{"id":314,"date":"2007-11-10T10:30:44","date_gmt":"2007-11-10T14:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=314"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:07:25","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:07:25","slug":"so-how-did-the-town-meeting-about-science-standards-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"So, how did the “town meeting” about science standards go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a meeting Wednesday evening<\/a> to solicit comments in person about the new draft science standards. It was just a boring, ho-hum meeting, right? A real snooze-fest, right?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

Mark Hohmeister of the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper attended and reports back that things were lively<\/a>. I wonder why?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wakulla County was well-represented, with Beth Mims, director of curriculum, and school board member Greg Thomas speaking against adding evolution, officially, to the standards.<\/p>\n

Mims – of course, not speaking for the board – said adding specific requirements would take \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flexibility\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the teachers. (Flexibility to do what, I wondered; to teach religion?) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There’s no mention of controversy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Evolution) appears to be a universally accepted fact.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

One parent wondered why schools can’t consider \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an intelligent influence,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d branded evolution \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a tool of atheists\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and spoke of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153assumption of billions of years of history.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Uh-oh, I thought, we’ve got a young-Earth creationist here who thinks the world is just 6,000 years old.<\/p>\n

A grandmother who had five kids go through public schools said she didn’t see evolution in the similarities of life forms. (Just as Picasso paintings are recognized as being from the same artist, so are worms and humans perhaps?) She hinted at \u00e2\u20ac\u0153something that I call the creator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d before finally surrendering and calling it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153our heavenly father.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hohmeister had done his homework, having read the excellent book Monkey Girl<\/a>, which is a nonfiction account of a court case in Dover, Pa. that tore the town apart and made international headlines. Sitting there in the meeting and listening to what people had to say about evolution after having read that book really got to Hohmeister. “Wow,” he wrote in his notes.<\/p>\n

He listened to a director of curriculum, and a school board member, and several parents say the same things <\/span> that got the good people of Dover into so much trouble. Could this really be happening?<\/p>\n

There is one more meeting: November 15, Jones High School Auditorium, Orlando 801 S. Rio Grande Avenue, Orlando, FL\u00c2\u00a0 32805, (407) 835-2300, 5:30 PM to 7:00PM. Several Florida Citizens for Science members are planning on being there.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have time to read Monkey Girl before attending, you can watch a PBS special on the Dover case called Judgment Day<\/a>. It airs on Nov. 13 at 8 p.m.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a meeting Wednesday evening to solicit comments in person about the new draft science standards. It was just a boring, ho-hum meeting, right? A real snooze-fest, right? No. Mark Hohmeister of the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper attended and reports … 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":[4,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-54","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":440,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=440","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":0},"title":"Anti-evolution resolutions aren’t done yet","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bay County passed an anti-evolution resolution. The only unique thing here is that one person on the board didn't vote for the resolution, whereas all other resolutions passed unanimously. The majority of board members supported the resolution. Board member Ginger Littleton cast the only dissenting vote. Greg Laden read a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=352","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":1},"title":"Those not in favor of good science education, raise your hand.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[I will bump this post up about once a week so as to always be on the front page. Latest bump: Feb. 15.] For your convenience, here is a list of the 12 counties that passed anti-evolution resolutions: Clay, Jackson, Baker, Hamilton, Holmes, St. Johns, Taylor, Madison, Lafayette, Nassau, Washington,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=397","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":2},"title":"Report from the field: Clay County school board meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A report on the science standards discussion in Clay County comes to us from dc in the comments in this earlier post. ------------------------------- The Clay County School Board just approved a modified form of the resolution by a vote of 5-0. 22 of the 27 speakers at the meeting opposed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3184,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3184","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":3},"title":"Clay County superintendent: “In no way, shape or form do our textbooks or will our textbooks ever reflect evolution as a fact …”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This year school districts across Florida are adopting new science textbooks. In many of those districts the process is pretty far along, with committees already having looked at the options and made their selections. Then the materials are offered to the public for viewing and comments. For instance, I know\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":407,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=407","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":4},"title":"Washington County: school board #9 on the anti-evolution train","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Washington County school board -- yes, another county in North Florida -- is apparently the latest school board to adopt an anti-evolution resolution. Unfortunately, the school system website doesn't list board meeting agendas anywhere that I could find. I found out about the resolution through one of my regular\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":379,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=379","url_meta":{"origin":314,"position":5},"title":"Breathtaking inanity","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm embarrassed. Sure, the Taylor County school board was apparently the first to pass a resolution complaining about evolution (previous post here), but they're not the only one. Two more counties passed resolutions, too: Baker County and Holmes County. The Baker County board meeting minutes from Dec. 17 say on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"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=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}