Arkansas imposes ignorance on its sons and daughters.
This is just ridiculous. This is an article about science education in Arkansas. I have been very slow to accept the idea that biblical history carries so much weight in the American educational system. Thinking back, I don’t remember being explicitly taught evolution, but all but one science teacher I ever had felt quite comfortable saying, “millions of years.” Apparently that is taboo in some parts of our country.
Its easy to write off anti-evolution as an outspoken, but backwater movement.(Fun too) But this article shows that this is not the case. Arkansas has been independently ranked 37th in the nation for education. OK so their kids aren’t all Ivy League bound, but they aren’t dead last. (Hey Arizona, I guess you guys are better off going to school on Martin Luther King Day. Maybe it might help you guys catch up.)
This passage is just shocking.
According to his survey, about 20 percent are trying to teach evolution and think they are doing a good job; 10 percent are teaching creationism, even though during the workshop he discusses the legally shaky ground on which they stand. Another 20 percent attempt to teach something but feel they just do not understand evolution. The remaining 50 percent avoid it because of community pressure. On an e-mail to members of a list he keeps of people interested in evolution, Randy reported that the latter 50 percent do not cover evolution because they felt intimidated, saw no need to teach it, or might lose their jobs.By their own description of their classroom practices, 80 percent of the teachers surveyed are not adequately teaching evolutionary science. Remember that these are just the teachers who are in a professional development workshop in science education! What is more disturbing is what Randy went on to say about the aftermath of these workshops. “After one of my workshops at a [state] education cooperative, it was asked that I not come back because I spent too much time on evolution. One of the teachers sent a letter to the governor stating that I was mandating that teachers had to teach evolution, and that I have to be an atheist, and would he do something.”
So basicly the Arkansas educational system has been bullied into mandating ignorance. Yikes! No wonder the Clintons abandoned that state for New York.
Maybe this awesome Doonesbury will cheer you up.