{"id":728,"date":"2006-03-14T09:08:13","date_gmt":"2006-03-14T13:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=728"},"modified":"2009-02-07T09:58:04","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T14:58:04","slug":"textbooks-changed-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=728","title":{"rendered":"Textbooks changed under pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Citizens for Science was under a time crunch to get a letter out to the Brevard County school board about science textbook selections. The letter could have benefitted from another round or two of rewrites, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get the letter out in time.<\/p>\n

There are five letters to the editor here<\/a>. As can be expected, some are good and some are wide of the mark. Here are a couple of excerpts from the bad ones:<\/p>\n

To teach the theory of evolution as fact, and not even address the possibility of intelligent design or other theories, is another attempt by the liberals in the media to impose their agenda on the American people and our children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The short two-paragraph reference to life forming under a guiding intelligence only acknowledged the fact that many cultures and world religions hold this belief to be true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Having these few paragraphs included in the text is not pushing religion on any student studying science.<\/p>\n

It is an introduction to a widely held theory that can then be further discussed in social-study classrooms teaching world religions, cultures and philosophies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Each of those excerpts can be slapped down by pointing out one glaring problem. From a previous post here:<\/p>\n

But the issue has crossed into the district, because publishers like Holt have changed textbooks over the years while under pressure from such groups as the Discovery Institute<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit agency that has monitored the Texas textbook adoption process for a decade, said Holt kowtowed to conservatives<\/strong> with its Florida biology book.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a post I compiled a while ago that has a lot of real good information about the whole textbook deal.<\/p>\n

A South Florida Sun-Sentinel review of both textbook finalists \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Glencoe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book and Holt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Holt Biology \u00e2\u20ac\u201d found that the publishers had edited explanations of Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evolution theory under pressure from Christian conservatives<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The publisher caved in to pressure! This is not some \u00e2\u20ac\u0153innocuous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d cultural reference. This is not a nod of acknowledgement for some new scientific theory bursting onto the scene. Those two paragraphs were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wedged\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in there by a group with an agenda. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the liberals trying to impose anything; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the opposite!<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wishing that mentioning this fact about the textbook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history had made it into our letter to the school board. Maybe next time \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Citizens for Science was under a time crunch to get a letter out to the Brevard County school board about science textbook selections. The letter could have benefitted from another round or two of rewrites, but ya gotta do … 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":[26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-bK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3184,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3184","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":0},"title":"Clay County superintendent: “In no way, shape or form do our textbooks or will our textbooks ever reflect evolution as a fact …”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This year school districts across Florida are adopting new science textbooks. In many of those districts the process is pretty far along, with committees already having looked at the options and made their selections. Then the materials are offered to the public for viewing and comments. For instance, I know\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":3322,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3322","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":1},"title":"News Roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a quick roundup of recent news articles associated with current events Florida Citizens for Science has been involved in. Orlando Sentinel: Director stands up for his Christian voucher schools The director of three private Christian schools that accept state scholarships takes issue with Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie who\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3322#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":727,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=727","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":2},"title":"Letter to Brevard County school board","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science, sent the following letter to Brevard County school board members today in reference to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s post: Dear (name of School Board Member), It has recently come to my attention that one of your Board members, Amy Kneessy, has suggested the biology text,\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":3280,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3280","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":3},"title":"Collier County: science textbooks promote “utter nonsense”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some media outlets are now reporting on the kerfuffle the Florida Citizens' Alliance is causing over science textbooks under consideration for purchase by the Collier County school board. The most important report is the Tampa Bay Times' Gradebook Blog podcast:\u00c2\u00a0Inside the debate over Florida textbooks. It's well worth your time\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\/2017\/11\/christian-ed.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3312,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":4},"title":"Road trip to Collier County: Speaking up for science education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be on the road tomorrow morning (Monday) headed to Naples on a mission to help speak up for science education. I hope to see some of you folks there so we can finally meet in person. Why do science defenders need to converge on Collier County? Because a coordinated\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=68","url_meta":{"origin":728,"position":5},"title":"Our response to the letters to the editor","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been waiting to post here on our blog our answers to the previous letters to the editor talked about here. However, we learned that the newspaper chose not to publish our letter. On the positive side, they did publish Dr. Scott's letter. I realize our letter is long, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728"}],"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=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}