• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

New Florida law lets any resident challenge what’s taught in science classes

caliph95

Member
I mean, would an atheist count as unbiased by Scott's standards? Seems like unbiased will mean, white Christian male as it always seems to with this kind of shit. Somehow if you're white, religious and a guy, you're considered to be default and have no stakes in the outcome of major cultural and social considerations.

.
I'm ignorant on how this should work and i'm just spit balling here and while it could cause beaurarcachy but wouldn't sense to make more than one person and like council or something to vote on this and even have variance of background and views if you want to be "unbiased".

I could be completely wrong and an idiot but it seems better than leaving it all to one guy especially even if he was atheist he would still have some form of bias.
 

AmFreak

Member
Oh, US, u so silly. Literally, in too many cases.

I can't really talk shit because Creationism was taught in my German advanced biology class, too. "There are also some people that believe life was created by god." That was the extent of it, thankfully, but even that has no place, IMO.
I mean you have an entire class to "teach" you the former in germany.
That is far more crazy if you think about it.
 
I'm ignorant on how this should work and i'm just spit balling here and while it could cause beaurarcachy but wouldn't sense to make more than one person and like council or something to vote on this and even have variance of background and views if you want to be "unbiased".

I could be completely wrong and an idiot but it seems better than leaving it all to one guy especially even if he was atheist he would still have some form of bias.

Even an idea like that is destined to fail because you are trading one idiot for a room full of idiots.

See: police shooting case jurors.
 

VariantX

Member
I'll never understand why it's always evolution or creationism. Why can't it be both? What would've prevented God (or your deity of choice) from starting out small and building up via evolution?

"Man ain't come from no monkey!! Why we still got monkeys then??"

The idea of evolution is an attack on their beliefs in how everything came to be, so it's not good enough that they choose not to believe in evolution. The idea simply cannot exist for others to make that choice as well, so they can feel comfortable in how they view reality.
 

Somnid

Member
You'd think so but then you'd wonder, why challenge science in the first place when that work has already been done.

More accurately, that is science, you're supposed to do that. You'd imagine in smart-bizarro world the scientists put this same law into effect to keep out things like creationism.
 
I'm glad that stories like this pop up to remind me to never listen to the cowards, that say we need to move more to the center to appease these willfully ignorant Republicans.
 
More accurately, that is science, you're supposed to do that. You'd imagine in smart-bizarro world the scientists put this same law into effect to keep out things like creationism.

And we can certainly use it that way.

Actually, I'm going to try to get a job with the district in order to bulwark science from this theocratic bullshittery.

Goddamn I hate Rick Scott so much...
 
Fine, but if they're challenging the validity of science material they should have to present their argument using the scientific method, or be laughed out of the office.
 
uwo27Nf.gif
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Original sin is quite a different beast between branches of mainstream Christianity. Original sin is lot more pronounced in protestanism than Catholicism. Original Sin for a protestant is a sin that you carry personally, for a Catholic Original sin caused man to become man but only Adam was guilty.

It being viewed as either "inherited guilt" or "inherited sinfulness" doesn't really change the high level position that humans under mainstream Christianity are considered inherently sinful and in need of salvation via Jesus.

The "incompatibility" between Christianity and evolution is that how Original Sin was assigned to humans in the first place doesn't square unless you start taking massive liberties well beyond considering Genesis mere allegory.
 
I am a teacher that just moved to FL yesterday. RIP.

I'll never understand why it's always evolution or creationism. Why can't it be both? What would've prevented God (or your deity of choice) from starting out small and building up via evolution?
Creationism refers to the specific series of events laid out in Genesis. These people are against ANYTHING that says different from God willing everything into existence as-is a few thousand years ago.
 

emag

Member
Perhaps the best course of action here is for heroic residents to deluge the schools with inane propositions challenging everything taught (or not) in classrooms, on topics ranging from the existence of gravity to the founding of the United States by Martians to the rules of football.
 

EGM1966

Member
That's a dumb fucking idea - but I think that's the point.

Let us allow (and indeed encourage you) to decide to keep your kids as dumb and uneducated as you are.

TBH I'm seriously, seriously going of democracy although I also shy from a more elitist "let smart people make all the decisions" approach either.

But seriously - this is dumb. Why not let people decide what operations they have vs trusted professionals. Why not let them decide if their car is roadworthy or not. Or whether they even send their kids to school.

Long term this kind of stuff isn't going to be good for fabric or US society or for enabling a better level of social equality.
 

EGM1966

Member
Sorry to post again so quickly but there's more than a whiff of "let's burn them questionable books" here too which is just infuriating to me.

It's hyperbole to an extent and I know it but it feels like US is locked into a downward spiral right now socially looking in from the outside.

