{"id":381,"date":"2008-01-11T07:02:48","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T12:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=381"},"modified":"2008-08-05T21:09:26","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T01:09:26","slug":"two-more-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=381","title":{"rendered":"Two more resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

[this post updated with a third county for a total of six so far] <\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been doing a methodical search of school district websites for any information that might reveal more school boards issuing anti-evolution resolutions like Taylor, Baker and Holmes did. (Previous post about: possibility of 12 total counties with resolutions here<\/a>, Baker and Holmes Counties here<\/a>, and Taylor County here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The search has been difficult as not all websites are easy to navigate. Nearly half I’ve searched so far don’t post board meeting minutes or agendas. But my scouring of the northern counties has revealed two hits.<\/p>\n

Hamilton County apparently approved a resolution Dec. 17. Go to the minutes<\/a> and look on the first page.<\/p>\n

\n

Resolution regarding Sunshine State Standards for science<\/p>\n

The Superintendent provided information on this item and recommended approval for forwarding to the Department of Education. Motion to approve by Mr. Deas and seconded by Mrs. Roberson; the motion carried unanimously. (Supplement 5843)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, there is always the chance that the resolution says something positive about the Standards. I don’t have any other information other than what’s in that paragraph. But I would bet that it’s the same old resolution we’ve seen in the other counties.<\/p>\n

The other county I discovered is Clay County. What’s interesting here is that the resolution is not yet approved<\/strong>! It will go before the school board Jan. 17. Is there anyone in the area who can attend? This would be the perfect chance to ask some questions and try to find out who is behind this resolution effort. Also, here is contact information for the board<\/a>. Even if you can’t attend the meeting, you can at least call, write, or e-mail the board members and explain why this resolution is flawed and a bad idea. Here is the meeting agenda<\/a>. And here is a copy of the proposed resolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What’s wrong with these resolutions? They want the new draft of the state science standards to be changed “so that evolution is not presented as fact.” The evidence for evolution are facts<\/a>. These school boards have no idea what they are talking about.<\/p>\n

I believe that the “not presented as fact” line is an edit. Taylor County’s resolution says something a bit different: “so that evolution is presented as one of several theories as to how the universe was formed.” News flash, folks: evolution taught in the high school biology class doesn’t cover how the universe was formed. That little twitch there, you know, the itch to bring up the universe when all we’re supposed to be talking about is changes in life over time, is a clue to the reason behind all of this. But that’s not all.<\/p>\n

A line from the Clay County resolution says: “… need to present these standards through a fair and balanced approach.” But the Taylor County resolution says more: “… need to present these standards through a fair and balanced approach, an approach that does not unfairly exclude other theories as to the creation of the universe.” The Taylor County sentence is a red flag for the motivation that is behind all of this: the desire to have religion in the public school science classroom. Some counties are a bit scared to have such bold language in their resolution copies and thus do a little bit of editing. But a comparison of all of these resolutions will out them anyway.<\/p>\n

Now the million dollar question is: who is behind this? Who shopped this resolution around to all of these school boards and superintendents?<\/p>\n

[Update] <\/strong>Karen R. reports in the comments that she is digging up dirt, too. She discovered mention of a resolution in St. Johns County. Find that mention on the school board briefs<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

\n

Science Standards<\/p>\n

The Board discussed the recent controversy over the proposed change in the science standards involving the teaching of evolution. The Board did not disagree with the idea of evolution being taught but with the dogmatic approach being proposed. Mrs. Slough will assist in drafting a resolution for the January 15 School Board meeting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Anyone going to be in or near St. Johns County Jan. 15?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[this post updated with a third county for a total of six so far] I’ve been doing a methodical search of school district websites for any information that might reveal more school boards issuing anti-evolution resolutions like Taylor, Baker and … 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":[6,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-69","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":379,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=379","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=396","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":1},"title":"Nassau and Jackson counties","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was in a hurry when I posted about the news article this morning about some more counties passing or considering anti-evolution resolutions, so I couldn't do any research concerning the counties mentioned in the story. Now that I have a little bit of time, let's see what we can\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":407,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=407","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":2},"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":395,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=395","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":3},"title":"Yet more counties with anti-evolution resolutions","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Times-Union reports that yet more counties are doing the anti-evolution resolutions. The boards in St. Johns and Baker counties have unanimously passed resolutions urging the Florida Department of Education to back down from those new standards on evolution. The matter comes up tonight in Clay County, and Nassau\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":389,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=389","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":4},"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":352,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=352","url_meta":{"origin":381,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381"}],"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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}