TN Governor Busy Promoting Science & Math, As Bill Protecting Creationist, Denier Teachers Moves On

[hatrack]

Gov. Bill Haslam visited Stratford High in Nashville this morning to talk about promoting science education but ended up being pressed on a bill some say would do just the opposite.

Supporters of Senate Bill 893, up for a floor vote today, say that it would protect different points of view in science classrooms, barring the discipline of teachers for addressing, for instance, religious doctrine on creation. Opponents say it's a pretext for allowing evolution to be challenged and a potential setback for science education.

Haslam told reporters he hadn't seen the bill. He said he'd want to include the Tennessee Board of Education, which generally sets curricula, in conversations about it.

"It is a fair question what the general assembly's role is," he said. "That's why we have a state board of education."

EDIT

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120319/NEWS04/120319011

[dregstudios]

1. Backwards Progress

Tennessee is dead-set on herding its citizens back to the dark ages. In the past two years, the Governor and Republican Party have squashed Gay Rights statutes in the city of Nashville, developed laws targeting peaceful protesters and made it illegal to post “potentially offensive images” to the internet. The “Monkey Law” now brings religion back into the classroom by opening debate for creationism. In addition, a new law puts the Ten Commandments back in public buildings around the state. There is a clear cut suppression of progressive thinking by the Republican Party and I addressed these issues “illegally” on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/07/potentially-offensive-portrait-governor.html with a portrait of the Governor to address his party’s absurd agendas.

[Permanut]

2. That'll teach you dang sciency types...

Who thought the Scopes trial actually settled anything.

[pscot]

8. You don't need much science to bang 2 rocks together

[hatrack]

4. Your user name is certainly well-chosen

nt

[BB_Troll]

5. really?

Why hate on an independent thinker?

I'm just saying that we have the best argument, let's go at it. Independent thinkers is the only way we can really beat the 1%, in my opinion. FDR was and Obama is an independent thinker- why not seek to raise more of them?

[greyl]

6. Climate change denial and evolution denial are not the product of independent thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District

http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2011/10/13/evolution-climate-denial-are-they-linked/146143/

http://atheism.about.com/b/2012/02/17/fighting-evolution-denial-climate-change-denial.htm

http://whatstheharm.net/evolutiondenial.html

[hatrack]

7. What alternatives do you propose to teach?

On climate, what alternatives should kids learn about to become "independent thinkers"?

Do you propose to teach that it's all because of increased solar output?

That's nice, except for the bit about the sun currently being at the bottom of its 12-year cycle, and unusually quiet even by solar cycle standards.

Oh, and then there's that part about the troposphere temperature increasing even as the stratosphere cools and drops in elevation, which wouldn't be happening if it were a question of solar output.

Do you propose to teach that it's all "just part of a natural cycle"?

That's nice, except for the bit about massive worldwide rapid global glacial retreat (with a few exceptions in S. America and Alaska), and Arctic sea ice death spiral, and massive carbon dioxide and methane releases now underway from N. Hemisphere permafrost, and worldwide ocean acidification and lots and lots of things that haven't been seen in the geological record since the PETM, and that was 55 million years ago.

Do you propose to teach that it's just not happening, and that 99% of the world's climate scientists and 99% of the data are just plain wrong?

Good luck with that one.

On human evolution, what alternatives should kids learn about to become "independent thinkers"?

"Intelligent design"? Creationism in scientific drag - in fact, far worse than straight-up creationism, because it dresses up as science in order to discredit it.

Straight-up Christian creationism? Good luck squaring the Bible with physical reality, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology and pretty much every other physical and life science.

Why not teach about the churning of the Sea of Milk, or Turtle Island, or Coyote and Raven? For that matter, why not just let kids know that it's turtles all the way down, and move on to PE class?