Even in the south, science can – and does occasionally – prevail against the forces of conservative revisionism, whether politically or religiously motivated.
The Times-Picayune reports that most schools are run by the state and that the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) only has a “direct say-so on the curriculum in about half a dozen schools.” But those in favor of science over superstition can take heart from the fact that in those six schools, at least, science will be taught rather than religion.
None of those schools were teaching creationism, but outgoing president Thomas Robichaux, who is both liberal and gay, has ensured that they won’t be doing so any time soon by making policy changes that “specifically bar district teachers from injecting ‘any aspect of religious faith’ into science courses.”
“No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach any aspect of religious faith as science or in a science class. No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach creationism or intelligent design in classes designated as science classes.”
Out specifically is anything out of Texas: “The new language even bans the use of textbooks that have been adjusted ‘in accordance with the state of Texas revisionist guidelines,’ which highlight the role of Christianity in the country’s history.”
California was the first to respond to Texas revisionism, banning this crap back in 2010. Robichaux also took a strong anti-bullying stance. OPSB’s definition is hardly narrow, as bullying is defined as,
“any intimidating, threatening, or abusive gesture or written, verbal, electronic transmission or communication or physical act by a student directed at another student occurring on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event that a reasonable person under the circumstances would perceive as being motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, physical characteristic, political persuasion, mental disability, or physical disability, as well as attire or association with others identified by such categories.”
Thanks to Robichaux, ”Any teacher, administrator, or other school personnel who personally observes, or who has or receives notice that a student has or may have been the victim of bullying, intimidation, threatening behavior, harassment, or hazing at school or any school activity shall be required to immediately take such action as necessary and appropriate to stop the incident in question, if it is ongoing, and report the alleged acts to an appropriate school district official.”
The measure can be read here (pdf).
Louisiana has not been the most forward-looking state in the Union, where education is concerned. The preference there seems to be religious indoctrination and the teaching of pseudo-Christian dogma.
None of this is surprising: Republicans control both chambers of legislature. Governor Jindal plans to push charter schools again in 2013 and I’ve written previously about how Louisiana is banishing its students in that state to the Bronze Age.
It would be comforting to think that events in New Orleans might spread outward from these six schools but in reality, the Religious Right is not about to stop pushing to turn our public schools into churches. Their reaction to the catastrophic events in Connecticut last week testify to their continuing plans in that regard.
Our children, when they are not being murdered by an angry God, are destined, if the Religious Right has its way, to be taught that humans and dinosaurs co-existed and that the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood. Science has no future in any foreseeable Republican administration.
So while we must applaud Robichaux’s efforts, we must also take them with a note of caution, like a slender ray of sunshine in an otherwise stormy sky.
PoliticusUSA
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Christopher
Dec. 19th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
As an undergrad, I did a paper on Edwards v. Aguillard, a case arising out of Louisiana in which SCOTUS ruled that even “balanced treatment” of creationism and evolution violated the establishment clause. I believe the case was litigated in the 1980s and as far as I know still valid case law. It’s heartening that a district in the state of origin heeds that. It would be nice if the rest of the country did. It would be even nicer if the very idea of having this debate were laughable on its face in the 21st century.
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Deborah Foster
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 12:47 am
This is very heartening news. Score one for science, the separation of church and state, and pockets of progressive thinking in the South.
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 3:32 am
Here’s an interesting technique to try to expose their duplicitious bullshit for what it is. The next time an evangelical/dominionist says to you that this is just a matter of teaching alternative theories to evolution and the scientific community just needs to be just be more open minded, so the students can decide for themselves. Simply nod along and agree with them because, after all it’s just a “theory” right?
Then when their guard is down, mention that you just read a couple of fascinating books that show that the evidence is quite convincing that earth was visited by advanced alien civilizations in the ancient past and built, or helped build the Pyramids in Egypt and in the Americas, as well as the monuments at Stonehenge and Easter Island; these ancient people simply didn’t have the machinery or technology to carve and move stones weighing tens of tons great distances. Oh and let’s not forget all the conclusive “proof” that the Nasca lines were ancient landing stripsfor these aliens. The biggest kicker of all however is that these aliens infused and genetically tampered with the DNA of our apelike hominid ancestors in order to bring about Homo Sapiens; so in essence these aliens are the creators of mankind. This stuff is believed by a lot of very intelligent people that claim to have an abundance of physical and archeological evidence too numerous to mention here.
So the question to these fundie’s should be: S ince you are all about giving “equal time” to other theories about evolution and the history of human kind, and since a lot of intelligent people believe this “Chariot of the Gods” stuff; the students should be given all the information out there in order to make an informed and educated decision. Right?!!
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Reynardine
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 5:58 am
I like the idea! I really do!
