It’s official: Louisiana public schools are using the Book of Genesis in high school science classes

[cbayer]

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/11/its_official_louisiana_public_schools_are_using_the_book_of_genesis_in_high_school_science_classes/

THURSDAY, JUN 11, 2015 01:10 PM EDT

Louisianans can now get a 19th Century education to accompany their 19th century economy
LAMAR WHITE JR. AND SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN


(Credit: Daniilantiq via Shutterstock)

After years of sounding the alarm to politicians and the media, yesterday’s official confirmation that teachers in at least one Louisiana school district use the Book of Genesis in public school science classrooms affirms what activist Zack Kopplin had been warning about since he was a junior in high school: Bobby Jindal’s “science education” law had nothing to do with better understanding science — and everything to do with promoting evangelical Christianity.

As a teenager, Zack personally garnered endorsements for the “science education” law’s repeal from 78 Nobel laureates, scouring the Internet to find their names and e-mail addresses and writing them an earnest letter. It was, at first, just a part of his senior project. But other national and international science organizations paid attention, and so too did the media. He spent nearly an hour talking with Bill Moyers and, a few months later, was the special guest panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher.

By the time he enrolled in college at Rice University, Kopplin was regularly speaking at campuses and conferences all over the country. (For the purposes of full disclose, one of the co-writers of this article, Lamar White, is a close friend of Zack Kopplin and has been publicly involved in his campaign since it first launched).

Today, Kopplin, who turns 22 in July, is a regular science writer for the online publication Slate, and even though the repeal bill has been brought up and swiftly defeated for five consecutive years, he is not giving up. If anything, in recent months, he has ramped up his efforts, requesting and receiving hundreds of dollars worth of public records from school districts all over the state. He knew what he was looking for.

more at link

[Angry Dragon]

1. A Fourth century science education

[cbayer]

2. It's tragic.

Louisiana is leading the nation in overt stupidity.

[skepticscott]

8. So apparently it's OK for you to broadbrush an entire state

as stupid, even as you upbraid everyone else in sight for what you consider "broadbrushing", and righteously opine how insulting and disparaging people never accomplishes anything.

So which is it, cbayer? Which principles do you actually adhere to, and which ones do you just use as a convenient club to advance your own agenda here?

[Yorktown]

11. It's an ad hoc methodology

So which is it, cbayer? Which principles do you actually adhere to, and which ones do you just use as a convenient club to advance your own agenda here?

Whatever best floats the boat.

[edhopper]

3. Can we agree

this has everything to do with religion?

[cleanhippie]

18. You'd think that would be an easy consensus.

Unfortunately...

[Kalidurga]

4. It looks like they are trying to trap people in Louisiana

That kind of education will make it much harder for people to get a college degree. People without college degrees will have a harder time leaving that backwards state.

[cbayer]

5. There is a program in louisiana that basically guarantees that residents can go to

a state college or university.

It will be interesting to see how the state's higher education institutions respond to this.

It's hard to imagine how Louisiana would be better off trapping a segment of the population that has been poorly educated.

FWIW, the catholic school system is huge in Louisiana, so there's that.

[Kalidurga]

6. I don't know how Louisiana is better off keeping people uneducated

But, clearly at least one school district thinks they are better off teaching the bible than teaching science.

[cbayer]

7. Looks like it is a single teacher in a single school in Bossier Parish.

But the district is letting her do it.

And this despite some pretty heroic efforts on the part of Zack Kopplin.

[Kalidurga]

9. There is no accounting for the utter idiocy of some people.

It's hard to blame the individual teacher in this case since she has the back up from the school district. But, still that kind of thinking isn't doing anyone any favors. I think the teacher should be fired, but that is just my opinion.

[cbayer]

10. I agree wholeheartedly.

The article presents a pretty comprehensive account of what is going in in Louisiana. The silver lining is that this might present an opportunity to legally challenge this that could possibly have a national impact.

Anyway, we can hope it might.

[Igel]

16. The principal should be fired.

He's spineless.

Then again, if you fire all principals who are spineless when confronted with a parent, there'd be ...

Wait, how many schools are there?

That (minus perhaps 10) would be the number of jobs open. In the country.

The new principal could have a heart-to-heart with the teacher, and he can make the decision whether or not to fire the teacher.

It's the parent, ultimately, responsible for making sure the kid's denied an education.

