long as I am not a student in that
class and no other students are graded on what they learned).

Of course if you are teaching at a highly competitive school, you can
always persuade yourself that you are a good teacher because your
students will always learn.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
The short answer is yes, they do. The latest trend is 'problem-based
learning', in which one magically finds the 'right' tools every time,
just in time.
As for the latter, that is why I chose the university at which I
teach. I could make a difference there.

Good for you.  I made the same decision, only the university changed
dramatically while I was there.

--
   --- Paul J. Gans- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

We are still in a growth phase, and the U claims to want STEM, so the
next few years could be very good (or very bad).

.

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