Monday, January 26, 2009
IDing Illiteracy
From a New York Times editorial on the Texas State Board of Education's actions last week:We were heartened when the board beat back, by a very narrow margin, efforts to reintroduce the language on "weaknesses." But the conservative bloc immediately recouped by pushing through amendments that require students to assess the arguments "for and against" common ancestry, a core element of evolution theory, and its "sufficiency or insufficiency" to explain the fossil record. How that differs from the old language of "strengths and weaknesses" is not readily apparent.The problem, of course, is that creationists, by definition, are unfamiliar with the concept of a sound education.
The lesson we draw from these shenanigans is that scientifically illiterate boards of education should leave the curriculum to educators and scientists who know what constitutes a sound education.
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