Daily Archives: January 19, 2008

The Home Schooling Attitude: Part 1 of 1

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This is Part 1 because there is more than one part. But I’m only going to do one of them, so it is Part 1 of 1. There is more than one “kind” of home schooler, home schooling parent, home schooling family, etc., and thus there are multiple attitudes. But a good chunk of the home schooling population, represented by these excerpts from their own rhetoric, are more than a little annoying, and are the reason why we should always be suspicious of home schooling and home schoolers until we see their credentials.
Continue reading The Home Schooling Attitude: Part 1 of 1 →

Poor Bill Foster Reaps What He Sows

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Today’s St. Petersburg Times has a letter from Bill Foster. Foster was the outgoing city councilman who wrote a letter to the school board opposing the teaching of modern Evolutionary Biology, or at least, the teaching of modern science without wrapping it in a medieval blanket of Christian Inquisitorial reasoning. Let’s have a look at Bills latest letter. Continue reading Poor Bill Foster Reaps What He Sows →

Texas Will Review Science Standards

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Education committees are beginning to review the science standards for Texas Schools this month. There are indications that efforts will be made to weaken the standing of evolution, or insinuate creationism, creation science, or intelligent design into the standards.
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Clay County (Florida) School Board Adopts Pro Creationist Standards, Breaches Ethics

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First, from the standard news sources in Jacksonville:

Despite impassioned opposition from science experts, teachers and some clergy, Clay County School Board members unanimously resolved Tuesday night that evolution should be presented as a theory, and not fact, in the classroom.The board passed a resolution, proposed by Superintendent David Owens, asking the Florida Department of Education to reword its newly proposed state standards, which presents evolution as “the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported in multiple forms of scientific evidence.”Baker County approved a similar resolution Dec. 17.[source]

It is apparent that the school board, under carefully crafted legal advice, stepped as close as they could to Doverland as possible without actually going there. This is not a conclusion I draw or an opinion. It is their stated strategy.Here is a missive I have received from a concerned citizen who was at the Clay County meeting, and it is an eye-witness account of this fiasco. I reproduce it here with permission. As far as I can tell, this account is verified by the various press reports that are available. Read it and weep: Continue reading Clay County (Florida) School Board Adopts Pro Creationist Standards, Breaches Ethics →

Institute for Creation Research: a New Argument Supporting Texas Certification for Masters in Science Education

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From the Texas Citizens for Science:

In an email message to its friends, the Institute for Creation Research proposes The Disjunctive Duality of Science Distinction, a new argument to support its effort to obtain Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval for its masters degree program in science education. The argument is actually an old one. It posits that two types of science exist, “experimental” science and “forensic, historical, or orgins” science. Only the first is real science, while the second–which, needless to say, includes evolutionary biology–is not a reliable science. Texas Citizens for Science posts the ICR message and provides a brief refutation of the argument.