{"id":372,"date":"2008-01-07T18:29:08","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=372"},"modified":"2008-08-05T21:18:29","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T01:18:29","slug":"and-yet-another-school-board-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=372","title":{"rendered":"And yet another school board member …"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was featured in an article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal<\/a> today. I think the paper made too big a deal out of connecting my day job with my volunteer efforts here. However, in the newspaper world, the mantra is to localize whenever possible. Essentially, I am their local story hook. Since I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually live in the paper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s target area, they pretty much had to use my job as their justification for writing about me. On top of that, my job is in the public eye there in Volusia County, so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another justification to bring my day job into the mix.<\/p>\n

In any case, just skim through all that and head to the bottom of the story. The good news is that the school board in Volusia County has no issue with evolution, and while many on the Flagler County school board are silent on the issue, no one seized the opportunity to jump into the anti-evolution spotlight.<\/p>\n

I particularly like this quote:<\/p>\n

As a supporter of science education, Judy Conte, chairwoman of the Volusia County School Board, said she is worried about the upcoming vote on the science standards.<\/p>\n

“I hope the state board doesn’t give Florida anything else to be embarrassed about,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, the St. Petersburg Times education blog, The Gradebook<\/a>, notes that Beverly Slough, who is a St. Johns County school board member, is not a big fan of evolution. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mentioned in the story<\/a> written about last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science standards public meeting, but I somehow completely missed that. Sheesh, you folks need to rap my knuckles when I get absentminded. Right there in black and white it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s written that she is president-elect of the Florida School Boards Association. The Gradebook went back to talk with her again. She told reporter Ron Matus:<\/p>\n

“Anybody with half a brain can see that natural selection takes place. But to make great leaps from a fish to a man … the fossil record doesn’t support all that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting statement. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious to know to what extent Slough is willing to accept natural selection. Where does Slough think it stops? Does Slough have any idea that the fossil record is but one line of evidence supporting evolution? The discovery of DNA could have completely toppled over the theory or evolution, but instead added yet another pillar of support. Research involving evolution didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop with Darwin. It started. And it continues to grow at an amazing rate.<\/p>\n

Why should we worry about what people like Slough have to say on the subject? Why do we keep a list of those education decision makers who have made public statements doubtful of or outright against evolution? Because of situations like this:<\/p>\n

She also said she planned to raise the issue both with her school board and the Florida School Boards Association.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would like to recommend that Slough and others who are doubtful concerning evolution take some time to read this new publication offered by the National Academy of Sciences: Science, Evolution and Creationism<\/a>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s free to download the entire book. Or, if pressed for time, there is also a free eight-page summary<\/a> available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was featured in an article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal today. I think the paper made too big a deal out of connecting my day job with my volunteer efforts here. However, in the newspaper world, the mantra is … 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-60","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":0},"title":"More support for evolution in science standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank you, Volusia County! A local newspaper, The Beacon, polled the members of the school board to see where they stood on the issue of evolution in the state science standards. All of them were in agreement that science belongs in the science classroom, separate from religious beliefs. Just to\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":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":1},"title":"Textbook trouble: history and sex ed","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lee County school board will hear from concerned citizens this week about the content of history textbooks under consideration for adoption. Board documents show nine objections have been filed for a sixth-grade world history text published by Pearson. Among the complaints for the book, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153my (sic) World History,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=10","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":2},"title":"Volusia joins the fray","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit to being shocked over how much intelligent design is cropping up in Florida school board races. I would think candidates would want to avoid that albatross what with all the times intelligent design has gone down in flames lately. Citrus, Escambia ... and now Volusia county\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":2019,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2019","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":3},"title":"Details emerge about textbook bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've noted before, there is a bill in the state legislature that proposes to turn review and selection of all public school textbooks over to local school districts, removing state-level government from the process completely. In today's Tampa Bay Times there is now a more in-depth story: Bill aims\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2228","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":4},"title":"Switching careers","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you know that I recently switched careers, becoming a high school biology teacher? Now you know. Daytona Beach News Journal: Former Volusia sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spokesman pursues passion into classroom Haught, 44, recently left his post as the assistant public information officer at the Volusia County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office to teach biology\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2228#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/NJpic1-300x206.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3175,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3175","url_meta":{"origin":372,"position":5},"title":"You haven’t nodded off, have you?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope all of you out there across Florida are still alert and active! It's science textbook adoption season and we need\u00c2\u00a0 you to look alive. Do you know when your school district is opening up textbook review to the general public? Here in my district, Volusia County, public review\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/textbookskulls-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372"}],"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=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}