Los Alamitos class must present both views of global warming

[TomCADem]

Source: OC Register

LOS ALAMITOS – A new high school advanced placement class that addresses global warming has prompted the school board to start requiring teachers to present opposing views in courses that include controversial topics.

Los Alamitos Unified School district trustees unanimously agreed to update the policy on controversial issues at the request of board member Jeffrey Barke, who said he is concerned about "global warming dogma" and wants students to be offered a balanced perspective on the topic.

There are two clearly divergent opinions on global warming," Barke said in an interview. "There are those who believe that global warming is a fact, created by man's impact on the environment and the consequences will be devastating. There are others on the conservative side who believe it's much ado about nothing. It's overhyped and politically motivated, and the science is not solid, and there's room for more studies."

Since news of the board's decision was posted on a numerous national blogs, Barke said he has received more than 100 e-mails criticizing the district's move and attacking him personally


Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/news/-300559--.html

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Who needs to go to some village in the middle of nowhere? Apparently, even in the middle of metropolitan Southern California, you can get backwards school boards demanding that science be presented in a he said, she said format. Is the earth round? Pro and con. Does the earth orbit around the sun or is the sun the center of universe? Pro and con.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Does gravity really exist??

So many questions, so little time

[PuffedMica]

13. Just what is the Moon made of? The blue cheese alternative view must be presented too.

[plumbob]

17. Cheddar, dammit! Won't somebody think of the cheddar??

Don't squelch me, bro!

[winstars]

2. Orange County, No Surprise to me!!!

Since moving to SoCal I have learned that quite near to where I live you almost are in Alabama. However, not so differently one hour or so north of NYC is exactly the same. (think of the Dad on Orange County Choppers; yes there are two Orange counties that are very similar regressive holes.

[Keith Bee]

7. "Alabama" exists in all 50 states

No need to be dissing the Heart of Dixie.

[boppers]

12. But does it?

Alabama exists: pro and con.

[Kolesar]

16. I regard Orange County as upper class aerospace people with a bit of Central Valley Okie culture

The people who made money in aerospace are small government conservatives, which is another way of saying "I got mine, fuck off". That's where Congressman "B1 Bob" Dornan came from.

[Le Taz Hot]

19. Uh, scuze me?

You want to offer up a definition of "Central Valley Okie culture?" :wtf:

LTH
Central Valley Okie

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

29. Sally Kern perhaps? n/t

[izquierdista]

30. Three

You forgot the one in FL that booted out Alan Grayson.

[Tanelorn]

3. Which class is being taught?

If this were a science class then the science MUST be
presented.
If this were a social studies class then both sides can be
presented but show that it is an unequal debate.The science of
climate change is overwhelming. In a social studies class it
would probably be more important to show how climate change
has been distorted by climate deniers. 

In an English class it might be good to see how techniques of
persuasion is being used(distorted),bias, fact and opinion
etc.
In a maths class graphing ,statistics and other applied maths
my be used.

Yep I can see how both sides could be used to teach the truth
and should be . 
But don't treat this as an equal debate.... IT IS NOT.

[alp227]

5. agree...science is not a "both sides" topic

but economics, history, and language yeah

[StarsInHerHair]

4. so then-use science to destroy the Con view, after "presenting" it, of course

THAT is what SHOULD be done. These Cons are out to destroy education, in any & every way they can.

[cosmicone]

6. These neanderthals don't understand what science is

and don't understand the scientific method. They think science is like two guests arguing on Faux news and one supports the viewpoint one agrees with.

No matter how much scientific evidence is given, they will make it fit into their way of thinking.

For example, when I was arguing evolution with one of these zealots and said that the Grand Canyon's layers deposited over 250 million years, contain different fossils during different epochs. His response was, "god purposely put them them when he created the universe."

[Beartracks]

8. Brought to you by the same people who think...

... wintertime snow in New York means there is no climate change.

------------------------

[octothorpe]

24. Yeah, but presenting that argument in class would give the teacher a chance to explain why that's a

stupid argument by using actual science. :)

[saras]

9. BOTH views? Why not all of them?

After all, there are dozens of perspectives on global climate change that are not based on science. Why privilege one of them above all the others?

[DesertDiamond]

10. People who deny global warming, in the face of the fact that it endangers *their* lives as much as

anyone else's, is so bizarre that I can't even think of an analogy. Nothing compares to their stupidity. Nothing.

[Dragonfli]

14. It is called Religion and it wants us back in the dark ages /nt

[cigsandcoffee]

36. What does religion have to do with global warming? n/t

[Fumesucker]

38. Religion shouldn't have anything to do with climate change..

However a great many conservative Christians are adamantly opposed to even considering that climate change might be happening and even more dead set against admitting that humans have anything to do with it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

39. Short version:

Gawd created the earth. It is not in the power of man to fundamentally change Gawd's creation. Therefore, man is not behind global warming.

[pfitz59]

11. 2 of my sisters graduated from Los Al High

40 years ago! it was considered a "progressive school" back then, I'd call it "regressive" now!

[blueclown]

15. Both sides - "the truth" and "a lie"

[on point]

18. They confuse delusional assertions with theories based on evidence

[ixion]

20. indeed. 'views' are not something to be taught in science class...

that is better left for civics.

