{"id":360,"date":"2007-12-22T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T13:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=360"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:25:02","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:25:02","slug":"polk-county-cries-uncle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=360","title":{"rendered":"Polk County cries uncle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes public school education decision makers\u00c2\u00a0are\u00c2\u00a0foolish enough to express their ignorance of what makes sound science. But an unrelenting pounding by pro-science groups and individuals\u00c2\u00a0can turn the tide.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It can be a rude awakening for these folks, but if a little bit of ribbing, unapologetic educating about what science is and isn’t, and no-holds-barred ridiculing gets the job done, who are we to complain?<\/p>\n

Apparently, Polk County school board members who originally had no problem stating their opinion on matters of what they think is science, and religion’s role in science have decided to abandon ship<\/a>. The Tampa Tribune credits the Flying Spaghetti Monster, outspoken scientists and concerned citizens who all flooded the school board with correspondence on the subject. And it doesn’t hurt to mention that Polk County wants to attract the science and technology industries to set up shop in their county to help the economy. It’s kinda hard to do so when you don’t want to teach your kids science. Dr. Wesley Elsberry, who is originally from Polk County, agrees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even though it looks like the school board decided it would be wise to get out of the business of promoting intelligent design, not all have abandoned creationist’s Trojan horse completely … or their belief that maybe religion should mix with science.<\/p>\n

The pro-intelligent design board members say they now recognize that the new standards are a state issue and there’s nothing they can do about them, even if they’d like to.<\/p>\n

Lofton, a former geometry teacher with a master’s degree in mathematics and one of the pro-intelligent design board members, said she has no interest in engaging with the Pastafarians or anyone else seeking to discredit intelligent design.<\/p>\n

She describes herself as secure in her beliefs. “I’m a Christian. I personally believe that the Bible is inerrant truth and the word of God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s one hot spot down for now. It’s worth keeping an eye on Polk County, though, because you\u00c2\u00a0never\u00c2\u00a0know what people will do when backed into a corner.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the more important fight is on the state level<\/a>. Let’s not forget that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes public school education decision makers\u00c2\u00a0are\u00c2\u00a0foolish enough to express their ignorance of what makes sound science. But an unrelenting pounding by pro-science groups and individuals\u00c2\u00a0can turn the tide.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It can be a rude awakening for these folks, but if a little … 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":[3,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-5O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=319","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":0},"title":"Polk County on alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had posted before about a Polk County school board member, Kay Fields, who expressed an interest in intelligent design. Well, the situation just got a whole lot worse. The local newspaper there, the Lakeland Ledger, asked the other board members for their opinions and revealed that a majority seem\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":320,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=320","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":1},"title":"Polk County update","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A school board meeting was held yesterday in Polk County. It was one of those long affairs as it was the annual organization meeting where officers are voted on and such. Science never came up. Then the public comment period was opened and a few people asked the board's support\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":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=675","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":2},"title":"Silly season in Polk","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's silly season in Polk County, and evolution is part of the fun of school board elections. Q. \"I wish Ms. Reddout and Mr. Mullenax to advise me as to their positions with respect to Creationism vs. Evolution.\" Dick Mullenax: As a former science teacher, I accept evolution\/adaptation in certain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election season '08"","block_context":{"text":"Election season '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=315","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":3},"title":"Polk County: School official wants intelligent design","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This just in from the Lakeland Ledger. A Polk County School Board member said Monday she wants the district to consider opposing proposed new science standards for Florida schools that would include specific mention of evolution for the first time. ... However, Polk board member Kay Fields objects to the\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":377,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=377","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":4},"title":"Early report on the Miramar meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"An Associated Press article on tonight's meeting in Miramar about the new draft of the state science standards is already up on the Florida Times-Union website. The story does not give an overall impression of attendance or how many people spoke and such. The focus was mainly on just two\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":1202,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1202","url_meta":{"origin":360,"position":5},"title":"Be Aware","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As a diversified organization the Florida Citizens for Science must remain neutral on political issues,however. \u00c2\u00a0Currently there are many elections taking place through out the state\u00c2\u00a0for County School Board Representatives. It would be wise for us to follow those candidates and keep abreast of their positions on science education. Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1202#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360"}],"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=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}