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 11:54 am
Right and if one compares the two, the “Chariot of the Gods” folks at least point to a lot of physical and archeological evidence for their claims; they’ve completely misinterpreted and made broad assumptive leaps about said evidence of course, but at least they can point to SOMETHING and generate a somewhat interesting debate.
The creationists on the other hand have squat! Pointing to the “Book of Genesis”? Trying to promote fake hominid footprints from the Mesozoic? Are you kidding?
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SinghX
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 7:33 am
And, why aren’t the Scientologist getting their “equal time”, their theory in the text books?
Ya’ know, I think the Scientologist should sue! But, we all know that they are such a publicity-shy, humble, non-invasive kind of a church…
Going around and “suing” anything and anybody who “moves” is just not their style ;)
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Yeah, and what about the flat earth creationists? I mean, we ALL know that the moon flights were staged and all those shots from space can be easily faked. Their ideas are no less loony that the 6,000 year old earth creationists.
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Yeah, with their track record I’m surprised the idea hasn’t occurred to them. This would be the sect possible gift that secularists for separation of church and state could have: A bunch of religious and “alternative theorists” fighting it out over “equal time” in the science text books.
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Ops. “best” possible gift. Need… more..coffee .
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D. Lowrey
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 8:28 am
I knew it all along…this is where fundamentalists get their idea of a secret Second Coming. Our forefathers have ships in orbit to beam us up and take us to “heaven” where they don’t have to face the upcoming battle between good and evil. Can’t wait until us Progressives are “left behind”.
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SinghX
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 7:50 am
I wonder if this guy had a “run in” with old David Barton? Basically, this law bans Barton’s agenda.
Bad Bart is the real problem as the scourge of academia–you’ve written about him on several occasions, Harf. It would be interesting to see if he responds…
His latest diatribe is on guns over at Right Wing Watch…
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Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 8:08 am
teaching the kids to live in fear of a God who will massacre children in a classroom leaves little room for intelligence to grow. It also leaves little room for learning about the world around them and the reality of that world.
I do not understand how these Texas textbooks are being used around the country. Religion had absolutely nothing to do with the growth of this country. Where was our religion when we deep-fried 125,000 Japanese in a matter of a couple seconds? I suppose we did that for God?
These people are very very dangerous and their only wish is to have enough soldiers to keep America at war. A religious war. That fact was brought up this morning on morning Joe where it was brought up that several senators want to have us at war right now and not for any reasons that are valid. This religious teaching will only reinforce that we need to be at war.
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Anne
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 9:11 am
I remember reading somewhere that part of the revisionism movement in Texas included the exclusion of critical issues of American history, such as slavery. It’s a truly sad commentary that there are people who live in other countries who know American history better than some of us do. The revisionist movement is about dumbing down Americans and keeping them in line with fire-and-brimstone threats.
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
What’s interesting about this Ann, is that if you look at the election results, we (I live in Austin) are damned near becoming a swing state. Even though Austin is known as an island of blue liberalism in a sea of red, a lot of that is changing. If you talk to many of the good folks in Dallas or San Antonio you will find ever growing pockets of progressive thought. A lot of this has to do with a younger population, an ever burgeoning minority population, and a heck of a lot of people moving in from other states.
A lot of the stuff that you mentioned is a typical reaction from folks that see their power slipping away and trying to hold back the tsunami of change that is coming their way.
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Johnee
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 4:51 pm
So to wrap up what I was saying above, is that it may be a better change of tactics to expose the duplicitous thinly veiled lie that religious right/dominionists are simply trying to be open minded and fair, and want to simply present the students with anlternative theories to evolution and let them make up their own minds.
So, rather than getting into a heated argument, the best thing to do is test their sincerity on this issue, and bring up other alternative theories to Darwinian evolution and see just how open minded and consistent they are to this suggestion. I think we all know the answer to this one. Rest assured that you will get a lot of sputtering, frustration, and even blank looks.
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majii
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
I am a retired social studies teacher, and I can say without a doubt that although the kids in TX will pass the social studies portion of the state’s exit exam and receive a high school diploma, the real problems will come in college. The kids will have to play “catch up” in college by having to learn the history and civics they should have learned in high school at the same time as they’re having to learn the college material. I also suspect the same thing will happen to them when they begin taking college courses in science. Teaching seems to be the only profession in which few want to work but many think they “know” everything there is to know about it without having any training at all. This leads some politicians like Rick Perry to ignore the facts and appoint ideologues to craft a state’s curriculum standards. When this happens, any sane individual would expect a state’s students to suffer academically. The republicans in TN were upset when their students’ scores on a national achievement test lagged behind those of students in other states. Their solution? Request that the testing agencies design a test specifically designed to teach the material what TN state legislators say that the students must learn, fruck the fact that they need to change the standards!!
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majii
Dec. 20th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Request that the testing agencies design a test specifically designed to teach the material THAT TN state legislators…
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