Pseudoscience and Tennessee’s Classrooms

[technolud]

From today's NY Times.  Being a NYC surburban person I feel it my duty to post the NYC point of view.  (another stinkin liberal!)


Editorial
Pseudoscience and Tennessee's Classrooms
Published: April 15, 2012

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Eighty-seven years after Tennessee was nationally embarrassed for criminally prosecuting the teaching of evolution, the state government is at it again. This time it has enacted a law that protects teachers who invite students to challenge the science underlying evolution and climate change. The measure is a transparent invitation to indulge pseudoscience in the classroom and a transparent pandering to a vocal, conservative fringe.
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Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, wrung his hands, warning that good legislation should bring "clarity and not confusion." But he allowed the bill to pass into law without his signature in the face of the Republican-dominated Legislature's three-to-one support of the measure.

Sponsors denied the obvious — that the law was a cover to make it easier to raise creationism and intelligent design as alternatives to evolution and to billboard conservative propaganda against the evidence of climate change. No, the law invites better "critical thinking," proponents said, by protecting teachers from administrative discipline when they help students critique what the law terms the strengths and "scientific weaknesses" of topics that "cause controversy" such as "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning."

Thousands of scientists, educators and civil libertarians in Tennessee petitioned the governor to veto, warning that the law was an exercise in miseducation and a retreat to the antiscience and religious boosterism that scarred the 1925 trial of the schoolteacher John Scopes. Scopes presented an enduring lesson in the importance of standing up for science and the truth. It is amazing that so many politicians have still not figured that out.



Edit: Added link to original article - Tank

[Tank]

I have very mixed feelings about this. Part of me is horrified by the stupidity being exhibited here. But another (smaller) part of me is delighted that intellectual natural selection will take place and eventually Tennessee will illustrate  (or not) what will actually happen when people are allowed to 'teach the controversy' as the Discovery Institute would put it. There has been a lot of speculation about what could/would happen, but now we will see what will happen. It's just a shame for the kids who will be experimented upon. You never know but one possible outcome is that science will win out over superstition in a sufficient number of kids that the policy will backfire.

[OldGit]

Hmmm .... maybe not, given all the pressure the kids are under from other directions.

[Tank]

Hmmm .... maybe not, given all the pressure the kids are under from other directions.

Well this is also a possibility and it will be good to see what actually happens so if this sort of thing happens in the future there will be some evidence to work from.

[technolud]

Is it possible to return to the dark ages?  To unlearn?  People that think this way, its so hard to understand.  Like kids torturing kittens.

[Tank]

Is it possible to return to the dark ages?  To unlearn?  People that think this way, its so hard to understand.  Like kids torturing kittens.

It's happened in the past. But we now have the Internet so it's unlikely because as long as we can keep a base technology running we'll be ok. However once books are gone there will be a 'point of no return' below which sheared knowledge will disappear.

[Asmodean]

sheared knowledge will disappear.

...Or rather, the shared knowledge will get sheared.

[history_geek]

sheared knowledge will disappear.

...Or rather, the shared knowledge will get sheared.

Or used to light up a camp fire.

[Asmodean]

sheared knowledge will disappear.

...Or rather, the shared knowledge will get sheared.

Or used to light up a camp fire.

...Or sheared and THEN used for said purpose. 

[technolud]

That is a scary thought though.  Think back to 1984 where Winston Smith's job was to re-write history.  Going to get much, much easier when all of history is in electronic form.

[Tank]

That is a scary thought though.  Think back to 1984 where Winston Smith's job was to re-write history.  Going to get much, much easier when all of history is in electronic form.

It's an interesting thought isn't it, that history will become even more mutable. In electronic form how would one tell which had been altered. The other really worrying issue is file type obsolescence. This is a serious issue for professional historians. What happens if at some point Jpeg is replaced and the new file reader is not backwards compatible?

[technolud]

He (she) who controls the information controls the world.

[history_geek]

He (she) who controls the information controls the world.

Knowledge and information mean power. That's how it's always been, no matter if we are talking about a city state having better understanding of harvests and cultivation, or the knowledge to make iron weapons as opposed to copper, or the ability to calculate something more accurately then the previous generation.

And I agree, one one hand it is good that knowledge is so much more readily available, not just history but any subject in general, through the amazing digital world. On another it also makes it that much more vulnerable, as Tank noted, and it is worrying that there are so many who would wish to alter it in favor of their lesser or greater delusions and preferences.

[ablprop]

In my grumpier moods I agree with Freeman Dyson. He said we should only teach unimportant things in school like Greek and Latin (though I suppose if you live in Greece Greek might not be so unimportant). The reason is that whatever you teach in school kids will learn to hate.

I live in Ohio and know that the level of science education that happens here is already so abysmal that it's hard to imagine it getting worse. I can't picture Tennessee being any better. Why? Most science teachers in Ohio are scientifically illiterate. Either they themselves are creationists, or else they're theistic evolutionists (just as bad in many cases), or else they don't dare touch evolution because they know to avoid controversy. Biology taught without evolution? No wonder kids hate it! I had a creationist as a 10th grade biology teacher (he was also the guy who would coach anything) and it was a complete waste of time. Biology taught as Latin - no connections, no explanations, all description and coloring in of pictures.

Of course this doesn't apply to all teachers. Good teachers who actually understand science could easily "teach the controversy" and show that it isn't a controversy. But they're rare, and getting rarer as the profession devolves into drill and test. Sadly, this suits the poor teachers perfectly, because all they have to do is pour the sound bite facts into their students' heads. No explanations, no connections, no understanding. Just fill in the bubble.

I send my kids to public school for the socialization. As far as science education, I do it myself.

[ablprop]

OK, sorry about that previous post. It was much too pessimistic. I'm making an effort to be more optimistic these days, and there is reason for (guarded) optimism. I recently came across an article about science knowledge in the United States (I apologize to international readers if you find no relevance here).


http://caise.insci.org/uploads/docs/FalkandDierking95perc.pdf

The article makes a startling revelation. We've all heard the American high school students are abysmal at science compared to the rest of the world. True. Did you know this, though?

"(F)or more than a
decade, performance by U.S. schoolaged
children on international tests
such as the quadrennial Trends in International
Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) and the Programme
for International Student Assessment
(PISA) has followed a consistent pattern.
Elementary-school-aged U.S.
children perform as well as or better
than most children in the world, but
the performance of older U.S. children
has been mediocre at best. Interestingly,
however, for more than 20 years, U.S.
adults have consistently outperformed
their international counterparts on science
literacy measures, including adults
from South Korea and Japan, as well
as Western European countries such as
Germany and the United Kingdom."

The article then goes on to point out that young children don't get science instruction in school. Elementary school teachers focus overwhelmingly on reading and math, while science and social studies get only a tiny portion of the instructional time. And of course adults don't generally take science classes. It is only the students taking science on an everyday basis that score poorly!

So there are two puzzles: one, what are we doing wrong in school and two, what are we doing right everywhere else? Somehow those adults are catching back up to their counterparts all over the world. How are they doing it? The article argues that this education is happening outside of traditional school - television programs, internet and magazine articles, and museums.

Full disclosure: I work at a science museum, so of course I'm thrilled by this idea.