Crossposted From Politica San Antonio
As the rest of the country celebrates the continual rise of the Democratic Wave, the election of Barack Obama and a general move towards a more progressive nation those of us in Texas may sometimes feel like we're being left behind. Sure, Cheney is being indicted here and the return of Bush to Crawford means he's no longer doing damage on the national scale (Connecticut just remember even if he lives here he's still yours) but we are constantly reminded just how badly the GOP continues to hurt Texas.
More below...
When one thinks of science one inevitably comes around to scientists. As their name would imply, scientists are indeed experts in the field of science. Now, logically one would then come to the conclusion that those best suited to educating others on the subject of scientist and in what manner to carry that out would be those very same scientists.
However, in Texas we try not to let our logic get in the way of our religion. The two tend not to mix very well. In fact, a scientist might say they were an emulsion of sorts. The question is, would those of us in Texas believe the scientist?
The Texas Board Of Education is set to make a preliminary vote in January to decide what the standards for the science textbooks our 4.5 million students will be using. The issue of contention is of course evolution and its retarded twisted cousin intelligent design. The current curriculum standards call for the teaching of both the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory.
In theory, this sounds just dandy, doesn't it? I mean who isn't for the unbiased and the equal presentation of facts to our students young minds? This seems like the fair and logical course of action...right?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Remember those scientists we mentioned above and how we logically concluded that scientists are indeed the people best qualified to decided how science should be taught? Well, a recent survey asked some of the state's brightest scientists this very question:
"1. Texas scientists (97.7 percent) overwhelmingly reject 'intelligent design' as valid science. 2. Texas science faculty (95 percent) want only evolution taught in science classrooms. 3. Scientists reject teaching the so-called 'weaknesses' of evolution, with 94 percent saying that those arguments are not valid scientific objections to evolution. 4. Science faculty believe that emphasizing 'weaknesses' of evolution would substantially harm students' college readiness (79.6 percent) and ability to compete for 21st-century jobs (72 percent). 5. Scientists (91 percent) strongly believe that support for evolution is compatible with religious faith."
Those scientists just gave evolution an overwhelming A on this test. The fact of the matter is that there is absolutely no logical reason to shape the curriculum of our state's students in this manner. The only reason this is being done is to advance an agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the scientific education offered by Texas schools and everything to do with religious beliefs.
Don't get me wrong. Spirituality is indeed a very important part of the human experience but it is one that by no means should be penalizing our students. We owe it to them to provide them with the best education that we can and by adding caveats that have no substance we are doing just the opposite.
The vote that happens this spring will remain in place for the following decade. This is the same board that has given us abstinence only education and led to some of the nations highest teenage pregnancy rates. This is the same board that has engaged in systematic textbook censorship to avoid contradicting creationism and intelligent design. Its time for this board to evolve and rejoin the rest of the world in the 21st century.