:: Dano's Production Journal ::

:: 11/29/2007 ::

I'm flabbergasted! Texas does it again! Is there anything my state could do to NOT make me hang my head in shame?

The Director of Science Education for the Texas Education Agency was forced to resign for 'seeming' to endorse evolution over intelligent design. How did she do this? By forwarding an email about a presentation by Barbara Forrest, author of 'Creationism's Trojan Horse' and witness for the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v Dover (the intelligent design trial). You can see Barbara's great talk HERE.

So by forwarding a notice about this event, which you would think might be important for science teachers to know about, Ms. Corner showed 'the appearance of bias' against ID. You see, Don McLeroy, Perry's new choice for Board Chair, has actually given anti-science polemics at churches in Texas, denouncing evolution and anyone with a non-fundamentalist worldview. Clearly, he's aware of how intelligent design failed in Dover and he's using new tactics.

First, he mandated that the TEA remain 'neutral' between evolution and creationism/ID. That's like saying they should be neutral between astrology and astronomy or chemistry and homeopathy! There is NO neutral ground between good science and bad science. But its part of the new bag of tricks: teach the controversy. Barbara Forrest is a threat to that tactic, and by association, so is Ms. Corner.

Why should this matter to you, Texan or non-Texan? Because McLeroy's not done yet. Next year Texas' Board of Education will "update/revise" the science curriculum. If they mandate that Texas science teachers 'teach the controversy' or 'point out the weaknesses in evolution' for the TEKS test, that means that teachers must choose textbooks to the SBoE's liking. This means textbook publishers who want to sell to Texas must water down the facts that support evolution. Or the state could adopt the trojan horse textbooks - the intelligent design textbooks that played such a crucial role in Kitzmiller v Dover (Barbara Forrest pointed out that textbook editors for 'the Panda's Thumb' literally did a search/replace for 'creationism' to 'intelligent design' at one point resulting in the hilarious typo: 'cdesign propentsists'). So Texas is a big influence on national textbooks, and therefore could be a big influence on the scientific proficiency of millions of American kids.

So maybe I'm using a bit of a slippery slope argument. America won't turn into Afghanistan overnight obviously. But if we can't stand up for one woman, doing a good job and keeping teachers, students, and parents well informed about science then what will we stand up for?

I encourage people to get involved with Texas Freedom Network, Texas Citizens for Science, the National Center for Science Education, and Center for Inquiry Austin.
:: Dano 5:11 PM [+] ::
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