Bill Allowing Teachers to Challenge Evolution Passes Tennessee House

[marmar]

from Science Insider:



Bill Allowing Teachers to Challenge Evolution Passes Tennessee House
by Sara Reardon on 7 April 2011, 6:14 PM


In a 70-28 vote today, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed HB 368, a bill that encourages science teachers to explore controversial topics without fear of reprisal. Critics say the measure will enable K-12 teachers to present intelligent design and creationism as acceptable alternatives to evolution in the classroom.

The bill's text, if passed into state law, would protect teachers from discipline if they "help 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," namely, "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." The bill also says that its "shall not be construed to promote any religious or non-religious doctrine."

In a letter to the House education subcommittee, Alan I. Leshner, the chief executive officer of AAAS (which publishes ScienceInsider), said, "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."

In addition to AAAS, the Tennessee Science Teachers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) have expressed their opposition to the bill. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/04/bill-allowing-teachers-to-challenge.html?ref=hp

[Angry Dragon]

1. I wonder what text book they are going to use for

intelligent design and creationism

[asjr]

7. Probably the King James version.

[Angry Dragon]

11. I hope they try to explain how Cain got a wife

[HockeyMom]

12. They will have a problem with Catholics

over that King James Version. Jews will have an MAJOR problem with BOTH.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. 70-28 -- Fuck

[Rex]

3. Well shit, can I get a grant for this bullshit I just came up with in my mind

5 seconds ago!? I mean, it is 'how it happened and we came to be'...I'm thinking I need a few billion dollars to round out all the floating point errors. Takers? Kids will LOVE it! It involves puppies, unicorns, ponies AND dragons!!!

[AlinPA]

4. This is the heart of teabagger country.

[KamaAina]

5. Is this a repost from 1925?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial

The Scopes Trial—formally known as The State of Tennessee v. Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial—was an American legal case in 1925 in which a high school biology teacher John Scopes was accused of violating the state's Butler Act that made it unlawful to teach evolution.

Have we progressed not one iota in the intervening 86 years?! :banghead:

[spanone]

6. tennesseans deny science....

[malaise]

8. Ignorance is bliss

:puke:

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Then the US must be the happiest country on earth

[Bozita]

9. Next, they'll raise test scores by eliminating all those pesky numbers in math

Tennessee schools could just opt out of any test questions involving numbers.

Test scores will soar. The public will love it.

[JoePhilly]

10. In related news, the existance of the Tenn House proves that evolution can work backwards.

[d_r]

14. one irony is

they just passed a limit to teacher's tenure today - http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/apr/12/gov-haslam-signs-tenure-bill-law/

So, on the one hand, they have to shield the poor teacher's freedom of speech so that they will not be ran over by the intellectual bullies. On the other hand, though, they've got to limit that tenure thing that supports teacher's having freedom of speech and the right to due process.

It's funny to me. In a way that doesn't make me feel happy.

[csziggy]

15. While I deplore the motives behind this law I wonder if it will backfire

With a good science teacher who can adequately defend evolutionary theory, a student who attempted "in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught" would have to learn critical thinking and scientific methodology. After all, if scientific theories cannot withstand that scrutiny, they are not worthy to remain in the mainstream of science teaching.

I wonder though how many good science teachers who would use this idea to teach doubting students real science would survive without tenure.