New Tenn. Law Clears Way for Teachers To Question Science

[Ali]

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/04/11/tennessee_evolution_law_allows_creationism_intelligent_design_in_the_classroom.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

Paging the ghosts of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan: Tennessee has a new law on the books that allows teachers to discuss alternatives to mainstream scientific theories in the classroom, including intelligent design.


Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam allowed the bill—which easily passed the state's House and Senate—to become law on Tuesday by neither signing nor vetoing it, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

The new law bars schools and administrators from prohibiting teachers from "helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught." But, as the effort's critics have been quick to point out, the only examples the legislation gives of "controversial" theories are "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

The law does not allow teachers to present the alternative theories on their own, as Reuters notes, but they must discuss them if mentioned. Critics of the law dubbed it the "monkey bill," after the 1925 prosecution in Tennessee of John Scopes, a science teacher who broke state law at the time by teaching evolution.

The law's supporters, including the Knoxville-based Center for Faith and Science International, argue that it promotes critical thinking skills. But opponents, who include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Tennessee Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Association of Biology Teachers, argue that the new rules are essentially allowing teachers to depict evolution and global warming as scientifically controversial subjects, when the actual controversy surrounding them comes from the political and religious spheres, not from scientists.

As Nature notes, the separation of church and state bars school from promoting religion in the classroom, which generally keeps creationism and intelligent design on the sidelines of biology classes. But the Tennessee law represents a victory for a strategy to circumvent that limitation. Groups like the Discovery Institute, who advocate for the teaching of intelligent design, have depicted evolution as a scientifically controversial topic in order to make space for alternative theories in the classroom.

In 2008, Louisiana passed a similar law that provides even more leeway for teachers to bring nonscientific alternative theories into the classroom. As the Christian Science Monitor explains, Louisiana's Science Education Act allows teachers to bring in supplemental materials in addition to science curriculum textbooks while discussing subjects "including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning."

What do you think of this?  Assuming that the teachers are honest science teachers who are actually presenting help analyzing and critiquing the theories using valid scientific thought and logic, I don't have a problem with it.  What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

[DeterminedJuliet]

What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

Ye-aahhhhhh. This.

[Tank]

Excellent! Another nail in the coffin of American science education! Go Europe!!!

That was a joke.

Take out the Excellent! and Go Europe!!! and it's no longer a joke.

[Guardian85]

What do you think of this?  Assuming that the teachers are honest science teachers who are actually presenting help analyzing and critiquing the theories using valid scientific thought and logic, I don't have a problem with it.  What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

If you'll pardon my french, that's a big f**king if!

[Ali]

What do you think of this?  Assuming that the teachers are honest science teachers who are actually presenting help analyzing and critiquing the theories using valid scientific thought and logic, I don't have a problem with it.  What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

If you'll pardon my french, that's a big f**king if!

Well it's hard, because you don't want to make it so that students/teachers can't analyze and question current scientific theories and findings.  That goes against the very idea of science!  It's just a question of how you make sure that science teachers are actually using the scientific method to go about it.

[DeterminedJuliet]

What do you think of this?  Assuming that the teachers are honest science teachers who are actually presenting help analyzing and critiquing the theories using valid scientific thought and logic, I don't have a problem with it.  What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

If you'll pardon my french, that's a big f**king if!

Well it's hard, because you don't want to make it so that students/teachers can't analyze and question current scientific theories and findings.  That goes against the very idea of science!  It's just a question of how you make sure that science teachers are actually using the scientific method to go about it.

Or that they have an even rudimentary understanding of what the scientific method is.

[xSilverPhinx]

What do you think of this?  Assuming that the teachers are honest science teachers who are actually presenting help analyzing and critiquing the theories using valid scientific thought and logic, I don't have a problem with it.  What I worry about is the fact that it's Tennessee, and that even the science teachers may present the info in a way that is skewed by their religion, rather than using the scientific method.

If you'll pardon my french, that's a big f**king if!

Well it's hard, because you don't want to make it so that students/teachers can't analyze and question current scientific theories and findings.  That goes against the very idea of science!  It's just a question of how you make sure that science teachers are actually using the scientific method to go about it.

Or that they have an even rudimentary understanding of what the scientific method is.

I agree, this comes first.

If they do, and they know evolutionary theory beyond high school level well enough, Tennessee should have nothing to fear. ID is a weak idea and will not stand to scrutiny.

But of course they're going for the schools, it's where the most vulnerable and impressionable are.

[Sandra Craft]

What do you think of this? 

I think if I were raising kids, I'd feel compelled to home-school them.

[Anne D.]

Unbelievable.

I wonder if Tennessee science teachers will be encouraging students to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the theory of gravity. Perhaps an undetectable intelligent designer is using undetectable, super-strong strings to keep everything attached to the earth's surface. That's my unfalsifiable, completely unscientific "theory" that I would like given equal time in the science classroom.

The theory of evolution is "just a theory" in the same way that the theory of gravity is "just a theory." There is no competing scientific explanation.

[DeterminedJuliet]

Unbelievable.

I wonder if Tennessee science teachers will be encouraging students to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the theory of gravity. Perhaps an undetectable intelligent designer is using undetectable, super-strong strings to keep everything attached to the earth's surface. That's my unfalsifiable, completely unscientific "theory" that I would like given equal time in the science classroom.

The theory of evolution is "just a theory" in the same way that the theory of gravity is "just a theory." There is no competing scientific explanation.

Well yeah, that's pretty much string theory, isn't it?

[Anne D.]

Set myself up for that one 

[DeterminedJuliet]

hehe...

[Guardian85]

Unbelievable.

I wonder if Tennessee science teachers will be encouraging students to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the theory of gravity. Perhaps an undetectable intelligent designer is using undetectable, super-strong strings to keep everything attached to the earth's surface. That's my unfalsifiable, completely unscientific "theory" that I would like given equal time in the science classroom.

The theory of evolution is "just a theory" in the same way that the theory of gravity is "just a theory." There is no competing scientific explanation.

Well yeah, that's pretty much string theory, isn't it?

Saw that one coming....

[OldGit]

OMFSM, what a disaster.  It was designed to be misused, not to foster any thinking skills.

The distance between the two groups in the US is getting terrifyingly wide and deep.  Don't forget, Americans, that it took decades to reach the breaking point in 1861 and many believed, right up to the end, that war would not happen.  I hope the liberal faction is savvy enough to jump on anything that looks like military preparations, before they can happen.

EDIT: joeactor just posted this one in the Image Dump.  Hope you don't mind my using it, joe...

[history_geek]

allows teachers to discuss alternatives to mainstream scientific theories in the classroom, including intelligent design.

That. Right there.

It's okay for teachers to say that there are alternative ideasg. It's okay for teachers to encourage independent researching of these ideas and even provide starting points where one could find info on them. But this.....

Now where's that video about that teacher who teaches creationism/ID in biology class. This law is tailored for that guy....