More school idiocy
Feb. 12th, 2004 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dslartooScientists in Scotland have discovered a fossilized insect that they have determined to be approximately 408 million years old. Pretty remarkable, eh? Well, not to Georgia school superintendent Kathy Cox, apparently.
Cox is the same pinhead who has been dumbing down Georgia's curriculum in ways that boggle the mind. A week or so ago there was a massive backlash against her when she made changes to the curriculum that said any references to "evolution" must instead use the phrase "biological changes over time". Faced with a blizzard of angry telephone calls, emails and letters, she backed down on this issue...but she's already made a great deal of other changes.
Georgia's state Board of Education, not unsurprisingly, wants to use the entire curriculum recommended by the American Association for the Advancement of Science standards, which includes a full discussion of evolution. Cox not only removed the word "evolution" but also several passages detailing how it should be taught, including sections on the age of Earth and natural selection. She has refused interview requests to discuss how these changes were arrived at or under whose advice. Why is this woman in charge of Georgia's schools?
Anyway, to get back to the fossilized insect I mentioned in that first paragraph (remember?) -- Cox disapproves of this insect as well, apparently. She is expected to issue a memo at some point today that orders Georgia teachers to restrict all references to the insect as "over 2000 years old".
Hey, Cox? You want to know why Georgia is dead last among the Fifty States in education? It's things like this. Your stupid policies are making Georgia into a laughingstock among educators.
I am so glad that my time in Georgia schools is past. If I were getting that sort of "education" today, I would be begging my parents to put me in school somewhere I could actually learn something.
-- END OF LINE --
Currently playing: Pink Floyd -- The Division Bell. Some music has a color that you can almost see. This album is one of those. It's a cloudy blue-gray, perfect for the rainy day we're having.
Cox is the same pinhead who has been dumbing down Georgia's curriculum in ways that boggle the mind. A week or so ago there was a massive backlash against her when she made changes to the curriculum that said any references to "evolution" must instead use the phrase "biological changes over time". Faced with a blizzard of angry telephone calls, emails and letters, she backed down on this issue...but she's already made a great deal of other changes.
Georgia's state Board of Education, not unsurprisingly, wants to use the entire curriculum recommended by the American Association for the Advancement of Science standards, which includes a full discussion of evolution. Cox not only removed the word "evolution" but also several passages detailing how it should be taught, including sections on the age of Earth and natural selection. She has refused interview requests to discuss how these changes were arrived at or under whose advice. Why is this woman in charge of Georgia's schools?
Anyway, to get back to the fossilized insect I mentioned in that first paragraph (remember?) -- Cox disapproves of this insect as well, apparently. She is expected to issue a memo at some point today that orders Georgia teachers to restrict all references to the insect as "over 2000 years old".
Hey, Cox? You want to know why Georgia is dead last among the Fifty States in education? It's things like this. Your stupid policies are making Georgia into a laughingstock among educators.
I am so glad that my time in Georgia schools is past. If I were getting that sort of "education" today, I would be begging my parents to put me in school somewhere I could actually learn something.
-- END OF LINE --
Currently playing: Pink Floyd -- The Division Bell. Some music has a color that you can almost see. This album is one of those. It's a cloudy blue-gray, perfect for the rainy day we're having.
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Ga edumacation
Date: 2004-02-12 07:08 am (UTC)Re: Ga edumacation
Date: 2004-02-12 07:24 am (UTC)I hate people who try to force their way of life on someone else. Let the teachers teach evolution, dammit, and let the kids make up their own mind. There is no way that creationism can be taught in school because it has no basis in fact, only basis in faith.
cheers,
Phil
no subject
-The Gneech
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 07:25 am (UTC)cheers,
Phil
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 07:16 am (UTC)RARGH!!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 07:22 am (UTC)Stupid woman.
cheers,
Phil
The problem is.
Date: 2004-02-12 07:18 am (UTC)The republican way. If you can't win, replace everyone with your cronies and try again.
Re: The problem is.
Date: 2004-02-12 07:29 am (UTC)cheers,
Phil
Re: The problem is.
Date: 2004-02-12 07:44 am (UTC)It's very illuminating in the strategies that they are taking. Also check out Appendix A, which reads like it was written by Jonathon Wells.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 07:24 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 07:27 am (UTC)And don't even get me started on the revisionism to the history curriculum as well.
cheers,
Phil
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 07:27 am (UTC)Thank you!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:11 am (UTC)*still grumbling*
cheers,
Phil
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:16 am (UTC)But I would've otherwise missed it...
Man, she annoys me.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 07:33 am (UTC)If only people would stop calling it evolution and start using the proper term natural selection. The word 'evolution' implies progress...which is NOT AT ALL what natural selection is about. It's a friggin' misnomer that breeds ignorance and enhanced fanaticism in the willfully narrow-minded.
This Cox person is an idiot who failed High School Biology and whose power-loving pastor (probably Southern Baptist) probably masturbates behind the pulpit during sermons.
There is a specific level of Hades set aside for religious fanatics who persist in giving their faith a bad rep.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:15 am (UTC)In my experience, that's all of them. People who are religious and are secure in their faith aren't the problem. It's the fanatics that are the issue -- the ones who can't stand the fact that not everyone thinks like them, so therefore everyone else is going to burn in hell.
cheers,
Phil
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 08:01 am (UTC)But on second thought, it's a great opportunity for their dad and I to demonstrate to them just how inept the public school system is here. And an even better opportunity to teach them to think for themselves. Why, God, WHY was I born in the bible belt??? ARGH, I'm in a bad mood today.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:17 am (UTC)Deservedly so, I'd say, given your own recent entry about our president's latest invasion of privacy. I'm not even female and the news makes me burn with a slow flame too.
cheers,
Phil
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:22 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:33 am (UTC)cheers,
Phil
Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 08:56 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-12 09:08 am (UTC)Have fun. :)
cheers,
Phil
no subject
Date: 2004-02-12 12:53 pm (UTC)I mean. Wow. Just.... wow.
If I had kids, they'd have to be homeschooled, in that state. Damn.