{"id":398,"date":"2008-01-18T06:39:44","date_gmt":"2008-01-18T11:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=398"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:56:15","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:56:15","slug":"creationism-is-taught-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"Creationism is taught in Florida?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

An article in today’s Florida Today<\/a> focuses on what evolution in the public schools means to Brevard County. The majority of quotes in the story are outstanding, and, quite frankly, reality based. Here’s a sample.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Richard DiPatri said the change wouldn’t make a difference in Brevard Public Schools, where evolution already is taught and the curriculum is aligned with national science education standards.<\/p>\n

…
\nIn March 2006, a review committee found that the discussion of divine origins in a ninth-grade Biology I book was “unacceptable for inclusion in a biology textbook.” After almost a month of heated public debate, the Brevard County School Board voted to strike any mention of intelligent design from texts.<\/p>\n

…
\n“Considering using public funds to teach intelligent design or creationism is appalling and a disservice to all of our kids,” said Scott Mariani, an engineer at Northrop Grumman and a father of two toddlers who will attend Gemini Elementary in Melbourne Beach. “Those ideas don’t prepare them for work in the real world or the scientific work force.”<\/p>\n

Ginger Davis, a science resource teacher for the Brevard district, said students participate in labs where theories of evolution can be proven.<\/p>\n

“Evolutions is much more than just that one little piece of Darwin,” she said. “It is a fundamental scientific concept that you can observe in a lab, but people tend to want to focus on that little narrow piece.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then there is this weird bit in the story:<\/p>\n

Some Florida school districts still incorporate intelligent design in their curriculum.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Oscar Howard of Taylor County, a Panhandle district with about 3,300 students, has spoken against teaching just evolution, arguing that evolution has not been proven.<\/p>\n

School districts in Baker and Holmes counties also include ideas on creationism in their science courses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are those statement based on verifiable fact, or just a misunderstanding of what the whole anti-evolution resolution thing is about? [Update: I e-mailed the reporter, Megan Downs, and it’s apparent that no one told Downs that creationism is actually being taught. Downs said: “I can see how my article could be misleading. I will try to issue a correction\/clarification today.”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article in today’s Florida Today focuses on what evolution in the public schools means to Brevard County. The majority of quotes in the story are outstanding, and, quite frankly, reality based. Here’s a sample. Superintendent Richard DiPatri said the … 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-6q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":695,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=695","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":0},"title":"Silly season in Brevard","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Today makes some recommendations for the Brevard County School Board. The four other candidates for the seat [District 4] -- Richard Contreras, Karen Henderson, Dean Paterakis and Tom Wuchte -- also want to boost education in Brevard, but lack expertise or promote flawed policies. All support the teaching faith-based\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":729,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=729","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":1},"title":"Intelligent choices","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Intelligent choices Brevard School Board should toss aside textbooks that undermine scientific learning Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good editorial that gives me hope that there are, in fact, voices of reason out there. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no debate in legitimate scientific circles that evolution is the bedrock biological principle and should be taught to\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":2917,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2917","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":2},"title":"Brevard County asking for help with science materials selection","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to an alert Florida Citizens for Science friend, we now know that Brevard County is looking for the public's input about what science instructional materials to adopt for their school district. Read this pdf listing the dates and events: Community Involvement Opportunity. Brevard Public Schools (BPS) is inviting parents\/community\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":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=725","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":3},"title":"What was in that evolution lesson?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tampa Tribune, specifically Hernando Today, has a story out this morning about an evolution lesson that had apparently gone awry. The story is a bit confusing, though. The problem didn't actually involve evolution, but rather some mentions of religion. A sixth-grade student from \u00c2\u00a0Explorer K-8 in Hernando County told\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":726,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=726","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":4},"title":"Textbook debate still evolving","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks in Brevard County need keep an eye on this textbook issue. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a done deal yet as school board member Amy Kneessy makes clear. Textbook debate still evolving Brevard County School Board member Amy Kneessy wants the school district to adopt a biology textbook that includes passages on\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":353,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=353","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":5},"title":"More about Pinellas mess","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, the St. Petersburg Times teased in their education blog today's story about the Pinellas County school board's creationist majority. The board members are confused. They worry that students will have a tough time meshing the scientific theory of evolution with their personal and family religious beliefs. And it would\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\/398"}],"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=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}