The Institute for Creation Research has announced its appeal seeking reversal of the decision by the Texas higher education board against accreditation for its distance education masters degree in “science education,” which would presumable have qualified its graduates for certification as science teachers in Texas (and, they would hope, licensing as science teachers in other [...]
Category Archives: Intellectual and Academic Freedom
“Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature”
May 4, 2008 – 7:58 pm
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande is one of two books reviewed for the Austin American-Statesman, as “Good YA novels with silly titles.”
From the review:
When Ms. Shepherd begins teaching evolution, the self-styled “Holy Warriors” at Mena’s church call for her dismissal and demand the teaching of intelligent design. Mena [...]
high school student finds conservative bias
April 28, 2008 – 1:35 pm
added May 2, 2008
For links to other posts on LaClair, see this post on the Five Public Opinions blog. Click here for a transcript of his acceptance speech for the FFRF 2007 Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award, and click here for an audio recording of the speech.
In a new (April 27, 2008) Op-Ed piece in [...]
Truth Expelled
April 19, 2008 – 11:46 pm
Blake Stacey compiles examples of people being penalized for being truthful about evolutionary biology.
Meanwhile, for Dembski on expelled, see here and here. As usual, he’s being dishonest. For example, Dembski says
Controversy surrounds this film. Reviews tend to be extremely positive or extremely negative. Who likes it? People who think God may have had something to [...]
Florida legislation (pending) on Teaching Evolution
April 13, 2008 – 4:41 pm
Note that the interpretation by the staff analysts for the Florida House itself is dramatically more ominous than even the critical interpretation on The Panda’s Thumb.
Creationists’ new legistlative maneuvering: state “Academic Freedom” acts
April 6, 2008 – 4:25 pm
The latest wave of anti-bioscience activity in the legislative arenas in several states is the Introduction of “Academic Freedom” bills, such as the one introduced in Louisiana recently (and discussed by Casey Luskin at the Discovery Institute’s Evolution News and Views blog (with the illustration posted here at right).
The “Louisiana Academic Freedom Act” declares its [...]
“Ben Stein is the Rosa Parks of Darwin Skeptics”
March 30, 2008 – 9:21 am
Proponents of “Intelligent Design” continue trying to portray their efforts as a struggle for civil rights, as in this amusing post touting Ben Stein as “the Rosa Parks of Darwin Skeptics.”
more on Expelled
February 9, 2008 – 9:41 pm
For anybody interested in the source, it’s in Augustine’s book The literal meaning of Genesis (where Augustine explains that Genesis does not literally mean what “literal” Creationsists claim that it means).
Ben Stein — EXPELLED
January 18, 2008 – 8:11 pm
Judging from the website, we can expect this movie to be an extraordinary example of the propaganda technique known as the Big Lie. The movie apparently hammers away at a few claims of monstrous misdeeds by the “neo-Darwinists,” with one fabricated example after another.
Colbert WØRD: “Heated Debate”
May 16, 2007 – 12:21 pm
Stephen Colbert says: “College students should be unformed lumps of clay fixed in the kiln of unchallenged thoughts.”
Click here, or on the image below, for the Colbert video at the Comedy Central website. (The image was originally linked to the Cavuto interview on YouTube; but apparently FOX has had that YouTube video removed.)
As reported by [...]
Cato: CHOICE would prevent curriculum conflicts
January 24, 2007 – 2:10 pm
The Cato Institute has release a report titled Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict by Neal McClusky, which makes the case for school choice as a preventive solution for avoiding conflict over public school curriculum.
NSTA on “Inconvenient Truth”
December 1, 2006 – 9:35 am
UPDATE: Seethe NSTA response and explanation regarding this matter.
NSTA rejects Inconvenient Truth - NCSS?
November 28, 2006 – 1:28 pm
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has reportedly rejected an offer to donate 50,000 free copies of the DVD “An Inconvenient Truth” for use in science classrooms; and fear of losing financial support from the oil industry is being suggested as among the motives. What about NCSS, the National Council for the Social Studies? The video could be appropriate in some social studies classes, and social studies teachers could share it with their science teacher colleagues.
ID Creationism in schools - the “Rawlsian” argument
October 19, 2006 – 10:40 pm
Reuland is correct to say that these people are not liberals, and can’t be heard to use Rawls’ theory as their own; but what they’re trying to argue is that liberals don’t have any possible position from which to justify not teaching ID, since they undermine their own principles, and the logical basis for any liberal argument, if ID is not included.
Time now for a new Constitutional Convention?
October 13, 2006 – 3:19 pm
Jeff Weintraub’s post Re: Jefferson, Madison, & Burke on the US Constitution includes his own comments, followed by the text of a review by Cass Sunstein in The New Republic of a book by Sanford Levinson on how the US Constitution is and has been viewed, and used, from the contrasting views of Jefferson and Madison to the present day. I think there’s a lot here (in the book, review, and commentary) that could be put to great use in social studies.
