Some parents, along with legislators in the Florida House of Representatives and Senate, have decided that certain parts of the curriculum being taught in school are too controversial and that they deserve the right to determine how or whether or not these subjects can or should be taught.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
The problem with this bill is that even though the sponsors claimed that it helps parents get more involved with their students and there are limitations on what can be objected to, the legislation can easily create a situation in which someone can object to a subject being taught in school because it offends them. Groups that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in certain parts of a scientific curriculum, such as evolution or immunization, for example, can now successfully argue that their children are too young to be learning about a topic that they really just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want their students to hear about because it goes against their own personal beliefs.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
Instead of claiming that everything is inappropriate for their precious kids, parents should want their children to learn about these so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153controversial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d topics in an environment that is controlled and honest conversation can be facilitated.<\/p>\n
In order to be a truly educated society, students need to be learning important issues without censorship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of my blog posts lately have been quite the downers as I report on bad bills approved by our legislature and the fallout we’re already starting to see around the state. But every now and then there are some … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Iw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2618,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2618","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":0},"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":3453,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3453","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":1},"title":"News & Updates 3\/17\/19","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We're monitoring several bills in our state legislature that could negatively impact science education. The good news is that so far there has been very little movement. One has been scheduled for a committee hearing and others have gotten some press. But the session is still quite young and we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2698","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":2},"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":3444,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3444","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":3},"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. Ron DeSantis has a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2717,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2717","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":4},"title":"“Based upon the community standards”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The creationist-enabling instructional materials bill was debated on the Florida Senate floor Wednesday and there were finally a few tough, pointed questions posed. We believe that if this bill becomes law, it will give creationists, climate change deniers, anti-vaccine nuts and other non-science crusaders a path to challenging textbooks that\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":3189,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3189","url_meta":{"origin":2760,"position":5},"title":"Alert: Bad Instructional Materials bill on the move!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A bad Florida Senate bill we're watching is on the move! SB 1644 is on the education committee agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 6. The committee meets at 9 a.m. Senate Bill 1644 (and\u00c2\u00a0Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House Bill 827) would, if enacted, revise the procedures for adopting instructional materials to permit members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760"}],"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=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2764,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"roar\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roar.jpg\")
<\/a>The Roar is a student paper produced by the students at West Shore Jr.\/Sr. High School in Melbourne. The paper published an editorial blasting the passage of the instructional materials bill. It’s a thoughtful, well reasoned piece that really gives me hope. Students are, in fact, not blind to what’s going on around them. Seeing them engaged in legislation that can truly impact their education gives me hope for our future.<\/p>\n