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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 06/11/2005 : 11:52:56
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Teacher told to stop teaching creationism
quote:
ROANOKE, Virginia (AP) -- For 15 years, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, Larry Booher taught creationism in his high school biology class. He even compiled a textbook of sorts and passed out copies in three-ring binders.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
 Posted - 06/11/2005 : 12:46:33 [Permalink]
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quote:
Lee described Booher, 48, as "one of the finest science teachers I've ever been around"
That's almost funny. (emphasis added)
quote:
"He must teach evolution exclusively -- observable scientific fact, not beliefs or religion," Lee said. "I fully believe he will comply. He just stepped over the line."
For 15 years ... Must not have recognized the line as something he was stepping over.
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Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Maverick
Skeptic Friend
Sweden
385 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2005 : 14:43:14 [Permalink]
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But why would a science teacher teach mythologies in biology class? Oh, I forget... Kent Hovind was a science teacher as well. He too has radical ideas regarding science and our understanding of the universe, but he is being silenced by almost every scientist in the world and all the peer-reviewed journals. It can't be easy being the victim of such a widespread conspiracy, lasting for more than a century. Scientists fabricating nearly every observation and experimental data and every single fact to promote the secular evolution-religion-false-science with stemcells on top. And this conspiracy has not yet leaked after all this time, which should make NASA all envious, because as we all know, FOX, the solid rock of reason in the mediawaves otherwise turbulent of sensationalism, revealed the moon landing hoax in a very insightful documentary.
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people? Are they evil, out to lower the education even though they are teachers? Are they stupid? Uneducated? There has to be something, and I want to know what it is. Several times I've pointed out the errors of creationism and religion and other kinds of pseudoscience and rubbish, and it rarely has any other effect than making people upset - at me, not the pseudoscience or bizarre beliefs. Then they actually have the nerve to demand that I respect their religion and creationism! Why don't they just go and get raptured or something?
15 years. This is not only illegal, it's morally wrong. |
"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy." -- Carl Sagan |
| Edited by - Maverick on 06/12/2005 14:43:57 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2005 : 15:54:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
Several times I've pointed out the errors of creationism and religion and other kinds of pseudoscience and rubbish, and it rarely has any other effect than making people upset - at me, not the pseudoscience or bizarre beliefs.
Yep.... been there.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2005 : 20:38:07 [Permalink]
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It isn't that the guy said something like: 'evolution is a fact but if you want to believe in a god - OK,' and then went on to teach biology without mention of religion. And, it isn't that he drew upon myths and legends as an analogy to scientific theories or said: 'this is what people first believed and later we discovered...' Instead, the article states:
"Booher's source book, which he distributed at his own expense to classes ranging from 25 to 40 students, included nine chapters with titles such as "In the beginning" and "Evidence for a young Earth."
That clearly taints his objectivity and scientific outlook. Makes one wonder how much boneheaded misinformation is being spewed in some supposedly public schools out there.
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Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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latsot
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
70 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2005 : 00:16:53 [Permalink]
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It worries me that the school or its administration didn't seem to know what was going on. Why not? Isn't that part of their responsibility? Shouldn't they be accountable?
15 years worth of kids may have been misinformed, perhaps to their detriment. Having the teacher say "Sorry.....won't happen again...." doesn't really seem proportionate.
Cheers
r |
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Maverick
Skeptic Friend
Sweden
385 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2005 : 11:40:19 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by latsot
It worries me that the school or its administration didn't seem to know what was going on. Why not? Isn't that part of their responsibility? Shouldn't they be accountable?
15 years worth of kids may have been misinformed, perhaps to their detriment. Having the teacher say "Sorry.....won't happen again...." doesn't really seem proportionate.
And what about the kids? I remember we read about history as far back as the stone age in elementary school, as well as much further back, with the ice ages and the dinosaurs, and even to the beginning of the universe. Then in high school, or the equivalent anyway, we kept reading about evolution and geology. It was just a natural continuation of what we had studied before in school. It would be utterly outlandish if the teacher would ramble on about the Bible and YEC and stuff like that. We would know it's bogus.
So I suppose they never had any kind of education in geology, biology or human history, or astronomy before they reached high school? I'm not sure if that sounds likely. |
"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy." -- Carl Sagan |
| Edited by - Maverick on 06/14/2005 11:42:07 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2005 : 12:44:04 [Permalink]
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The answer is as simple as as the over all problem is complex: Mr. Booher is not an instructor; he is an evangelical missionary peering out from behind an intellectual patina. He most certainly will do it again, but probably in a different format. In his shoes, I would.
quote:
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It worries me that the school or its administration didn't seem to know what was going on. Why not? Isn't that part of their responsibility? Shouldn't they be accountable?
15 years worth of kids may have been misinformed, perhaps to their detriment. Having the teacher say "Sorry.....won't happen again...." doesn't really seem proportionate.
Cheers
r
I have little doubt that these people knew perfectly well what was going on in Booher's class and simply abetted it with silence. Fellow travelers, all, and their sin is in getting caught.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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latsot
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
70 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2005 : 06:42:49 [Permalink]
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quote:
Mr. Booher is not an instructor; he is an evangelical missionary peering out from behind an intellectual patina.
Heh - I liked this.
quote:
I have little doubt that these people knew perfectly well what was going on in Booher's class and simply abetted it with silence. Fellow travelers, all, and their sin is in getting caught.
Well yes - I suppose my point is about accountability rather than culpability. Here in the UK I think (hope) that the headteacher (principle) would be directly accountable and probably (hopefully) fired. The Local Education Authority would also have taken some stick, although I suspect they would have found a way to fizzle the whole thing out.
I'm *fairly* certain that it would have gone further than an apology, anyway. Of course, we have to remember that there are significant differences between the legal and educational systems in the UK and US so it would be a completely different question if it happened here.
Still - it continues to amaze me.
Cheers
r |
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