Is this the America You wanted?
By Thom Hartmann A...
In New Mexico they are coming up with new standards for their textbooks. These are based on what are called the Next Generation Science Standards but the New Mexicans would like to make some changes to the Next Generation Science Standards which is a set of standards at a federal level.
Sixty scientists associated with Los Alamos National Laboratories are really fried about this. They took out a full-page ad in the Santa Fe paper of record - the New Mexican - and they said there's absolutely no scientific rationale for weakening the treatment of these subjects in New Mexico K through 12 education.
What are the subjects? What is it that New Mexico is doing that has 60 of the state's top scientists buying a full-page ad of the biggest newspaper in the state?
Well, every place where there are standards in government documents that refer to global temperatures, the words 'rise' or 'change' have been replaced with the word 'fluctuations'.
No more talk about climate change. No more talk about temperature rise or global climate. It's all fluctuations, number one.
Number two, where in the science texts it points out that the Earth's rocks have been dated, the earth itself has been dated, to an age of around five billion years - 4.6 billion to be precise - they delete that 4.6 billion and replace it with the phrase geologic history.
Why? Because there may be some bizarre cultists out there who believe the world is only 6,000 years old and the Republicans want to pander to them.
And finally, a standard dealing with the process of evolution - this is from Stephen Sawchuk over at Education Week: Curriculum Matters - deletes that word entirely.
The word 'evolution' has been removed, or they're proposing to remove it, entirely from the text books of New Mexico students:
"A standard dealing with the process of evolution deletes that word entirely, replacing it with a standard that asks students to construct an explanation based on evidence that biological diversity is 'influenced by' things like competition for limited resources, the proliferation of organisms that are better equipped to survive, and genetic variations in species."
In other words, the core organizing principles of evolution, we'll acknowledge a few of those, but we can't use the word evolution because there's these people who call themselves Christian fundamentalists who apparently know nothing about the teachings of Jesus that do not want you to be teaching science in the New Mexico schools.
West Virginia is flirting with this, and Wyoming as well:
"West Virginia also softened standards about global climate change. Wyoming also flirted with some changes before adopting its own set of science standards rather than the NGSS; its final set asks students to consider "positives and negatives" of temperature change.
What are the positives? The disruption of governments? I don't know.
"And South Dakota, among other changes, also deleted the standard referencing the age of the Earth."
We don't need to know how old the Earth is.
We don't need to know civics.
We don't need to know science.
We're stupid Americans, right?
Where do we go with this?
I mean, what kind of country are they trying to turn us into?
Comments
#2
And so the Earth will soon be restored to it's rightful place at the center of the universe.
#3
The continued Dumbing Down of America! With the Help of the extreme Religious Right--What happened to separation of Church and State???---Something that our Fore Fathers wanted to protect this country from becoming--the majority of Americans being dictated to by handful of crazed zealots, that claim their God is the Only God! Shades of the Taliban!
#4
Dumbing down, creation of food addiction resuliting in obesity, creation of pharmaceutical medication dependency, creation of mental illness by absorbing brain power, absorbing attention resulting in loss of self respect, absorbing power to think by distraction
Education of children biased towards feelings rather than fact
Resulting in loss of human dignity
Are these effects accidental?
#5
I would rather live in a world where education includes facts, evidence, and speculation that is based on evidence. Any religion, including Christianity, should focus on the spiritual realm: How do we treat humans, animals, and nature? How do we use our human abilities to help others? Why do humans insist on using weapons against each other? Why isn't there a solution to homelessness? There are so many examples of hypocracy and misuses of religion as excuses to oppress others. Take out the bible and read the Sermon on the Mount. It's a very short, but important description of spiritual life.
#6
Hell yes! This is the America we wanted. We conservatives are celebrating the first annual national "First Indictments Day." Now with the indictment of former Clinton spokesman and fake news reporter, George Stephanopolus, it's only a matter of time that "Cooked Hillary" will be in jail, just as President Trump promised.
What? What do you mean that it wasn't George Stephanopolus…it was George Papadopolus? Who the hell is he?…foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign! I don't believe it!
Well at least they indicted Hillary's campaign manager Paul Manafort….what do you mean he was Trump's campaign manager?
Mr. Trump. This is serious. Time to start to flogging nuclear warheads at North Korea. We need a distraction right away.
This Mueller guy is taking this oath business much too serious. From now on, no more sworn oaths! They cause nothing but trouble for us!
I know my fellow conservative trolls on this site agree that this is nothing more than liberal witch hunt trying to sabotage our dear leader's reputation. Don't you agree "Door Knobs." Your are with me, aren't you "Hot Coffee?" I can depend on you, can't I "Corn Dog?" "God bless America…."
#7
I was wondering when this would start. It is very dangerous for schools to teach anything but proven fact base science. Climate models students have been taught to often turn out to be wrong. The famous "tree ring" and "hockey stick" for example, both have proven to have incorrect data. Many of Al Gore's Climate change movie have been proven not true and it was shown to almost every student. Of course they should be taught about climate change but it should not include speculation. If they are wrong that would be a massive injustice to our children. The same as if we taught them 2+2=6.
