{"id":2378,"date":"2015-12-23T13:15:17","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T18:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2016-01-25T17:48:45","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T22:48:45","slug":"time-to-talk-about-textbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2378","title":{"rendered":"Time to talk about textbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Naples Daily News has a story up about efforts in the Florida legislature to possibly change the way textbooks are reviewed, approved and purchased:\u00c2\u00a0Activists look to change \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the book procedures<\/a><\/p>\n

Bills in the state House and Senate would change the way school districts select classroom material, increasing parental involvement, putting more of the burden on elected, rather than appointed, officials and de-emphasizing electronic materials.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I briefly mentioned the Senate bill, filed by Sen. Hays, in a previous post<\/a> in which I asked what the motivation behind the bill might be. Information in the Naples Daily News article has provided some clues to help us answer that question.<\/p>\n

The identical bills are the work of the Florida Citizens’ Alliance and Better Collier County Public Schools, two organizations frequently at odds with the Collier County School Board majority and Superintendent Kamela Patton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I looked up Florida Citizens’ Alliance<\/a> and discovered some interesting things about them. They’ve been concentrating on history textbooks, but some of those books have sections explaining human evolution. In this December 22 post<\/a>, they say\u00c2\u00a0that there is a problem with how evolution is presented:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Florida History: People and Nations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Collier County 6th grade History: These two pages teach the children that we descended from apes. This is stated as a fact not a theory. Nowhere in the material is a balanced discussion of the biblical explanation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"textbookskulls\"<\/a>There is a link in their post to a pdf scan of the textbook pages in question.<\/p>\n

In a December 15 post<\/a> they publish a full report on\u00c2\u00a0Modern World History, 9th Grade Teacher Edition Year: 2013. Here is one of their critiques:<\/p>\n

Study of Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theory of evolution<\/p>\n

Very biased section and Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conclusions presented as fact and the biblical theory as ludicrous<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Poses the question \u00e2\u20ac\u0153how can the earths tremendous variety of plants and animals be explained?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d states as fact millions of species exist and fossil records document changes over time. Darwin proved species compete for food and only fittest survive and pass off traits to their offspring.<\/p>\n

-while the biblical explanation claims all species created by God on the same day<\/p>\n

This is a totally superficial and disingenuous comparison. No reference of fact that both are theories or offer students references like the well documented series called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 The Truth Project\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Focus on the Family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a November 2 post<\/a> is titled:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How To\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Suggestions For Creating And Managing A Curriculum Education Watchdog Committee In Your County. One suggestion there is:<\/p>\n

Reach out to church leaders to help them understand how evil much of the revisionist content is. The History and literature Common Core uses teaches that nothing is true and everything is permissive. Example: FL 6th grade world History books teach we came from apes as a statement of fact rather than teaching the Theory of Evolution as a theory.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now take a look at their\u00c2\u00a0Examples of Acceptable\/Proven K-12 Standards and Corresponding Curriculum<\/a>. One such example is\u00c2\u00a0Freedom Project Education<\/a>, which displays\u00c2\u00a0on their website: “Classical, Judeo-Christian, Online Academy”. The textbook they use in Biology is\u00c2\u00a0Exploring Creation with Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Florida Citizens’ Alliance is rallying supporters to push these bills through, using an Action Alert <\/a>to spark the campaign. Also take note of this paragraph in the Naples Daily News article:<\/p>\n

Flaugh said about 80 organizations from around the state have agreed to support the legislation. He expects 15 to 20 representatives from those groups to be in Tallahassee in January to lobby for the changes as the legislative session begins Jan. 12.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The motivations behind the bills are now very clear. There is no question. Will you, Florida Citizens for Science members and supporters, respond?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Naples Daily News has a story up about efforts in the Florida legislature to possibly change the way textbooks are reviewed, approved and purchased:\u00c2\u00a0Activists look to change \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the book procedures Bills in the state House and Senate would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Cm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2698","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":0},"title":"It’s time to make a difference","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationists, climate change deniers and anti-vaccine nuts are gloating. The instructional materials bill that will allow them to gum up the local textbook selection process and bully school boards into compromise passed its final House vote. Representatives approved it 94-25. Meanwhile, the final Senate committee to hear it said yes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2618,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2618","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":1},"title":"More press about bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There are more news stories today about both the Religious Liberties bills and the Instructional Materials bills that we here at Florida Citizens for Science are opposed to and tracking. Naples Daily News:\u00c2\u00a0Senate committee pushes 'religious expression' bill forward Brandon Haught, a high school biology teacher representing the organization Florida\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2684,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2684","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":2},"title":"“The truth is going to be different based on your own experience and your own bias”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in today's Naples Daily News reports on the textbook selection process going on right now in Collier County:\u00c2\u00a0Committee presents new textbooks, Collier school board to vote next month. Keep in mind that the Instructional Materials bills that we here at Florida Citizens for Science are fighting against in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2600,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2600","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":3},"title":"Let’s not forget about the Instructional Materials bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been giving a lot of attention to the\u00c2\u00a0Religious Expression in Public Schools bills because they're seeing quite a bit action in the Florida legislature. But let's not forget that we're also monitoring Instructional Materials bills filed in both chambers (House Bill 989 and Senate Bill 1210). We're concerned about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2725,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2725","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":4},"title":"Creationist-enabling bill passes; what can you do now?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Citizens for Science membership is dismayed that House Bill 989, a proposed law that will affect how instructional materials for our schools are selected and challenged, passed its final vote in the Senate 19 to 17. We believe that should this bill become law with the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signature,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/textbookskulls-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2723,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2723","url_meta":{"origin":2378,"position":5},"title":"“Antiscience bill passed in Florida”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We'll issue an official, detailed statement later. But for now, here's the bad news from today's Florida legislature (courtesy of National Center for Science Education): Antiscience bill passed in Florida A Florida bill aimed at empowering taxpayers to object to the use of specific instructional materials in the public schools,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2380,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378\/revisions\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}