Georgia on my mind

[Chrome]

Georgia considers banning 'evolution'

Friday, January 30, 2004 Posted: 7:48 AM EST (1248 GMT)

State Superindendent of Schools Kathy Cox answers questions at a news conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday.

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The state's school superintendent has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time."

The change is included in more than 800 pages of draft revisions to Georgia's curriculum that have been posted by the Department of Education on its Web site. The middle and high school standards are expected to be voted on by the state Board of Education in May, after public feedback.

Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. The proposal would not require schools to buy new textbooks omitting the word evolution and would not prevent teachers from using it.

Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching.

"If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, 'This is not what we want,' then we'll change it," said Cox, a Republican elected in 2002.

Educators and legislators criticized the proposal, saying science teachers understand the theories behind evolution and how to teach them.

"Here we are, saying we have to improve standards and improve education, and we're just throwing a bone to the conservatives with total disregard to what scientists say," said state Rep. Bob Holmes, a Democrat.

Social conservatives who prefer religious creation to be taught instead of evolution criticized the proposal as well.

"If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?" said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican. "It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity."

[Jim Alfredson]

Ah that's what we want to teach our young people. Don't like the subject? Make a law that says you can't say the word.

Orwell would be so proud.

[ghost of miles]

Speaking of Orwell... this from Calpundit as a followup to the evolution story:

TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION DEPARTMENT....One of the great unreported stories of our time is how conservatives have made it almost impossible for liberals to make jokes anymore. Consider my previous post. After complaining about yet another attempt to remove evolution from state teaching guidelines I said:

Next up: parents dislike the proposition that white people used to enslave black people, so the word "slavery" will be removed from the Georgia curriculum. After all, it's just a buzzword!

I guess I missed it, but in comments Dave Morgen points out that Georgia has a new high school history curriculum proposal too:

In the proposed changes, teachers will spend two or three weeks discussing the foundation of our country, with the remaining time devoted to studying events from 1876 to the present.

....Search in vain for discussion of the Civil War; that topic is off limits. In a course entitled "American History," students will not study our most devastating war. There is no mention of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee or anything else associated with those years.

Dammit, I was joking! Or trying to, anyway. But how can you make a joke when conservatives continually manage to make real life stranger than fiction?

Anyway, it's probably just a coincidence that the period from 1800 to 1876 is the one that got dropped. We liberals tend to get awfully paranoid about these coincidences, don't we?

[Brownian Motion]

"If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?" said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican. "It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity."

Jiminy, you mean to tell me that the state of Georgia is permitted to teach the concept of gravity? Where the fuck are Pat and Jerry on this one?

[Jazzmoose]

I spent part of my childhood in Georgia, attending grades 6-8, and 10-12, receivin' that there high school diplomy thing in a fine Georgia learnin' institution. With all the history, social studies and civics course I took during that period, I don't remember slavery being mentioned even once. Not once.

Nothing new here...

[chris olivarez]

Remember this is the state that built a huge monument to the confederacy,the state that flies the Confederate flag so considering that the South lost that war it shouldn't be surprising that they wouldn't to teach their kids about it so any kid in Georgia who wants to learn about that war will probably have to do so somewhere else. General Sherman is probably a bigger obscenity in Georgia than the word Fuck.To put it mildly the state of Georgia is doing a terrible disservice to their young people.

[Jazzmoose]

General Sherman is probably a bigger obscenity in Georgia than the word Fuck.

Oh, Chris, if you only knew how right you are!

[BruceH]

This is one of the reasons why other industrial nations take a look at the U.S. and think we're a bunch of idiots.