#8
stopgap: Why are you being so angry and mean to the poor little clueless trolls? LOL!
I pick up 400 million year old devonian period fossils all the time along the lakeshore here. I have shoe boxes full. I also own quite a collection of arrowheads found in plowed local fields, some date to 4000 BC...must be Adam lost them! LOL
BTW: Why are we picking the Christian religion's date for the start of the world, why not a date from one of thousands of other religions? How about my religion? I declare the world started when I was born. Put that in the textbooks.
Off topic: Everything about to come out regarding treason and collusion was already known by our CIA before the election even happened. We're going to pay an awful price for this. The inevitable market crash will be why crooked Donny quickly checks out, that is if he doesn't do something insane militarily first...my opinion.
#9
Kend, Have you been telling your grandchildren that Al Gore is wrong, so don't worry about climate change? It's all just a hoax created by the Chinese, right? Crooked Donny knows this to be true.....he's claims to be a really smart guy, must be true.
Sometimes I think I'm living an extended nightmare. Kend, the Fascists created this race to the bottom and guess what, they're not running in that direction.
#10
Dumbing down.
What we are seeing now is the manifestation of decades of the dumbing down and brainwashing of the country. Not only are people being misinformed and disinformed; they have been brainwashed to not think and just regurgitate talking points, and to ignore or reject facts.
#11
Church chickens want private schools, in the long run. That way, they can brainwash all thier kids into what kind of phychos they want them to be. We have a lot of sickos in the U.S.A.
#12
Sg,
That's too funny! Have fun while you can....That was the opening move...much more to come.
#13
10K, I've got bad news for you. All those fossils are only 6000 years old. On the 6th day, God was very busy creating trillions of fossils and billions of ancient relics to test our faith. No wonder he had to rest on the 7th day!
Gee, if schools were only allowed to teach scientific facts that had no chance of ever being revised, then they would end up teaching nothing. Maybe the specifics of scientific data changes but the evolution of scientific thinking is generally spot on, as proven by virtually every aspect of modern living. Not that I'm a big fan of the modern world, but time marches on and old fogies like me have little means of reversing it.
Thank god for happy hour!
#14
As a daughter of a Los Alamos geophysicist, I must warn against making changes to science textbooks based on the anti-science beliefs of Republican political operatives. These students will be inheriting an earth that has suffered from mankind's shortsightedness and greed, and they need to be fully aware of the latest knowledge to be able to make wise decisions. In my day, I knew many Republican scientists in Los Alamos and they did not question the Earth's age, evolution, or climate change (which was an observable trend even though it hadn't become such a hot topic). Scientists that voted Republican had beliefs shaped by an educational system that didn't pander to the beliefs of a particular voting bloc, and they chose their party based on political biases. This was before the Republican Party decided to incorporate fundamentalist Christianity into its worldview, and in fact these scientists espoused several religions in their own lives. (From them I learned that It is not necessarily true that science and religion are incompatible - many of those same people found spiritual wonder and awe in their field of science which underscored, instead of contradicted, their religious beliefs and many were quite active in their church or synagogue.) One of the people who taught sex education in the Los Alamos school system was a very active member of the Republican Party. Today's GOP would be horrified by her approach of teaching the real "facts of life" to all ages, complete with an emphasis on committed relationships and the role of love. She of all people did not believe in dumbing down the subject matter - and my generation was none the worse for having the correct information.
Science is a process that searches for the facts and presents a narrative built around those facts. My father liked to define "science" as the "closest thing to the truth that we have at the present time." Study that statement for a minute and you will realize that it isn't describing something that functions like a religion. Science is a search for truth that can be incomplete, even mistaken at times. It allows for the future discovery of facts or data that challenge the story to be modified. The fact that further discoveries and new information is allowed to update scientific thought is itself a very beneficial habit to learn. It keeps our mind engaged and growing, and it should help keep us humble and wary of becoming too smuggly assured of our beliefs. There is no reason to dumb down a school text to make it acceptable to adults who will not be studying it. Its authors are not asking to rewrite Sunday school books, which are more concerned with a spiritual truth based on faith and not on observable data. The attempt to insert religious dogma into a textbook even violates the right of freedom of religion, since only the Republican Party-endorsed religious beliefs will be used, to the exculsion of others. Such absolutism is the refuge of authoritarians, and you can be sure that those trying to impose their religious beliefs into children's textbooks are indeed authoritarians. If this country wants to maintain its heritage of democracy, it must reject partisan and religious meddling once and for all. School is about giving students information, not spin.
#15
I worked at consulting at industrial plants through out the USA and 9 countries internationally. I would work with Engineers and craft. In all cases I found people in the international countries to be better educated than what I worked with in the USA.
#16
Legend, that explains a lot about you and the other two door knobs. I'm guessing you were "educated" in the USA.