[Mr. Jefferson]

21. Average ground station readings show a warming of 0.6 to 0.8 over the last 100 years.

Is it your fault, or mine?

[droidamus2]

22. Okay, no problem

I could do that ... I would tell my students, 'the scientific community as a whole supports the idea that global warming exists and is caused by human activity. In a 2009 poll 92% of scientists polled agreed that global warming existed and 82% agreed that human activity was a causal factor. On the other hand a few corporate paid flacks, right-wing wackos and conservative pundits try to claim that it doesn't exist'. Then you proceed to show why the 'global warming exists' people are correct and the other people are idiots. There you gave both sides and the students can decide if you were correct or not. Hey, even go further have the students do their own research and write supporting their view of global warming.

[octothorpe]

23. I'm curious how the opposing view would be taught.

I wouldn't see the problem with the opposing view being discussed and then responded to with actual scientific data. Since the facts are on the side of the 'global warming is real' group, I'm sure it would ultimately work in our favor.

[24601]

25. Having been assigned to the US Space Command from 1986-1990,

computing satellite orbits, I'll attest that the while the earth tends toward round, it definitely is not perfectly round due to land mass and atmospheric anomalies. If that was not so, we never would have had to factor in aspects like the diurnal bulge (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1966SAOSR.207.....J/0000001.000.html).

So your comment was really an endorsement for examining those issues where interest groups, for various reasons, want us to set aside a critical mind and instead accept their assertions on faith. That's fine for matters of theological faith and far less helpful on "facts" than can be addressed objectively. If "facts" spouted are indeed accurate, they will stand up to critical analysis. Thanks for inadvertently pointing that out that data beats dogma - yes - even with global warming and a round earth.

[Overseas]

26. K&R. Disgusting. Big Oil has financed creating controversy here in the USA

but elsewhere the problems of climate change are reviewed more scientifically. Introducing more opinions would be in the area of the possible scenarios for how the climate disruptions will unfold and how those effects can be handled.

They want their students to understand the role of carbon emissions in climate destabilization because they want their students to learn more about how to control carbon and lead the world in the alternative energy and conservation technology markets.

We seem to want our kids to learn how to pretend things we see happening are not real. We are already great at pretending.

We now need to return to the real world and train our kids in science to address the problems our reckless and wasteful use of fossil fuel have engendered.

[HopeHoops]

27. Both views: "It's happening fast now" and "It will be happening fast in a couple years".

Those who seriously believe it does not exist are of about the same number who still think the earth is flat. There is actually a fairly large group that pushes the rhetoric that it doesn't exist for monetary gain (like the oil industry), but you can't consider their rhetoric to be a "view".

[Curmudgeoness]

28. I don't really have a problem with this.

My education is as a biology/science teacher although I do not teach. But since I was trained in education, I can see ways to do this that may actually get through to the students instead of having them sleeping through class. There will be the students in class who flat out refuse to believe that global warming exists, and if you give them the opportunity to pursue the anti side, it will defuse some of the total mind block that they will have. I had this situation when we dealt with evolution in biology class, where several students just refused to acknowledge any validity to anything that was not "god made it this way". I handled it first by saying it really didn't matter what they believed, they would have to know the principles of evolution---and this just pissed them off and shut their minds down. Then I let them argue their sides, but they had to document every statement that they made with facts, and the Bible was not a recognized source. At least this made them have to work at it and think things through. And they had to defend their stance against the pro side with all the proof we have from geological records and observations. Their faith may have kept them from changing their minds, but they learned a lot along the way.

Research papers where the students have to argue their side of the issue with scientific references, or papers where every student has to present both sides, also with scientific references. Set up debates where students are randomly chosen to be pro or con and have to support and defend their arguments---this is something that I had to do in one of my education classes in college where I got stuck with the pro charter schools and all I can say is yikes, I found it very hard to find legitimate data to support my side on that issue.

This could be a fun lesson to teach.

[totodeinhere]

31. I don't see anything wrong with telling children that there are people who do not accept that

global warming is real. We all know that to be the case, so what is wrong with saying so? That's not passing judgment on the validity of the anti global warming argument. It is simply recognizing what is going on the real world.

[intheflow]

33. They're not saying merely that some people don't believe in global climate change,

they want to teach the two "theories" as equal in weight. As if both climate change advocates (like those radicals at NASA!) and climate change skeptics (like our friends at Fox News) are presenting equally valid scientific evidence. That's the problem in a nutshell.

[tabasco]

32. Why not just present the facts?

I hate this stupidity.

[Javaman]

34. Like homer simpson once said...

to paraphrase, "pfft, you can prove anything with facts".

the right wing doesn't want to prove anything, as long as they keep the stupid wagon going, they have power in ignorance.

[krabigirl]

35. It is at times like this that I am embarrassed to live in Orange County, ca.

[Uncle Joe]

37. Obviously if the Earth was spinning and revolving around the Sun we would all be dizzy,

that subject is now controversial and Los Alamitos Unified School should be teaching the Universe spinning around the Earth Theory.

Copernicus and Galileo must have been smoking some of that Renaissance infused herb.

Thanks for the thread, TomCaDem.