[cbayer]

19. I don't know if you followed the link to the site that reported on this,

but here is some of the content:

Email from science teacher Shawna Creamer to principal Jason Rowland at Airline High School allegedly said: "We will read in Genesis and them [sic] some supplemental material debunking various aspects of evolution from which the students will present."

A spokesperson from Bossier Parish Schools, which is among the fastest growing school district's in the state, told The Christian Post that while the "district does not provide Creationist literature as supplements in our courses," it does allow educators to "use the Bible as supplementary material in presenting alternative viewpoints to evolution."

Passed in 2008, the act calls for teachers to provide more critical interpretations of issues like the theory of evolution and climate change.

"The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, upon request of a city, parish, or other local public school board, shall allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning," reads the act, in part.

[Igel]

13. Who are "they"?

Because this is driven not by "they" but largely by parents, at least in practice.

The problem is that principals nearly never, ever tell a parent, "You are wrong." They may try to hint at this, but unless there is an iron-clad law or district requirement that the principal cannot break without fear of prosecution or severe penalty, it's not going to happen. Principals are the managers and parents/students the customers. The customer is always right.

The closest I've seen has been only *after* a parent made clear that he thought his son absolutely in error. Then the principal felt free to side with the father.

[Kalidurga]

14. You know THEY

[cbayer]

21. But it is the legislature that has opened this door

and has repeatedly declined to close it.

[struggle4progress]

12. Zack Kopplin's original Slate article was more interesting:

The Bible v. the Constitution
Politicians, school boards, principals, and teachers are pushing creationism on kids.
By Zack Kopplin

That article was noticed by the Times-Picayune and then later by the Christian Post, at which point Zack Kopplin's old friend Lamar White wrote the Salon article linked in the OP. But White's article really doesn't say much more than Kopplin's original article did

[cbayer]

20. I agree and would have posted Zack Kopplin's article if I had seen it.

He is a true crusader and a hero, but doesn't often get the attention he deserves.

[Igel]

15. Texas squares the circle.

It is not easily possible to teach creationism alone, but it can be difficult to keep it out of the classroom entirely. Instead, the emphasis is on how the scientific evidence available, that which is observable, leads to the theory of evolution, and that this theory has great explanatory power. (I personally pitch in that not only does it explain what's observed, in fact it also explains what is *not* observed, and that this helps to satisfy the idea that a theory be falsifiable. And, no, I don't teach biology, but evolution is taught in other classes, too.)

Science concepts. The student knows evolutionary theory is a scientific explanation for the unity and diversity of life. The student is expected to:

(A) analyze and evaluate how evidence of common ancestry among groups is provided by the fossil record, biogeography, and homologies, including anatomical, molecular, and developmental;

(B) analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning any data of sudden appearance, stasis, and sequential nature of groups in the fossil record;

(C) analyze and evaluate how natural selection produces change in populations, not individuals;

(D) analyze and evaluate how the elements of natural selection, including inherited variation, the potential of a population to produce more offspring than can survive, and a finite supply of environmental resources, result in differential reproductive success;

(E) analyze and evaluate the relationship of natural selection to adaptation and to the development of diversity in and among species;

(F) analyze and evaluate the effects of other evolutionary mechanisms, including genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, and recombination; and

(G) analyze and evaluate scientific explanations concerning the complexity of the cell.

Note that often the objections to Texas biology teaching is on the exclusivity of teaching evolution. Individual teachers can waffle, but that's not with official approval (merely official non-sanction). Individual teachers can omit something, but that's always true since it's not possible in most classrooms to teach all the standards. With the EOC test being a requirement, however, and this being one of the standards for-sure tested, omission is a very, very risky business.

Most objections I've seen raised by students, though, fall under the "trickster" category. They don't do it because they believe in creationism, they just like disrupting class and creating problems, and are very often those near failing anyway.

[cbayer]

22. Do you think there is an opportunity here to file a 1st amendment based suit?

Although the LA statute does include a section which prohibits the promotion of religion, that seems to be meaningless and entirely ignored.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. "Belief in ludicrous nonsense is just as valid as disbelieving ludicrous nonsense".

I've heard that assertion here time and time again. So why object to teaching this ludicrous nonsense?

For example, it was recently stated here that "not believing in the fairies at the bottom of the garden is as legitimate as believing in the fairies."