Greetings:
To reinforce Burgy's point of caution concerning these sentences in the
Kansas science standards revision:
_____________________________________
"Compelling student belief is inconsistent with the goal of education.
Nothing in science or in any other field shall be taught dogmatically."
(from report)
______________________________________
A recent correspondent reported the following experience in a public school
below the Mason Dixon line:
______________________________________
"I had parents call the principal of our school to complain about my anatomy
test.
Clearly, they said, I was an atheist because I taught the children that
males
and females have the same number of ribs. I was stunned. The principal
said I
was offending religious beliefs, and if these children wanted to put on
their
test that males have one less rib than females, I could not take off points.
I
offered to have my husband bring X-rays from the hospital to prove to the
children and their parents that males do not have one less rib than females,
but
the principal said, "Nothing you show me matters. The Devil can trick
people in
a thousand ways."
"I was also told I had to teach that dinosaurs and humans existed at the
same
time. Evolution was absolutely out of the question. That topic could not
even
be discussed. Big Bang - no way."
"One of the more interesting beliefs in this location has to do with "who's
a
human." Since Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, and since they are
everyone's parents, AND (get this) since everyone knows that Adam and Eve
were
white people, it then stands to reason that Asians, Africans, Hispanics, and
so
on are not "real" people - they are subhuman. Everybody knows that white
people
don't give birth to Asians, Africans, and so on, so only white people are
the
true people of God....."
___________________________________
Can ASA make a difference?
Jack Haas
----- Original Message -----
From: "John W Burgeson" <burgytwo@juno.com>
To: <hvantill@novagate.com>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: FW: FYI #16 - New Kansas Science Stds.
> Howard posted the Kansas science standards, which included these words:
>
> ""Science studies natural phenomena by formulating explanations that can
> be tested against the natural world. Some scientific concepts and
> theories (e.g., blood transfusion, human sexuality, nervous system role
> in consciousness, cosmological and biological evolution, etc.) may differ
> from the teachings of a student's religious community or their cultural
> beliefs. Compelling student belief is inconsistent with the goal of
> education. Nothing in science or in any other field shall be taught
> dogmatically."
>
> I both applaud and view with alarm those last two sentences.
> Understanding how they came to be, and what they are trying to guard
> against, they seem far too strong. Surely we wish to teach our
> youngsters that gravity works, so don't jump off the roof; that drugs can
> kill, so "just say no." Surely we do not wish to teach science in such a
> way that "this is the best explanation for X, but if you want to believe
> in a different explanation, that's OK for your beliefs are just as valid
> (to you) as others' beliefs are to them."
>
> What I think of here, primarily, is of course youngsters who are fed the
> YEC position exclusively at home and at church. Stephen Carter, usually a
> very perceptive writer, seems to think in his most recent book, GOD'S
> NAME IN VAIN, that the school needs to honor this, teaching, in fact,
> that holding such an invalid belief is perfectly OK and as valid as any
> other. I don't know if he'd extend this to "Flat Earthers"or not -- or to
> the teachings of the "Christian" militia, but I see nothing in his
> arguments that draws any lines of this kind.
>
> For my YEC friends here, put some other position than YEC in the above --
> KKK teachings on race, for instance.
>
> Burgy (John Burgeson)
>
> web page (back in operation) is
>
> www.burgy.50megs.com
>
> ________________________________________________________________
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 16 2001 - 14:18:01 EST