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defrogI’m originally from Tennessee, a state that doesn’t make national headlines very often, and when it does, it’s usually because of Republicans passing bad, atavistic laws.
Like allowing guns in bars. Or making it a felony to share yr Netflix account or post anything online that might offend anyone. Or allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people. Or banning teachers from mentioning gay people in any way, except when they’re acting on their moral convictions by denouncing gay students as demon spawn.
On the bright side, at least they haven't legalized the teaching of Creationism in science classes, which would –
Oh.
Never mind.
It's called Senate Bill 893, and while it doesn’t permit teachers to swap out evolution for Creationism as a scientific explanation for man’s origins, it does permit students to ask about it in class, and once they do, teachers are now required by law to discuss and explore Creationism – presumably for as often as the students bring it up.
And TN being what it is, and fundamentalist conservative parents being what they are, it’s a fair bet it will come up often. It only takes one kid to put Creationism on the table – a point I’m sure isn’t lost on the people who came up with SB 893.
Is this that big a deal? I think so – at least as far as public schools go. I’m a big believer inmaking Rick Santorum vomit church/state separation, and that includes using publicly funded schools to promote religious beliefs. And Creationism definitely counts as a religious belief. Conservatives can dress it up as science all they want. It’s still a religious belief. So SB 893 looks to me like a fairly obvious dodge to get around the church/state issue so Creationism can be taught in schools.
Not that I’m not 100% opposed to that. I’m certainly in favor of Creationism being mentioned in courses like History, Social Studies and Political Science in the context of, say, illustrating the church/state debate and the tactics deployed by fundamentalist Christian politicians to get around that separation. I’m even okay with Creationism being mentioned in science classes, if only to give students a textbook example of what is science and what is DEFINITELY NOT BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION science.
But SB 893 is a bad way to enable that because it empowers students, rather than teachers, to determine their science curriculum, even if it’s not science. Which isn’t a problem if yr a science teacher who thinks Creationism is science and evolution is bunk (in which case, yr not much of a science teacher).
Class dismissed,
This is dF
Like allowing guns in bars. Or making it a felony to share yr Netflix account or post anything online that might offend anyone. Or allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people. Or banning teachers from mentioning gay people in any way, except when they’re acting on their moral convictions by denouncing gay students as demon spawn.
On the bright side, at least they haven't legalized the teaching of Creationism in science classes, which would –
Oh.
Never mind.
It's called Senate Bill 893, and while it doesn’t permit teachers to swap out evolution for Creationism as a scientific explanation for man’s origins, it does permit students to ask about it in class, and once they do, teachers are now required by law to discuss and explore Creationism – presumably for as often as the students bring it up.
And TN being what it is, and fundamentalist conservative parents being what they are, it’s a fair bet it will come up often. It only takes one kid to put Creationism on the table – a point I’m sure isn’t lost on the people who came up with SB 893.
Is this that big a deal? I think so – at least as far as public schools go. I’m a big believer in
Not that I’m not 100% opposed to that. I’m certainly in favor of Creationism being mentioned in courses like History, Social Studies and Political Science in the context of, say, illustrating the church/state debate and the tactics deployed by fundamentalist Christian politicians to get around that separation. I’m even okay with Creationism being mentioned in science classes, if only to give students a textbook example of what is science and what is DEFINITELY NOT BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION science.
But SB 893 is a bad way to enable that because it empowers students, rather than teachers, to determine their science curriculum, even if it’s not science. Which isn’t a problem if yr a science teacher who thinks Creationism is science and evolution is bunk (in which case, yr not much of a science teacher).
Class dismissed,
This is dF
