Monday, March 25, 2013

Science Teachers Express Frustration

Science teachers are beginning to express frustration about having to get around legislation that requires them to add ID-tinged education to their classrooms.  As Bob Fowler, of the Knoxville News Sentinel writes:
Teachers today face daunting, sometimes scary challenges, a trio of Oak Ridge High School educators said Thursday.

“We’re teaching science in a climate of denial,” biology teacher Beth Adler said. “We have legislated denial.”

From the theory of evolution to climate change, teachers are becoming wary of teaching basic scientific consensus because of the potential backlash they can face, she said.

“This leads to intimidated and capitulating teachers,” she said. “We need courage. It is scary,” Adler said. “We need to hear ‘Thank you for teaching the scientific consensus.’”

Adler said she’s faced 14- and 15-year-old students, some of them in tears, “ready to argue basic scientific principles,” and other students “thinking that climate change is a liberal hoax.”
This is what happens when people who have no basic scientific knowledge get into positions of power in legislatures and then can wreck havoc on educational policies. You need to have a policy in place so that people who are appointed to education committees or who run for state education boards have to pass a basic test in the understanding of modern science. Those who cannot or will not try to understand it should not be on education boards.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:51 PM

    I don't understand what exactly is so difficult about teaching opposing theories.

    If a teacher is a climate skeptic, why can't he also teach the climate alarmist view as well?

    If a teacher is a creationist, what is so difficult about teaching evolutionary theory as well?

    I don't get this.

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  2. The reason that it is not reasonable to teach creationism in science class is that there is no empirical support whatsoever for it. It would be like teaching alchemy in chemistry class.

    I do not know enough about the climate change skepticism to know how to come down on that. I do know that there are quite a few climate experts who doubt the current consensus but that is all I know.

    I think you would be hard pressed to find a qualified palaeontologist or biologist who doubts the role that evolution plays (and has played) in the world around us.

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