Texas may start teaching against Evolution in high schools...

[Zhais]

Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution

The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.

The proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that all life on Earth is descended from common ancestry. Texas is such a huge textbook market that many publishers write to the state's standards, then market those books nationwide.

"This is the most specific assault I've seen against evolution and modern science," said Steven Newton, a project director at the National Center for Science Education, which promotes teaching of evolution.

Texas school board chairman Don McLeroy also sees the curriculum as a landmark -- but a positive one.

Dr. McLeroy believes that God created the earth less than 10,000 years ago. If the new curriculum passes, he says he will insist that high-school biology textbooks point out specific aspects of the fossil record that, in his view, undermine the theory that all life on Earth is descended from primitive scraps of genetic material that first emerged in the primordial muck about 3.9 billion years ago.

He also wants the texts to make the case that individual cells are far too complex to have evolved by chance mutation and natural selection, an argument popular with those who believe an intelligent designer created the universe.

The textbooks will "have to say that there's a problem with evolution -- because there is," said Dr. McLeroy, a dentist. "We need to be honest with the kids."

The vast majority of scientists accept evolution as the best explanation for the diversity of life on earth.

Yes, they say, there are unanswered questions -- transitional fossils yet to be unearthed, biological processes still to be discovered. There is lively scientific debate about some aspects of evolution's winding, four-billion-year path. But when critics talk about exposing students to the "weaknesses" or "insufficiencies" in evolutionary theory, many mainstream scientists cringe.

The fossil record clearly supports evolution, they say, and students shouldn't be exposed to creationist critiques in the name of "critical thinking."

"We will be teaching nonsense in the science classroom," said David Hillis, a biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Polls show many Americans are skeptical of or confused by evolution; in a recent survey by Gallup, 39% said they believe the theory, 25% said they didn't, and 36% had no opinion.

The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank that challenges evolution, cites a recent Zogby poll that found a strong majority of Americans supports letting teachers explore both "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution. Otherwise, students see only "cherry-picked evidence that really amounts to propaganda," said John West, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute.

The Texas school board will vote after taking public testimony in a three-day meeting that starts Wednesday. Dr. McLeroy leads a group of seven social conservatives on the 15-member board. They are opposed by a bipartisan group of seven, often joined by an eighth board member considered a swing vote, that support teaching evolution without caveats.

Neither side is confident of victory. All members of the board have come under enormous pressure in recent months, especially three Republicans who support teaching evolution without references to "weaknesses." The state Republican Party passed a resolution urging the three to back Dr. McLeroy's preferred curriculum. A conservative activist group put out a news release suggesting all three were in the pocket of "militant Darwinists."

One of the three, former social-studies teacher Pat Hardy, said she has received thousands of impassioned calls and emails.

Ms. Hardy says she intends to stand firm for evolution, but she has learned not to predict what her colleagues might do. Curriculum standards critical of evolution won preliminary approval in January, but several board members said later that they hadn't understood the issues.

"Anything can happen," Ms. Hardy said.

lolTexas

[Neosutra]

And this is why Texas is officially the shittiest state in America. Fuck that redneck piece of shit state. Fuck you super Texas fanati-fags that think your state is anything more than an inbreed waste of resources and land that gave america nothing but Waco massacre and the Bush administration.

But seriously, lolTexas.

Incoming shit storm of Texans.

[Devek]

The bibles doesn't even say the world is less than 10,000 years old and specifically states that the world existed before Genesis 1:2

I don't understand where these crazy people get these ideas in their head.

[Skjie]

As the article notes though, if this is passed in Texas, textbook manufacturers will start adding it into all of their books - it's too costly to make two sets of books, especially considering the buying power of the Texas school board.

So, this isn't just "GG Texas" this is "GG America".

[ChooChooTrain]

Hey, atleast we're not Ohio.

Fucking Ohio.

[The_OG_Nelta]

So ashamed to live here. i'm going to canada.

[altwight]

Wow...

[kuronosan]

Typical Neo-Christian bullshit. Nowhere in the bible does it even state when the world was created.

[Elvis]

Hey, atleast we're not Ohio.

Fucking Ohio.

As an Ohioan.. I concur.

[Max™]

Acting as if there aren't morons infesting every state is utterly fucking retarded of anyone doing it.

As a Texan, I am goddamn embarrassed that this mouthbreathing shiteating motherfucker got into a position where he could attempt to push shit like this off on children, but I also have to recognize that the entire american public school system is pretty much a joke. A couple of shining beacons here and there do not make up for the utter failure at simply teaching kids how to learn.

We didn't give you Bush, he's from Connecticut, fucking bitch at them, assholes.

If you're letting your children go to public school, you're probably a moron, or at the least horribly uninformed. The public school system is a festering blight on what may have once been a great nation (so I hear), while it is far from the worst, it isn't contributing anything to turn it around.

