Teaching science in schools

[Junior]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.html

 

When public-school students enrolled in Texas’ largest charter program open their biology workbooks, they will read that the fossil record is “sketchy.” That evolution is “dogma” and an “unproved theory” with no experimental basis. They will be told that leading scientists dispute the mechanisms of evolution and the age of the Earth. These are all lies.

 

The more than 17,000 students in the Responsive Education Solutions charter system will learn in their history classes that some residents of the Philippines were “pagans in various levels of civilization.” They’ll read in a history textbook that feminism forced women to turn to the government as a “surrogate husband.”

 

Wow. Just.... wow.

[Landlord]

[knapplc]

What gets taught in Texas textbooks often affects the entire nation. This is from an article with a different tone, but it illustrates the problem with our textbooks today:

 

"Texas is the second-largest textbook market in the country, and because the State Board of Education decides which books to purchase (instead of local school districts), publishers pay serious attention to which books the Board buys. These choices become the basis upon which standard textbooks are written across the country. A publishing executive told Washington Monthly in 2010 that “publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”

 

So, because of the influence of the Texas Board of Education, their biases affect how kids in Nebraska are taught.

[QMany]

I hate Texas.

[GSG]

[It'sNotAFakeID]

[i'm just going to go ahead and delete this because it was stupid]

 

That the state of Texas has allowed this to go on goes to show just how "backwards" Texas really is. I'm sure there is a fair amount of people living in Texas who are level-headed and see things through an integrated perspective. But they don't have the power. The people who have the power in Texas have a strong-religious based background and do their best to exclude any scientific discussion. Why do they have the power? Because people vote for them. They must agree with their platform to the extent that they believe this person is best suited to run our state. That same concept holds true for the parents of the children in those charter schools. They [the parents] have to know what their child is learning about and how their child is learning, and they must sit down at night and think, "this is best for my child." I think it's unfortunate, because it limits what that child will be able to do with their career, especially if they have an interest in anything scientific (which, guess what, a majority of areas are nowadays). You're not going to go into an engineering career, explain something by saying, "God did this," and gain immediate credibility. Heck, you won't even get the job.

 

It's too bad that Texas caps its charter school limit at 300 and then allows charter schools such as those mentioned in the article to flourish.

[Junior]

I hate Texas.

 

Please reference my signature line

 

Texas also weighs in on vaccines and the scientific method:

 

Responsive Ed’s butchering of evolution isn’t the only part of its science curriculum that deserves an F; it also misinforms students about vaccines and mauls the scientific method.

 

The only study linking vaccines to autism was exposed as afraud and has been retracted, and the relationship has been studied exhaustively and found to be nonexistent. But a Responsive Ed workbook teaches, “We do not know for sure whether vaccines increase a child’s chance of getting autism, but we can conclude that more research needs to be done.”

 

On the scientific method, Responsive Ed confuses scientific theories and laws. It argues that theories are weaker than laws and that there is a natural progression from theories into laws, all of which is incorrect.

 

Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes of all time:

 

"Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." -- Isaac Asimov

[It'sNotAFakeID]

What gets taught in Texas textbooks often affects the entire nation. This is from an article with a different tone, but it illustrates the problem with our textbooks today:

 

"Texas is the second-largest textbook market in the country, and because the State Board of Education decides which books to purchase (instead of local school districts), publishers pay serious attention to which books the Board buys. These choices become the basis upon which standard textbooks are written across the country. A publishing executive told Washington Monthly in 2010 that “publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”

 

So, because of the influence of the Texas Board of Education, their biases affect how kids in Nebraska are taught.

 

How many of the public schools in Texas use textbooks as deliberately biased as the schools mentioned in the article? Just curious.

[knapplc]

Creationism is in no way a disciplined theory.

 

Not to mention the fact that you're going to have to figure out which of the upwards of 4,000 religious creation myths you're going to have to teach from the various religions out there.

[knapplc]

What gets taught in Texas textbooks often affects the entire nation. This is from an article with a different tone, but it illustrates the problem with our textbooks today:

 

"Texas is the second-largest textbook market in the country, and because the State Board of Education decides which books to purchase (instead of local school districts), publishers pay serious attention to which books the Board buys. These choices become the basis upon which standard textbooks are written across the country. A publishing executive told Washington Monthly in 2010 that “publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”

 

So, because of the influence of the Texas Board of Education, their biases affect how kids in Nebraska are taught.

 

How many of the public schools in Texas use textbooks as deliberately biased as the schools mentioned in the article? Just curious.

 

Which article, the one in the OP or the one I quoted? Because if it's the one I quoted, I have no idea. I googled to find an article that verified something which I already knew - that Texas exerts undue influence on the textbooks of the entire nation by simple purchasing power. I didn't read the article and don't care what it's about - I only wanted that single quote. If you'd like me to find another article with the same info I will if that would be more palatable, or if you'll just believe me that Texas exerts undue influence on the textbooks of the entire nation by simple purchasing power you'll save me some more googling.

[Landlord]

Creationism is in no way a disciplined theory.

 

Not to mention the fact that you're going to have to figure out which of the upwards of 4,000 religious creation myths you're going to have to teach from the various religions out there.

 

 

^^^^ This. Even as a Christian, I find creationism to be absolutely ludicrous and not legitimate as science whatsoever.

[Junior]

Greg Abbott, the current attorney general and front-runner in the Texas governor’s race, seems to be of a similar mindset. One piece of his campaign literature shows a gun and a Bible and includes the phrase, “Two things that every American should know how to use … Neither of which are taught in schools.” Abbott’s campaign hasn’t responded to questions about Responsive Ed or creationism in schools.

 

Sigh.

 

EDIT: Man, this stuff just goes on and on.

 

In the section on the causes of World War I, the study materials suggest that “anti-Christian bias” coming out of the Enlightenment helped create the foundations for the war. The workbook states, “[T]he abandoning of religious standards of conduct and the breakdown in respect for governmental authority would lead to one of two options: either anarchy or dictatorship would prevail in the absence of a monarch.” Responsive Ed also asserts that a person’s values are based on solely his or her religious beliefs.

...

 

 

About President Franklin Roosevelt, it teaches, “The New Deal had not helped the economy. However, it ushered in a new era of dependency on the Federal government.”

 

 

Perhaps the workbook’s best line comes when it explains that President Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers out of “a misguided sense of compassion.”

[Ulty]

[Junior]

Honestly guys, this goes far beyond simply teaching creationism in public schools. Read the whole article, there's too much to quote here.

 

On the feminist movement, Founders Classical Academy students are taught that feminism “created an entirely new class of females who lacked male financial support and who had to turn to the state as a surrogate husband.”

 

A Patriot’s History of the United Statesalso addressesthe “pinnacle” of the “western way of war” as demonstrated by the Iraq War and questions the legitimacy of Secretary of State John Kerry’s “suspect at best” Purple Hearts and Bronze Star.

 

Anyone, Christian or otherwise, should be appalled by this article.

[rawhide]

I think it would be good to have schools ensure grade school pupils have a 6th grade level education in both English and Math prior to moving on to 7th grade. $.02 > $.01