An earlier post here includes a video with this line from Ben Stein (whose movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which purports to “document” a truth-and-evidence-defying regime of “neo-Darwinist orthodoxy” dogmatically supressing an abundance of evidence against evolution, was cited to that end by creationist members of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) in their [...]
Category Archives: jaw
fair, or “balanced”?
November 23, 2008 – 2:54 pm
Some observers have commented that nothing new or noteworthy emerged from the November 19, 2008 session of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE).
Well, maybe this isn’t new, but I think it deserves notice:
Despite the overwhelming imbalance of testimony favoring standards that would support the teaching of real science in Texas, newspaper stories have managed [...]
Teaching evolutionary life science in Florida (NYTimes)
August 24, 2008 – 9:53 am
Amy Harom has a great piece in the August 23, 2008 New York Times on a Florida teacher engaged in teaching evolutionary life science to a high school class that includes religiously committed skeptical students. The article is unusual in looking at the issues as matters of curriculum, requiring knowledgeable responses by educators, and not [...]
Louisiana anti-science law: 3 questions, 1 suggestion
August 17, 2008 – 10:48 pm
The Sensuous Curmudgeon has been providing yoeman service keeping us all posted on developments in Louisiana with the immanent implementation of Louisiana’s new “science education” law. From him we learn, for example, about the scheduled meeting Tuesday, August 19, of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).
I have a suggestion (below) for [...]
TX Ed Agency defense in evolution case
August 16, 2008 – 12:08 pm
The Texas Education Agency [TEA] has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Chris Comer, who lost her job as the TEA’s top science education specialist after forwarding an email announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest. ‘a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, a co-author of “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” and [...]
U.C. wins ACSI case
August 12, 2008 – 3:48 pm
In a decision dated August 8, 2008, a federal district court in California has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the Association of Christian Schools International against the University of California, in which the ACSI argued that the University’s refusal to approve some of the Christian schools’ courses violated First Amendment guarantees to freedom of [...]
“Behold: the atheist’s nightmare” (a banana) [ video ]
July 28, 2008 – 7:15 pm
Before I say anything about it, just watch this video first:
like teaching Klingon in French class
June 22, 2008 – 7:57 pm
It would be more like the situation where a teacher hired to teach French in French class decides instead to mix in grammar and vocabulary from Italian (or Klingon, maybe, to make the analogy more precise — since Italian is another real language, after all), without letting students know that what they’re learning is not really French, and with state law protecting the teacher against any kind of repercussions.
Bradley: Teachers “got spanked” by Texas Bd. of Ed.
June 3, 2008 – 1:05 pm
Added June 6, 2008:
NY Times: Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy
Steven Schafersman, President, Texas Citizens for Science: Critical Review that covers developments reported in the NY Times article and the article (linked below) by Gary Scharer, as well as reaction by Intelligent Design proponents.
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A story by Gary Scharrer for the San Antonio Express-News reports [...]
Brownback’s anti-humanzee legislation
May 5, 2008 – 5:22 pm
In Ligers, Tigons, and Zonkeys, Oh My!, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council writes:
Over the past few years, plenty of animal hybrids have been coaxed into existence, including wholphins (whale and dolphin), lepjags (leopard and jaguar), and a pizzly (polar and grizzly bear). We are quickly approaching a threshold of irresponsibility that is [...]
“Testing boosts memory, study doesn’t”
March 8, 2008 – 5:06 pm
A study reported last month in Science is being discussed around the blogosphere under titles like “Testing boosts memory, study doesn’t,” and “Testing, not studying, makes for strong long-term memories.”
I think the 2½-page published report of the study itself makes for an excellent item to “test” students’ (I’m thinking now of grad students in education) [...]
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.
Texas decision on creationist masters degree postponed
January 16, 2008 – 1:38 pm
What is at stake here is not only whether this Creationist program will confer graduate degrees sanctioned by the State of Texas, but whether Texas will be interpreting its approval criteria in such a way that Texas accreditation can no longer serve as a basis for Science Teacher credentials, or for the NCLB requirement for a teacher in every classroom who is “Highly Qualified” in the specific subject they are teaching.
Children of Jihad
December 30, 2007 – 8:47 pm
I’m listening now to a fascinating presentation by a book author who has spent substantial time with young people in the Middle East. The book is:
Cohen, Jared. Children of Jihad a Young American’s Travels among the Youth of the Middle East. New York: Gotham Books, 2007.
Information about the book, including library holdings in local areas, [...]
Texas forebodings: textbooks and science standards
November 17, 2007 – 12:49 pm
Although the specific textbooks involved this time were in elementary mathematics, the broader concern here is that, if the Board is allowed to get away with rejecting textbooks without and explanation, they could use that practice to censor textbooks for ideological reasons in controversial areas such as teaching about evolution in biology.
@ issue: “Intelligent Design” in Social Studies
October 13, 2007 – 7:57 pm
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has announce that the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) statement on Intelligent Design in social studies will appear in the third edition of NCSE’s Voices for Evolution. Bloggers and media on the Christian Right are taking notice.
