Creationism and revisionist history threaten to invade our classrooms Zack Kopplin

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/20/creationism-textbooks-louisiana-schools


A Louisiana state bill seeks to reassign authority to approve public school textbooks.

Louisiana's legislators are continuing their legislative jihad to keep the theory of evolution out of the state's public school science classrooms. On 1 May, legislators killed a bill to repeal Louisiana's creationism law, the misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA).

The law allows non-science to be snuck into science classrooms by teachers who use supplemental materials to "critique" politically controversial (but not scientifically controversial) theories, including evolution and climate science. Despite this loophole for creationism created by the LSEA, educators are still required to teach "material presented in the standard textbook", which includes the theory of evolution.

These biology textbooks are a major problem for creationists, whose next goal is to throw them out, and they have allies in the Louisiana legislature who are willing to help.

House Bill 116, sponsored by Frank Hoffmann, a state representative, would throw out Louisiana's biology books – it passed the Louisiana State House by a 73-22 vote. This is the third bill Hoffmann has sponsored to remove biology textbooks since they were adopted by the state board of education, in 2010.

[el_bryanto]

1. It always depresses me to see something that's been happening for decades presented as something new

I don't know why. Just intellectually lazy, I guess.

Bryant

[Bandit]

2. If this had happenmed decades ago there would be no need to introduce it now.

Throw out the text books chosen in 2010....

[DetlefK]

3. Teach the controversy? They asked for it...

What about other politically controversial issues, like whether capitalism really is the best economic system evah(TM), or whether God really exists, or that creationism is useless because it doesn't actually explain anything, or that ID is useless because it's argument has a loophole, or who shot Russel's teapot into space, or whether homosexuality is a choice or a genetic mutation...

[ladjf]

4. "Ignorance is a terrible thing." nt