{"id":2882,"date":"2017-08-28T17:36:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2017-08-28T17:36:09","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T21:36:09","slug":"the-heartland-institute-truth-in-textbooks-and-time-magazine-are-interested-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2882","title":{"rendered":"The Heartland Institute, Truth in Textbooks, and Time magazine are interested in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The interest in Florida’s new textbook law might have faded into the background lately but today it’s jumped back into the spotlight with a vengeance. The Heartland Institute, the purveyor of climate change denial nonsense, is definitely aware of what’s going on here in the Sunshine State as is an organization called Truth in Textbooks. And Time magazine published a story online today about the new law.<\/p>\n

I’ll start briefly with the Heartland Institute. The originator of the textbook law, the Florida Citizens Alliance, is likely now cozy friends with Heartland. I stumbled across this web page at the Institute’s publications and resources section of their website<\/a>. They added to their collection the Alliances’s bogus list chock full of complaints about textbooks used in Florida. For instance:<\/p>\n

Unacceptable curricular examples included the glorification of teen sex and distorted accounts of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s founding. One sixth grade history textbook explicitly stated children are descended from apes<\/strong>, and another declared anyone can qualify as an American citizen simply by wanting to be one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, we definitely want to be on the lookout for any future teamwork from Heartland and the Alliance. Keep in mind that Heartland has deep pockets.<\/p>\n

The Alliance was also prominently featured in an article published at Time magazine’s website:\u00c2\u00a0Florida’s Textbooks Are a New Battleground in America’s Fight Over Facts<\/a>. I spoke with the reporter quite a bit and so did someone from the National Center for Science Education and yet neither one of us are mentioned in the article at all, which is deeply disappointing, especially since the Alliance wound up being the centerpiece of the story. However, despite that omission I thought the story was good. It revealed yet a little bit more about the Alliance’s activities and players.<\/p>\n

Mike Mogil doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe climate change is caused by humans. The 72-year old former National Weather Service meteorologist says global temperatures have been fluctuating for millennia, and recent extremes could very well have nothing to do with mankind. Now, he wants to make sure Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public school students get the same perspective.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

To Mogil, who is a member of the Florida Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance, the conservative group that helped write the bill, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objective\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means that any textbook including climate change information should leave open the possibility that humans are not at fault, even though that goes against the overwhelming scientific consensus that global temperatures are rising and carbon emissions by humans are to blame. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start off with a political agenda from either side,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all taxpayers in one form or another, and I would like to have a say in how that money is being spent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We here at Florida Citizens for Science didn’t get a voice in the story, but others on our side did.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This could be really misused by a lot of people to the detriment of the job of educating our kids,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Richard Grosso, a Florida attorney and Nova Southeastern University law professor who believes the new law is unnecessary. He is concerned that already-underfunded districts will have to spend time and money hearing textbook challenges even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re \u00e2\u20ac\u0153completely frivolous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have you heard of Truth in Textbooks<\/a>? The Alliance has …<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Florida Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance urged its 20,000 supporters to become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153textbook reviewers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by taking a three-month, mostly online training course run by Truth in Textbooks, a Texas-based conservative group that encourages its volunteers to oppose what it calls a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pro-Islam\/anti-Christian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bias in history books. The Truth in Textbooks course doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t officially give participants a leg up in textbook objections, but the Florida Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance hopes the training will add credibility to members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 challenges to school boards this fall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truth in Textbooks, which started in Texas and is expanding nationwide, now has their fingers firmly in Florida and we’ll undoubtedly be hearing from them and their trainees quite often in the near future.<\/p>\n

And the Time story ends with this interesting tidbit:<\/p>\n

Mogil, the former meteorologist, spent the summer teaching about weather and sharing his views on climate change with about 30 middle and high school students at a summer camp he runs in Naples, Fla. He hopes that by offering a different view than what the kids learn in school, and by challenging textbooks under Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new law, he will teach students to be skeptical, like him, of widely accepted knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are any of you reading this in the Naples area? Can I talk you into finding out more about this summer camp?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The interest in Florida’s new textbook law might have faded into the background lately but today it’s jumped back into the spotlight with a vengeance. The Heartland Institute, the purveyor of climate change denial nonsense, is definitely aware of what’s … 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":[32,26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Ku","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3306,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3306","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":0},"title":"Collier County textbook hearing: 30 complaints about evolution & climate change","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Heads up, folks. Collier County\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s official textbook hearing will be on Monday, June 18, and the public is invited to attend and be heard. Go to the instructional materials website where the guidelines for the meeting and the long list on citizen complaints against evolution and climate change being in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3306#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3506,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3506","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":1},"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":2901,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2901","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":2},"title":"Marion County to review and approve textbooks on their own","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a new wrinkle in the Florida instructional materials world. We already know that the Florida Department of Education is in the process of reviewing and approving new science textbooks that school districts could then pick from to purchase for their schools. We already know that two new laws could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2737,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2737","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":3},"title":"Textbook battles: a glimpse into the future","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most controversial issues in recent years when it comes to textbooks used in Florida schools is the coverage of religion in history books. The topic was the spark that started the whole instructional materials bills fiasco we're now facing. And the subject is obviously still white hot.\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":3312,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":4},"title":"Road trip to Collier County: Speaking up for science education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be on the road tomorrow morning (Monday) headed to Naples on a mission to help speak up for science education. I hope to see some of you folks there so we can finally meet in person. Why do science defenders need to converge on Collier County? Because a coordinated\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2756,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2756","url_meta":{"origin":2882,"position":5},"title":"Collier County: the epicenter of textbook calamity","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Fresh off their success in the Florida legislature where their instructional materials bill passed, the Florida Citizens' Alliance is now causing migraine headaches on their home turf:\u00c2\u00a0Group sues Collier County schools over textbook selection -- Three parents sued the Collier County School Board on Wednesday over new textbooks slated for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882"}],"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=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}