{"id":231,"date":"2007-06-21T07:09:53","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T11:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=231"},"modified":"2008-08-05T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T17:12:26","slug":"balanced-presentation-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"Balanced presentation policy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Alachua County School Board met recently and judging from this story<\/a>, it was a fightin’ affair from start to finish. All sorts of people were irritated about all sorts of things. Near the end of the story is an interesting subject sparked by an audience member’s question.<\/p>\n

Another audience member stood up and asked about a policy regarding the teaching of controversial issues, asking whether a teacher who wanted to teach evolution in a class would also have to teach intelligent design.<\/p>\n

The proposed policy states that when presenting a controversial issue “the teacher shall present all sides of the question without bias or prejudice and shall permit each student to arrive at his\/her own conclusions.”<\/p>\n

Board Chairwoman Ginger Childs reiterated that the board hopes all controversial issues will be presented with a “fair and legitimate and a balanced presentation.”<\/p>\n

“We are trying not to mandate to teachers what they can and cannot teach,” Childs said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Childs tried to dodge a bullet there, but instead stepped right into the line of fire. Advocates for inserting intelligent design love those little code words of “both sides,” “fair,” and “balanced presentation.” Not that there is anything wrong with being fair, but when evolution has overwhelming support from the scientific community and intelligent design has, well, none, what is there to be “fair” about?<\/p>\n

This proposed policy on controversial issues has a foul stench to it. What prompted it? Who proposed it? Why was it brought up?<\/p>\n

If you’re in Alachua County, could you please help us get to the bottom of this?<\/p>\n

Update …<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is the text of the policy\u00c2\u00a0that\u00c2\u00a0I believe is in question found in this document<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The responsibility and right of an instructional staff member to present information of a controversial nature is hereby recognized. The teacher shall not present controversial material or issues which are not directly or closely related to the subject area being taught. In presenting controversial materials on an issue, the teacher shall present all sides of the question without bias or prejudice and shall permit each student to arrive at his \/ her own conclusions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know if this is a “new” policy as mentioned in the story or an already existing policy. I see notes in the document that mention having been adopted in 1999, but I don’t see a difference in the document and the wording mentioned in the newspaper story.<\/p>\n

I’m trying to track down what exactly is going on before getting too alarmed. Nonetheless, it is interesting that some unnamed person decided to bring up evolution and intelligent design during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Update II …<\/p>\n

Ahh, I found the proposed new policy<\/a> by going through the school board’s agenda for that meeting reported on in the newspaper. The new policy (#2240)\u00c2\u00a0does go into quite a bit more depth than the old (quoted in my previous update). <\/font><\/p>\n

The Board believes that the consideration of controversial issues has a legitimate place in the instructional program of the schools.<\/p>\n

For purposes of this policy, a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion or likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.<\/p>\n

The responsibility and right of an instructional staff member to present information of a controversial nature is hereby recognized. The teacher shall not present controversial material or issues which are not directly or closely related to the subject area being taught. In presenting controversial materials on an issue, the teacher shall present all sides of the question without bias or prejudice and shall permit each student to arrive at his\/her own conclusions.<\/p>\n

Controversial issues may not be initiated by a source outside the schools unless prior approval has been given by the principal.<\/p>\n

The Board recognizes that a course of study or certain instructional materials may contain content and\/or activities that some parents find objectionable. If after careful, personal review of the program lessons and\/or materials, a parent indicates to the school that either the content or activities conflicts with his\/her religious beliefs or value system, the school will consider a written request for his\/her child to be excused from a particular class for specified reasons. The student, however, will not be excused from participating in the course and will be provided alternate learning activities during times of such parent requested absences.<\/p>\n

The Superintendent shall develop administrative procedures for dealing with controversial issues and with parental concerns about program content or the use of particular materials. Furthermore, the Superintendent shall prepare administrative procedures detailing the manner in which students and parents will be adequately informed each year regarding their right to inspect instructional materials and the procedure for completing such an inspection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alachua County School Board met recently and judging from this story, it was a fightin’ affair from start to finish. All sorts of people were irritated about all sorts of things. Near the end of the story is an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-3J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3506,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3506","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":0},"title":"Florida Evolution vs. Creationism Timeline","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The need to defend science education in Florida is truly never ending. I chronicled the many skirmishes, battles and wars fought over the teaching of evolution in my book Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom. The Florida anti-evolution efforts I wrote about started in the 1920s and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3417,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3417","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":1},"title":"Florida Senator: schools need to teach ‘different worldviews’ on issues like evolution and climate change","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator Dennis Baxley filed Senate Bill 330 recently, a piece of legislation that puts the teaching of evolution and climate change in Florida public schools directly in his line of fire. 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Last year, Louisiana passed the Louisiana Science Education Act, a law that many scientists and educators said was a thinly veiled attempt to allow creationism and its variants into the science\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 7 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 7 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=868#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=869","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":4},"title":"What they’re saying in Louisiana","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought y'all would like to read what folks are saying about the mess oozing around in Louisiana. Times-Picayune columnist James Gill writes about the classroom crusade. The purported purpose is to prevent \"censorship\" and allow teachers to introduce materials in addition to prescribed textbooks. The act contains the obligatory\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=869#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3444,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3444","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":5},"title":"Getting ready for another wild ride in Tallahassee","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The state legislative session kicks off Tuesday. We here at Florida Citizens for Science are as busy as can be as we monitor several bad bills filed in the legislature that can negatively impact science education. Additionally, the review of all academic standards directed by Gov. 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