Although the recent firing of Chris Comer has indicated that Texas is in the business of keeping our schoolchildren ignorant on the teaching of evolution, I believe that Florida is inching the closest towards short-changing our children.
Florida's science standards are up for renewal and for the first time in history, they have evolution expressly taught. Unfortunately, at least two of the board members seemed to have received marching orders from the Discovery Institute because they are using the language of the politically brilliant "Teach the Controversy" strategy. Because this is such a brilliant, reasonable-sounding strategy it will be difficult to combat. Currently the battle is being lost because the Pro-ID troops are mobilized and state BOE members have been getting flooded with Pro-ID comments. But there is something you can do to help if you follow me after the jump. Florida Citizens for Science has been on the ball and they are organizing a brilliant Christmas card campaign entitled, "All I want for Christmas is a Good Science Education". I hope that you can help Florida's citizens destroy this problem before it gets to big. So please if you care about our children's education follow me after the jump.
One state BOE member Donna Callaway recently stated that she doesn't want intelligent design taught (thanks Kitzmiller v Dover) but "I agree completely that evolution should be taught with all of the research and study that has occurred. However, I believe it should not be taught to the exclusion of other theories of origin of life." She has expressly stated that she will vote No on the science standards if evolution is the only theory taught.
Another state BOE member Linda Taylor stated, "I would support teaching evolution, but with all its warts. I think that some of the facts have been questioned by evolutionists themselves. I would want them taught as theories. That's important. They could be challenged by others and the kids could then be taught critical thinking and they can make their own choices."
Additionally there is a politically active group of moms that has friends in high places that is lobbying for the new Teach the Controversy strategy and they have sent media information to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity referencing the Discovery Institute.
Sounds reasonable enough, doesn't it? As you can see this is going to be a difficult issue to combat and it could get out of hand before we know it. The Teach the Controversy strategy is going to sound completely reasonable to the lay-public and who wants to argue with a bunch of powerful moms. Unfortunately, the 'Ultimate' goal of the Teach the Controversy strategy is to undermine the teaching of evolution, while the 'Proximate' goal may appear to be acceptance of evolution. There are NO other theories for the origin of life and additionally there is NO scientific controversy as to the veracity of evolution even if the details are in hot debate. So in these classroom discussion sessions the only thing to talk about would be the philosophical and religious objections to evolution rather than the cold, hard facts which are the domain of science. It is the job of educated teachers to inform the children, not allow children who haven't been exposed to the scientific literature to shoot from the hip in scientific discussions of evolution.
Right now, we are losing this battle. BOE members have indicated that their e-mail inboxes have been flooded with Pro-ID comments and we need to fight back. The Florida Citizens for Science have organized a brilliant campaign urging people to write christmas cards to the state BOE members and the governor simply stating, "All I want for Christmas is a good science education". Additionally you can add, "I support the teaching of evolution" and "Intelligent Design is not science" or you can explain why the Teach the Controversy strategy is only another creationist wedge. Some examples of what to write can be found here http://www.flascience.org/...
So please help support the education of Florida's schoolchildren by buying a stack of christmas cards and sending them to the addresses below.
Ms. Donna Callaway
State Board of Education, Member
325 W. Gaines Street
Turlington Building, Suite 1514
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Phone: (850) 245-0505 Fax: (850) 245-9667
E-mails flooding Dr. Akshay Desai's inbox are predominantly in support of creationism and intelligent design, he said. We need to counter that.
Dr. Akshay Desai
State Board of Education, Member
American Family and Geriatric Care
150 2nd Avenue, North, Suite 400
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Phone: (850) 245-0505 Fax: (850) 245-9667
Roberto Martinez made it clear that he fully supports evolution and will have nothing to do with creationism nonsense. Make sure to thank him for standing up for sound science education.
Mr. Roberto Martinez
255 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
Phone: (850) 245-0505 Fax: (850) 245-9667
Alternate contact information:
http://www.colsonhickseidson.com/...
phone (305) 476-7400 fax (305) 476-7444
email bob@colson.com
The remaining board members have remained silent on the issue in public. Let's make sure they hear us!
Mr. T. Willard Fair
Chairman, State Board of Education
Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc.
8500 NW 25th Avenue
Miami, Florida 33147
Phone: (305) 696-4450 x. 0 Fax: (305) 696-4455
Alternate contact information:
http://www.nul.org/...
Urban League of Greater Miami
T. W Fair
President 8500 NW 25th Avenue
Miami, FL 33147 305-696-4450
Email: twfair@bellsouth.net
Mrs. Phoebe Raulerson
325 W. Gaines Street
Suite 1514
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Phone: (850) 245-0505 Fax: (850) 245-9667
Ms. Kathleen Shanahan
WRS Infrastructure & Environment, Inc.
221 Hobbs Street, Suite 108
Tampa, FL 33619
Phone: (850) 245-9661 Fax: (850) 245-9667
Alternate contact information:
http://www.wrsie.com/...
kshanahan@wrsie.com
Mrs. Linda Taylor
13451 McGregor Blvd.
Suite 27
Fort Myers, FL 33919
Phone: (850) 245-0505 Fax: (850) 245-9667
Office of Governor Charlie Crist
State of Florida
PL-05 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com
The Florida Times Union mentioned in an article that some citizens had convinced Senator Wise to address the state BoE about including "other theories" beside evolution in the standards. Please let the senator know that is not acceptable.
Fl. Senator Stephen R. Wise
1460 Cassat Avenue
Suite B
Jacksonville, FL
32205
The St. Petersburg Times education blog noted that Rep. Weatherford is a fan of intelligent design.
Fl. Rep. Will W. Weatherford
38440 5th Avenue
Zephyrhills, FL�33542-4329