#17
Children being methodically brain washed in the name of God? Seems like a well organized agenda. But!!! I think that a majority of Americans know better and will never allow this "Next Generation Science" to spread to a dangerous level. Too many level heads out there.
#18
How about all those dumb assed republicans running around the country tearing down statues and monuments trying to rewrite history.
Thom's screed forgot to include, We don't need no stinkin' history, it's all Reagan's fault anyway.
#19
10k. I never said climate change is not real. Of course it is happening. I am just saying we should only teach facts. We know so little about climate change, we know man made carbon contributes to it but have know idea how much. We know oceans are rising near the equator but they are decreasing dramatically near the N. and S. Poles. Why? We have no idea if that's carbon based. We know we have spent trillions world wide on climate change but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. So maybe we should teach our children that it is all pollution and we should all do as much as we can to reduce it. That would be science based fact.
#20
Governments and Organised Religion have always wanted to control education .
The world would be wise to halt this as it encourages life to be viewed through the prism of particular religious doctrines and cultural prejudices- the result of this is the inbreeding of incredibly negative behaviours reflecting extraordinary mistaken beliefs .
You teach your children to believe in an angry god ,and thus condone them for them their own behaviours of anger.
You teach your children to believe in a-vengeful god ,and thus condone for them their own behaviours of vengeance .
The word education means to bring out . Better let kids to critically think and come up with their own ideas about the world ,give them all the information from all sources . Heck they might even create a world we all would be proud living on one that’s sustainable and where violence is never used to solve problems. Organised religion gets to waste life with impunity as it it believes god has a greater interest than human life .But the greatest interest is life as life is just another name for god.
Pure humanism would never allow you to destroy life sanctimoniously.Only organised religion could justify such a travesty .
The problems in our world are not created by human beings doing other than what they say “God wants them to do,” our problems are created by people doing exactly what they say “God wants them to do .” Have you noticed that . Another example of organised religion trying to control the thoughts of our children . Are we turning into a theocracy as well as a Corporatocracy .
#21
OU812, I believe that you claim to work in the education system.
#22
Maybe the smartest individual in the room who worked throughout the United States and in nine countries in the world can explain why the US spends more per student and gets lower quality results?
"U.S. education spending tops global list, study shows"
"Trump: U.S. spends more than 'almost any other major country' on education"
#23
I can tell you why in the school district that I live in. Republicans took over the school board. Heavily financed by the Koch Brothers. They ignore the public schools and invest money in new charter schools that teach "Conservative Values". We are working to get them voted out.
http://douglaskids.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=dougla...
#24
Last refuge.
There is the saying, "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Not said is that it's tied with religion; and more often than not they are the first refuge of scoundrels. And BTW, the resorting to patriotism and religion as get out of jail free cards, has resulted in overexposure, with the consequence being the cheapening of both. For example the playing of the national anthem at sporting events has largely made it a trite ritual; I once heard a joke that the last words to the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner were, "play ball." The overexposure and cheapening is far more detrimental than players kneeling.
#25
@#23
Sorry Rick Steves. The Republicans ate my homework bullshit won't cut it and you know it.
You can try all day but the education or lack thereof in this country is NOT a fault of the republicans. It is the greedy over staffed, overpaid administrators, the lack of discipline in the classroom, and the everybody gets a trophy mentality that the leftie/socialists brought to us. That is the problem.
#26
Legend:
Considering the success you had in electing Bernie, & Hillary, getting single payer installed as the Healthcare system and eliminating fossil fuels. I'm sure the school board members are shaking with fear, knowing you are working to get them out:).
#27
#25 you obviously did not look at my link. #26 Trump and the current Republican Congress are certainly helping us.
#28
California is not a Republican State yet our schools are in the toilet...
California's school system ranked 9th worst in the nation.
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/California-s-school-system-ranke...
Not a republican paper.
#29
@27 Legend:
Nothing in the link says President Trump is helping you. If he is, than you have a chance. President Trump knows how to get stuff done.
#30
@#27
Rick Steves,
Trump? You think the education system has just started going down the tubes in the last 9 months? Apparently leftie/socialist tax dodgers sit around and just type the letters T R U M P into anything and everything negative.
You obviously did not look at my four links that showed you the system was screwed up long before President Trump ever considered running for office, or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, or Bush, etc. Let's lay much of the blame on Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty where under his rules a father living in the home deeply reduced the amount of welfare money paid which pushed us into a nation of "baby momma's".
Good luck over the next seven years.
#31
No Child left behind was a winner?
CA ranked 28th. Red states mostly ranked very low.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/
#32
#14 - Very well stated indeed!
Who will listen and heed?
And, then who will yet act?
#33
#22 - Dianrenolds
Because education is OWNED
It should be a part of "the commons"
For the benefit long term of participants and civil society in general
Hoping that is not a "leftie" thingy
#34
#30 - Dianreynolds
Sorry love you really do have an obsession with "leftie/socialist tax dodgers"
Kindly identify and quatify this group
Preferably with quotation if required
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