Stifling Science: La. Legislators Vote To Retain Creationist Legislation.

In what must have been a surreal moment, Sen. Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas) told a story about how he found relief from an unspecified ailment, apparently by visiting some type of voodoo practitioner. Guillory said that experience makes him reluctant to “lock the door on being able to view ideas from many places, concepts from many cultures.”

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Guillory said, “Yet if I closed my mind when I saw this man – in the dust, throwing some bones on the ground, semi-clothed – if I had closed him off and just said, ‘That’s not science. I’m not going to see this doctor,’ I would have shut off a very good experience for myself.”

Florida School Responds to Criticism for Expelling Student Over Science Project: “There Are Consequences to Actions”

By all accounts, Kiera Wilmot’s science experiment gone wrong triggered just a tiny pop and a small amount of smoke at Bartow High School last week — but her tale is certifiably blowing up the Internet today. Thanks to Reddit and Reason, thousands of people have commented on Wilmot’s story, many asking the same question: How could an otherwise model student be expelled and charged with a felony over an experiment that didn’t hurt anyone?

New Science Standards Draw Some Criticism

“One doesn’t need to be a global-warming skeptic to be appalled by a new set of national K-12 science standards,” said Heather Mac Donald, who writes on a wide range of issues for the National Review Online, and is also a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. She argues that the standards “put the study of global warming and other ways that humans are destroying life as we know it at at the very core of science education. This is a political choice, not a scientific one. But the standards are equally troubling in their embrace of the nostrums of progressive pedagogy. … The standards drearily mimic progressive education’s enthusiasm for ‘critical-thinking skills.’ “

If I understand correctly, this bill, if signed into law, would turn all of the responsibility for research into quality textbook and other materials over to all of the districts.

Right now we can keep an eye on what textbooks are being used in the classroom and raise the red flag if anything hinky is going on. We’ve done it before. But if every single district now does their own thing, what’s going to stop a strongly conservative district from deciding to approve supplemental materials for the science classroom that are woefully unscientific? We can watch what goes on in a centralized process. But can we watch what’s happening in every district? There haven’t been many stories about this bill, but even those few haven’t touched upon this potential problem.

Here’s a recent story that will help give you a feel for what this bill is about. School districts may gain control over instruction materials.

I invite you folks to help me keep an eye on this bill and give me your thoughts on whether my concerns are justified.

As a Hillsborough County taxpayer the thought of someone who is anti-Muslin, antigay, antiknowledge and even antimatter sitting on a government body charged with educating our community’s children would be a crime against sanity.

But as a columnist, and thus one who is always on an utterly shameless quest for fodder, what other response can one have to a potential Kemple candidacy, except — Thank you Lord!

…

Let’s put it this way, former Hillsborough County commissioner and former Florida state Sen. Ronda Storms, the Madame Defarge of Leviticus, would be a breath of fresh air on the School Board as opposed to Kemple’s “I am the God of hell-fire!” approach to governance.

And yes, I can’t believe either that I just wrote that paragraph.

“We introduce them (to evolution) and let them know it’s out there,” Berry said. “To be honest with you, creation and evolution, neither one of them is true science. If you look at the scientific method, somebody had to be there to observe it and you’ve got to be able to repeat it. Christian college isn’t for everybody and our kids are going to be hit with it when they go out there, so they need to know what to expect and the way we approach it is, ‘these are the tenants of what evolution teaches,’ but then we’ll go on the background and say now this is where the Bible comes in and we’re a Christian school. We believe the Bible’s true. What does the Bible say about it?”

…

This year, for the first time, FCS using textbooks exclusively from Bob Jones University Press, which works scripture into every subject. But Berry said that is an additional layer on top of what students would be getting in public school and nothing is left out.

“One of the reasons why we chose Bob Jones academically is when they set their textbook up, they go through a strenuous process and look at the core objectives that are required by a lot of states and they’re in South Carolina, so obviously they look at the South Carolina state standards,” said Berry. “They’re gonna pull the three or four leading state curriculums in the nation, like Texas and Florida, and they’re going to compare and their curriculum covers every core objective.”

…

“The common belief is that people are sending their kids out of affluence or want better education for their kids and that’s a wrong perspective,” Earwood said. “Many of these parents value the religious education and make many sacrifices to send them there, so it is a conundrum because as the economy has continued to tank, it’s been harder and harder to continue supporting that decision to make religion an education priority.”

Manatee Democratic Club (formerly the Southeast Manatee County Democratic Club) Thursday, April 18, Luncheon at the Peridia Golf and County Club, 4950 Peridia Blvd., Bradenton, beginning at 11:30 AM. Joseph Kerata, Advanced Biology Instructor, will be speaking on Misconceptions Around Evolution: History, Politics, Religion.  The luncheon cost is $15 payable by check at the door.  RSVP to Paul Dain at 941-756-4050.
http://semcdc.org/index.html

Course leader Joseph Kerata taught advanced biology in northeast Ohio for thirty years. Entertaining as well as informative, Joe’s specialty is teaching science to non-scientists. He earned degrees at Ohio State University and Cleveland State University and is a Princeton University Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Bioethics. He has traveled and studied in Kenya, Peru, Costa Rica, and the Galapagos Islands. In addition, Joe is an accomplished actor, having appeared in over fifty stage productions.
Prof. Joe Kerata
Board Member, The Lifelong Learning Academy, Sarasota
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Joseph-Kerata/1476366994