Tennessee Decides It is Not Backward Enough: "Stupid is as Stupid Does"

Tennessee Decides It is Not Backward Enough

In the beginning, there was light. But then we became dim bulbs.

***

The other day, I saw two articles highlighted, separately, in the same
publication. One mentioned that cases of dementia are destined to grow
dramatically in America in coming years. The other explained how the
state of Tennessee is intent on making students more stupid.

Tennessee has now passed a law permitting teachers to present students
with alternatives to well-known scientific principles. The bill easily
passed both houses of the legislature, and the governor let it become
law without his signature.

Presumably he realized that he was in a difficult position—but aren't
we all? Louisiana has a similar law, and who knows what state will be
next.

Why worry about our older citizens losing their minds on the one hand,
while we're rotting the minds of our children, voluntarily? Per Slate:

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'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.

Probably, soon, challenges to the earth being round…will get a good airing.

Not just an airing—America specializes in repackaging, artfully, the
most improbable scenarios. Just as George W. Bush became a
"compassionate conservative" and making life even harder for poor
mothers with small children became "welfare reform," one
Christian-preferring God planning the world, warts and all, for the
rest of us, gets labeled "intelligent design."

Keep in mind that Tennessee is the state that in 1925 held the
infamous Scopes Trial—in which a high school science teacher was
convicted of violating a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
(The conviction was overturned, but only on a technicality.)

With almost no national conversation on these kinds of big steps
backwards, it is worth asking: in the near-century since the Scopes
trial, really, how much have we progressed? And who, oh who, will want
to hire graduates of Tennessee's educational system?

More:
http://www.businessinsider.com/tennessee-decides-it-is-not-backward-enough-2012-4

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
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