Not doubt things will improve at some point but damn with a POTUS who's incoherent and essentially a wealthy thug and a rabid GOP government falling over to actualize The Handmaid's Tale (and a few other cautionary novels) as the actual society of US it's really very, very depressing to see a leading Western Country in this state.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) this week and goes into effect Saturday, requires school boards to hire an “unbiased hearing officer” who will handle complaints about instructional materials, such as movies, textbooks and novels, that are used in local schools. Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system. If the hearing officer deems the challenge justified, he or she can require schools to remove the material in question.
All references to climate change, and evolution to be removed.
 
Proponents of the new law say it makes the challenge process easier for parents and gives residents a greater say in their children's education.

Yet:

Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system. If the hearing officer deems the challenge justified, he or she can require schools to remove the material in question.

Fuck you, you lying assholes. You don't care about the parents, you want the ability for random people to hassle schools about science and politics.
 
Perhaps the best course of action here is for heroic residents to deluge the schools with inane propositions challenging everything taught (or not) in classrooms, on topics ranging from the existence of gravity to the founding of the United States by Martians to the rules of football.

This is exactly what I was thinking. If they want to allow this to happen, I hope people sink the whole process into the ground with complaint after complaint.
 
I mean you could challenge whatever you want...but fact of the matter would be that you come up wrong because scientific fact is against you.
 

Prologue

Member
Oh, US, u so silly. Literally, in too many cases.

I can't really talk shit because Creationism was taught in my German advanced biology class, too. "There are also some people that believe life was created by god." That was the extent of it, thankfully, but even that has no place, IMO.

I was actually fine with it in my high school class. I think all they talked about was Intelligent design.
 
America is so much more entertaining than it was 30 years ago. When I was 13 years old and going to public school in Louisiana it was super boring. Sex Ed and evolution without any complaints from parents and no sign that elected officials and school officials would do anything except laugh in the face of someone who suggested abstinence only or teaching creationism. In Louisiana.

You young people dont have any idea how lucky you are to grow up in such an exciting America as this.
 

The Lamp

Member
It continues to amaze me that a nation so hostile towards science is where so much of our best scientific work is done

And it's mostly by immigrants lol. Only one of my chemical engineering professors was born and raised in the US. Americans are too dumb at math and science (see the LAT math thread) to be leading much of any of that scientific advancement.
 

Koren

Member
Yet:

Fuck you, you lying assholes. You don't care about the parents, you want the ability for random people to hassle schools about science and politics.
At the same time, IF the whole idea was really to improve education* (IF), I would find wrong the idea to limit the public inputs to parents only.


(* and even if this IF was true, I don't think it would work)
 

mnannola

Member
Im all for people challenging whats taught in science class. All I ask is that you provide scientific evidence. Peer reviewed would be even better. By peer, I mean scientist though, not Joe Bob from down the road.
 

Lucreto

Member
This is terrible but at least in theory it can work both ways.

But we all know it will be biased for White fundamentalist Christians.
 
it's pointless, people will just question everything that's taught in science classes

Maybe that was the point all along. To educate the uneducated.
 
Guys. Obama didnt arrest the bankers and authorized drone strikes so clearly that validates our rapid descent into the prologue of The Handmaids Tale.
 

FiggyCal

Banned
So what's to stop a parent/student from counter complaining when they add creationism to a science class ��

Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system.

I think the reactionaries/conservatives are much more organized and will probably cause more of an outcry if their material isn't taught.

I'm really glad I went to Catholic school. We never had to deal with the creationism/climate change denial stuff.
 

Koren

Member
Im all for people challenging whats taught in science class. All I ask is that you provide scientific evidence. Peer reviewed would be even better. By peer, I mean scientist though, not Joe Bob from down the road.
You'd be surprised by the things you find published in high-level journals with peer reviews...

I mean, there's hundred of computer random-generated papers that are often peer-reviewed and published. It has become real problem recently:
https://www.nature.com/news/publishers-withdraw-more-than-120-gibberish-papers-1.14763

Also, there's a real issue about reproducing the results of publish papers, meaning that there's probably a lot of dubious papers in reputable journals:
http://www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970

I don't have a single doubt that you could have a paper on a dubious subject reviewed and published, so that won't be that a huge hurdle to overcome if someone wants to exploit this law...
 
Certainly the main motivation for the bill is so that Christian extremists and their political forces can push an anti-science agenda in the classroom, but the bill is also super broad. I imagine it's also going to be used for petty stuff: "is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented, or is inappropriate for the grade level and age group" - I can only imagine how an academic helicopter parent is going to wield this tool in the face of their amazing snowflake child struggling in a class. It also looks like it'll be really easy to use this to question any books that are even slightly controversial, so literature is in the cross-hairs, as usual.

My heart goes out to Evangelical children who are so often denied a proper science education, and the teachers who are going to have to actually deal with the day to day ramifications of this garbage.
 
Top Bottom