{"id":371,"date":"2008-01-04T07:07:30","date_gmt":"2008-01-04T11:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=371"},"modified":"2008-08-05T21:19:29","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T01:19:29","slug":"news-roundup-on-last-nights-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"News roundup on last night’s meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

My greatest fear concerning last night’s meeting in Jacksonville about the new draft of the state science standards was that the anti-science folks would beat us with numbers. Having more people there would then skew the perception of the media and the public. Fortunately, that didn’t happen! Florida Citizens for Science members who attended reported back that of all the speakers that evening, a little more than half were defending evolution. That included scientists, teachers and even some clergymen. I hope that mix of representatives left an impression.<\/p>\n

Of all the news reports on this issue, my absolute favorite part\u00c2\u00a0came out of the St. Petersburg Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“How many of us were taught that Pluto was a planet?” said Kim Kendall, an activist from St. John’s County.<\/p>\n

Kendall said she took exception with the statement included in the standards that evolution is “the fundamental concept underlying all of biology.” Asked after the meeting what other fundamental concepts there were, she could not say.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coverage of the meeting can be found Fox Channel 35<\/a>, First Coast News<\/a>, Florida Times-Union<\/a>, Miami Herald<\/a> (via Associated Press), and the Herald-Tribune<\/a> (also via Associated Press).<\/p>\n

The Florida Times-Union picked up some real good quotes:<\/p>\n

The Rev. Joseph Frazer, a retired Catholic priest living in Penney Farms, said the criticism of evolution was taking place in the wrong venue.<\/p>\n

“This is not a debate between religion and science. It is totally within the boundaries of religion,” he said.<\/p>\n

Wearing a teal pin with the motto “Sound Science,” Frazer proceeded to support public school students being taught evolution only.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Many of the speakers supporting evolution education said the theory has been tested and proved by scientists. They challenged supporters of intelligent design to produce the same scientific research backing their beliefs.<\/p>\n

“Do the research. Gather the evidence. Convince the other scientists they are right. Then we will think about rewriting our textbooks,” said Curtis Wolf, who lives on the Westside.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Curtis is a Florida Citizens for Science board member.<\/p>\n

S.Scott left a comment<\/a> here on the blog last night that is worth highlighting:<\/p>\n

It really did seem to go very well! What was impressive to me was the amount of Clergy that were there in support of the new standards! A couple of priests and ministers and even a Baptist Preacher! (That shocked me!) I was very pleasantly surprised! The ACLU had a representative there as well.<\/p>\n

There were a few people there that made \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heart Felt\u00e2\u20ac\u009d statements saying that they wish that God wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t taken out of school -I have to respect them for being honest and standing up for what they believe – and I got the feeling that those people knew that they ought not to push their religion in the public schools. But most of the people that spoke against the proposed standards were trying to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Preach\u00e2\u20ac\u009d – and it was apparent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My greatest fear concerning last night’s meeting in Jacksonville about the new draft of the state science standards was that the anti-science folks would beat us with numbers. Having more people there would then skew the perception of the media … 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-5Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":0},"title":"Last night’s science standards meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel reports that several people attended last night's meeting in Orlando about the new draft science standards with the objective of promoting intelligent design and complaining about evolution. But several people who spoke Thursday urged state Department of Education officials to allow schools to teach intelligent design and\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":1614,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1614","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":1},"title":"Kendall doesn’t disappoint","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Kim Kendall was a significant voice against the teaching of sound science in 2008. She polished her growing activism skills on a determined fight against the teaching of evolution when the state science standards were being revised and approved. Failing in her efforts there, she moved on to the state\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 9 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 9 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1614#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=393","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":2},"title":"Report from the field: St. Johns school board meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science member Kristine Hoppenworth attended the St. Johns County school board meeting during which the board approved an anti-evolution resolution. Here is Kristine's report: ------------------------ Hello!\u00c2\u00a0 I attended the St. Johns School Board Meeting last night in St. Augustine at 6 pm.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the resolution wasn't on\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":389,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=389","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":3},"title":"Where did those anti-evolution resolutions come from?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A lengthy article in the Florida Baptist Witness doesn't come right out and say it, but the source of the anti-evolution resolutions seems to be: Kendall [Kim Kendall, a leading activist opposing the standards and a member of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville] agreed with the idea of academic freedom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=336","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":4},"title":"It’s hitting the fan now","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The issue of evolution in the state science standards, and the fate of those standards because of evolution, made the headlines today. Florida Citizens for Science members and the National Center for Science Education were very busy yesterday with interviews for these stories. The main strategy being used here by\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":437,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=437","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":5},"title":"Reports on the Orlando meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re like me, you have to work for a living and so had no chance to attend today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public forum in Orlando concerning the new draft of the state science standards. There were apparently plenty of other folks who were able to attend, though, judging from various news accounts\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"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=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}