I've known from my first experiences with the school system that I would be teaching my kids myself.

[Eratosthenes]

When you press someone who supports "teaching the strengths and weaknesses" to provide some of those problems, they can't name any real problems because they're so out of touch, like Ben Stein and his "Darwinism doesn't explain gravity" nonsense.

An honest examination of the theory of evolution in science classrooms is the LAST thing creationists want.

[Eratosthenes]

Hey, once they're done sticking creationism in science class, they'll be in math class telling kids that pi equals three, because the bible does actually say so.

[Clumsy]

I think that Gallup was the most depressing part of the article. Supreme court will likely overrule Texas, as it's done to other states, if they so happen to pass it.

[MaachaQ]

As a Texan, I am goddamn embarrassed that this mouthbreathing shiteating motherfucker got into a position where he could attempt to push shit like this off on children, but I also have to recognize that the entire american public school system is pretty much a joke. A couple of shining beacons here and there do not make up for the utter failure at simply teaching kids how to learn.

If you're letting your children go to public school, you're probably a moron, or at the least horribly uninformed. The public school system is a festering blight on what may have once been a great nation (so I hear), while it is far from the worst, it isn't contributing anything to turn it around.

I've known from my first experiences with the school system that I would be teaching my kids myself.

I'm ever more glad that I moved out of the country before my kids began school. American public schools are so far behind those in much of the rest of the world, and situations like this are only driving it further down...

My kids may have some problems when they get older for being half-American, but at least they'll be much better educated and bilingual when we eventually move back to the states (if the economy there ever recovers...). Koreans are so obsessive about education, there are so many extra study businesses for art, music, language (mainly English), etc, kids can literally spend all day in one form of school or another. They also have Saturday classes and year-round school (2 weeks is the longest vacation, at Christmas and mid-summer). Korea's population is actually falling recently because parents can't afford to raise more than one child in many cases, with all the extra costs associated with "proper" schooling here.

My husband actually told me once our kids are in school for longer during the day I should start working at one of the English tutoring places near here. He said even part-time I could probably earn better money than he's making full-time at a computer company...

[Khajit]

I'd like to take a moment to point out a new "fact" i discovered recently. The housecat came to be when on noahs ark the local lion fucked a monkey and im sure you figured out the result.
Another version is that god was scared that the lion(and they coincidentally EAT PEOPLE) would eat him asked god to prevent the whole eating thing. i forgot the rest because i found the monkey fucking so much more hilarious 5 seconds later but basically the lion barfed out a kitty.
In essense i implore you to make sure that the children of texas are rightfully informed of the interspecies lion/monkey bestiality that their young impressionable minds desire to learn about.

[Beckwin]

Don't send your kids to tons of hagwons, Maacha. Most are a ripoff and an overload; plus turning your kids into memorizing zombies really isn't all that great.

and yeah, I'm assuming your husband is Korean so you can get an f-5 visa, which means you can work just about anywhere, hagwons included. the real money is in private lessons, where you can pretty easily pull down 30-40 bucks (ok, 30k-40k won) per hour and they usually feed you too. technically illegal for people on my visa, maybe legal for yours, but it's an extremely widespread practice regardless.

anyway, while America's public education is in the shitter, and while Korea does do some things well, I think it's an example of pushing too far in another direction, generally speaking. You'll probably miss your kids when they don't get home from high school until 10 pm everynight just to do homework for another couple hours. On top of that, Koreans don't rank as high internationally as all that time spent should correlate to. It's the Finns/Swedes/etc that ought to be the models atm.

[Howard Roark]

Texas may start teaching against Evolution in high schools...

uh, start? lol

[Apelila]

If you're letting your children go to public school, you're probably a moron, or at the least horribly uninformed. The public school system is a festering blight on what may have once been a great nation (so I hear), while it is far from the worst, it isn't contributing anything to turn it around.

I've known from my first experiences with the school system that I would be teaching my kids myself.

Depending where you are in texas Private school isn't a matter of 'if you can' but 'if you can afford it'. Also, i'd bet money that there are a higher percentage of religious private schools in the state than not. Not to say thats a bad thing, but look at the base issue in the thread.

I do wish that something would happen to cut half the 'administration' out of public schooling. There's so much money being funneled around who makes the most off of kids being taught a certain way, its just not good for being an education system.

[BadKarma]

And this is why Texas is officially the shittiest state in America. Fuck that redneck piece of shit state. Fuck you super Texas fanati-fags that think your state is anything more than an inbreed waste of resources and land that gave america nothing but Waco massacre and the Bush administration.

But seriously, lolTexas.

Incoming shit storm of Texans.

I'm moving to texas once im done here in new york. Shit's cheaper there and ITS NOT FUCKIN COLD

[Plow]

I don't think it's that terrible to point out that evolution is not an entirely flawless theory at this point.