Re: [asa] Culture Wars Come to New Zealand

I need to make it a project to study these so-called "fairness" laws more
carefully. My first reaction to the Louisiana law as quoted is that, as far
as I know, local school boards already have the discretion to do everything
the law outlines -- at least insofar as the U.S. Constitution is concerned.
The "savings clause" in Section D, BTW, isn't only a statement of
legislative intent -- it's also designed so that if a court could read the
statute in two different ways, one of which would violate the establishment
clause and another of which would not, it must adopt the constitutional
reading and "save" the statute from repeal.

It seems that a key phrase is that the State government "shall allow *and
assist" *local school districts and individual teachers who want to present
alternative views, and that this assistance "*shall* include support and
guidance" concerning the controversial areas mentioned. So, the law seems
to mandate support at the State level for alternative curricular materials.
That seems problematic to me at a policy level on subsidiarity grounds.

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 1:23 PM, Rich Blinne <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 8:31 AM, Jack Haas <haas.john@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> David;
>>
>> I am not privy to the thinking of those down under who are offended by an
>> American Group trying to influence their schools, have never read the *Privileged
>> Planet* and thus can't
>> answer your question - sorry. My posting was informational.
>>
>>
> I've seen the movie and in a vacuum it's innocuous. Whether it truly is
> what Jack fears all depends on the surrounding context. When Denyse O'Leary
> crowed about its showing at the Smithsonian its real purpose was exposed.
> Some of you may recall the DI used the film at a celebration sanctioned by
> the Smithsonian because the DI had made a contribution to the Smithsonian
> and the Smithsonian in turn allowed for any movie to be played in their
> auditorium. O'Leary used this to prove that the Smithsonian believed in
> (upper case) Intelligent Design since Gonzalez was a senior fellow at the
> DI. This incident put Dr. Gonzalez on the national radar and IMHO untimately
> destroyed his career at secular universities.
>
> This is being sent by FotF and since I have debated Del Tackett who is
> affiliated with them I think I have a sense on where they are going with it.
> One of my points to Dr. Tackett was there was common ground between ID and
> some ECs such a myself on the very point of PP. When cosmological ID was
> used in The Truth Project the very next week came standard exposition ID.
> Randy is a good disinterested observer of this debate -- Randy please
> correct me if I am wrong here -- but the sense I get was I was not really
> considered to be on the same "team" and my synthesis between cosmological
> ID and EC was the result of a bad worldview. So, even though there is
> nothing about PP that is anti-evolutionary per se the organization providing
> it gives reason to believe that that anti-evolutionism is was what they are
> driving at.
>
> Another point of context is the recently passed Louisiana law. Note the
> whole supplementary materials thing, the limited number of subject areas
> that this applies to and by the way this has nothing to do with religion
> (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Emphasis mine throughout.
>
> 1 AN ACT
> 2 To enact R.S. 17:285.1, relative to curriculum and instruction; to
> provide relative to the
> 3 teaching of scientific subjects in public elementary and secondary
> schools; to
> 4 promote students' critical thinking skills and open discussion of
> scientific theories;
> 5 to provide relative to support and guidance for teachers; to provide
> relative to
> 6 textbooks and instructional materials; to provide for rules and
> regulations; to provide
> 7 for effectiveness; and to provide for related matters.
> 8 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana:
> 9 Section 1. R.S. 17:285.1 is hereby enacted to read as follows:
> §285.1. Science education; development of critical thinking skills
> 11 A. This Section shall be known and may be cited as the "Louisiana
> 12 Science Education Act."
> 13 B.(1) The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, upon
> 14 request of a city, parish, or other local public school board, shall
> allow and
> 15 assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create
> and foster
> 16 an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that
> promotes
> 17 critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective
> discussion of
> scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, *evolution,
> the*
> 2 *origins of life, global warming, and human cloning*.
> 3 (2) Such assistance shall include support and guidance for teachers
> 4 regarding effective ways to help students understand, analyze, critique,
> and
> 5 objectively review scientific theories being studied, including those
> enumerated
> 6 in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection.
> 7 C. A teacher shall teach the material presented in the standard textbook
> 8 supplied by the school system and *thereafter may use supplemental
> textbooks*
> 9 *and other instructional materials* to help students understand,
> analyze, critique,
> 10 and review scientific theories in an objective manner, as permitted by
> the city,
> 11 parish, or other local public school board.
> 12 D. *This Section shall not be construed to promote any religious
> doctrine*,
> 13 *promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious
> beliefs, or*
> 14 *promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.*
> 15 E. The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and each
> 16 city, parish, or other local public school board shall adopt and
> promulgate the
> 17 rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this
> Section prior
> 18 to the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.
>
> Senator Nevers claims that the language of the bill he sponsored is
> original. However this is the language of the Florida "Academic Freedom"
> bill.
>
> (7) This section shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine,
>> promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs,
>> or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.
>>
>
> So, what's so bad about having supplementary materials along with the text
> books? You can find exactly how this is meant to be used here.
> http://textaddons.com/Docs/ips_on_How_To_Use_These_Addenda.wpf.pdf
>
> Updated 11/2/04
>> Tips on How To Use These Addenda
>> To the Student:
>>
>> If you are in a course where the teacher is not covering information
>> similar to that presented in these addenda then you probably do not fully
>> understand evolution. Your Evolution I.Q. can be determined by examining the
>> list of questions (click here) derived from the addenda on this website. If
>> you cannot answer most of these questions then your Evolution I.Q. is low.
>> You should review one of the addenda to find the answers to these questions
>> and enhance your Evolution I.Q.
>>
>> To the Teacher:
>>
>> We suggest three approaches to presenting the information in these
>> addenda:
>>
>> 1. This first approach will involve a minimum of your time and hopefully
>> very little, if any, change in Lesson Plans. Have the students read the
>> material from the addendum for your textbook and answer the appropriate type
>> of questions from the Evolution I.Q.Test Questions list (click here).*Ideally a
>> ** question or two could be included on chapter tests.*
>>
>> 2. Hand out class projects and assign them to teams in the class who would
>> present class reports on the assigned subjects.
>>
>> 3. *Treat this addendum material as part of the textbook and teach it as
>> you would normally handle the** textbook material.*
>>
>
> Here's the link to the so-called Evolution I.Q. test.
> http://textaddons.com/Docs/Evolution_Test_Questions.pdf
>
> Here's the link to an example addendum.
> http://textaddons.com/Docs/10_06_2004_Biology_Miller_Levine.pdf
>
> Rich Blinne
> Member ASA
>

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Received on Mon Jun 30 13:40:28 2008