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Texas Public Charter Schools Are Teaching Creationism

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They're so afraid of brainwashing and big government, yet they gleefully indoctrinate children with this unproven bullshit. They want to roll back literally centuries of scientific and medical achievement: think about that for a second.
 

besada

Banned
1) Please stop posting entire articles, as it's a violation of both copyright and the ToS. Excerpts only.

2) Single word non-discussion posts are likely to produce an unwanted effect once I get home.

3) Texas is the second most populous state in the Union. While it is jam packed with idiots, it is also full of reasonable, caring people who shouldn't be tarred by the silliness of their government.

Go forth and sin no more.
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
Regarding that mention of the Philippines, I have to wonder if they'll ever teach what actually happened during the Philippine-American war. I personally don't remember ever learning this in school, but apparently, depending on who you ask, our war over there resulted in anywhere between a couple hundred thousand to over a million civilian deaths. We were putting civilians in concentration camps (a.k.a. "protection zones") where they died of disease by the thousands before the Nazis were showing people how it's done.
 

789shadow

Banned
1) Please stop posting entire articles, as it's a violation of both copyright and the ToS. Excerpts only.

2) Single word non-discussion posts are likely to produce an unwanted effect once I get home.

3) Texas is the second most populous state in the Union. While it is jam packed with idiots, it is also full of reasonable, caring people who shouldn't be tarred by the silliness of their government.

Go forth and sin no more.
There are no intelligent people in Florida, however. This is a scientific fact.
 

Wilsongt

Member
I mean an actual national standard not No Child Left Behind bull crap.

Funnily enough, the president and Michelle held a gathering today to discuss education in America. Granted, it dealt more with college-level students, but it is being addressed in some way.
 

Piecake

Member
Shouldn't it be possible to set a national standard in re-guards to education? I know it wouldn't stop stuff like this from happening but it would make it a lot harder for them to weasel out of it.

These are charter schools, which have a lot more freedom than regular public schools. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Still, its unconstitutional for even charter schools to teach creationism. This is just religious organizations wanting to get creationism and religion in the back door, the Texas govt tacitly supporting it, and the lack of a student or parent to sue the charter school as of yet
 
There are no intelligent people in Florida, however. This is a scientific fact.

I have family in Florida D:

Funnily enough, the president and Michelle held a gathering today to discuss education in America. Granted, it dealt more with college-level students, but it is being addressed in some way.

Been out of the news cycle for a while so that is good to hear. Don't think it will get anywhere even if it is ever brought up in congress :/
 

DarthWoo

I'm glad Grandpa porked a Chinese Muslim
1) Please stop posting entire articles, as it's a violation of both copyright and the ToS. Excerpts only.

2) Single word non-discussion posts are likely to produce an unwanted effect once I get home.

3) Texas is the second most populous state in the Union. While it is jam packed with idiots, it is also full of reasonable, caring people who shouldn't be tarred by the silliness of their government.

Go forth and sin no more.

I'll have to remember this for when people try to generalize the most populous nation in the world.
 

Piecake

Member
Regarding that mention of the Philippines, I have to wonder if they'll ever teach what actually happened during the Philippine-American war. I personally don't remember ever learning this in school, but apparently, depending on who you ask, our war over there resulted in anywhere between a couple hundred thousand to over a million civilian deaths. We were putting civilians in concentration camps (a.k.a. "protection zones") where they died of disease by the thousands before the Nazis were showing people how it's done.

http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/...ril/ Spanish-American-Philippine-Insurrection

You'd like this. Not like it makes it any better, but to clear up some confusion, we definitely werent the first ones to do that. Its been going on since the dawn of time. Hell, Spain did the same thing to the Cubans when the US was 'liberating' them in the Spanish-American War
 

Piecake

Member
1) Please stop posting entire articles, as it's a violation of both copyright and the ToS. Excerpts only.

2) Single word non-discussion posts are likely to produce an unwanted effect once I get home.

3) Texas is the second most populous state in the Union. While it is jam packed with idiots, it is also full of reasonable, caring people who shouldn't be tarred by the silliness of their government.

Go forth and sin no more.

That actually was pretty heavily excerpted. It is a very long article. I can not quote as much if you want in the future though. Just wanted to hit what I thought were the important parts
 

Lamel

Banned
This is fucking STUPID. I HATE the whole "just a theory" implication BULLSHIT. Whoever says that is an actual idiot.
 
Shouldn't it be possible to set a national standard in re-guards to education? I know it wouldn't stop stuff like this from happening but it would make it a lot harder for them to weasel out of it.

Most states have adopted the Common Core standards (which are kinda bullshitty imo, but they don't include Creationism at least)

but charter schools dont' have to follow them because ???
 

Opiate

Member
As stupid as it is to teach shit like this in school, it takes just a few moments to all be undone once the kids start to think critically. When these kids go into science coursework in college they won't be at a disadvantage as it takes about a paragraph and 30 seconds to understand primary school level evolution.

For the others who go off into whatever non-stem field they pursue they can go on believing whatever they want.

You have far more faith in the human brain's ability to rapidly reorganize itself than I do. It isn't the simple facts that worry me; it's the structure that underlies them.
 

Madness

Member
It honestly blows my mind at the state of education in America. This is the nation that put a man on the moon, completely changed the face of the world with it's inventions, critical thinking, scientific research and then you see this. Creationism has no place in schools beyond a religious studies course, in which these people are also taught about other world religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism etc.

Since this is a gaming forum, I'm reminded of Mass Effect and how after the discovery of the Prothean artifacts/observation post on Mars, BioWare wrote about how many religions tried to incorporate this new discovery into their doctrine.
 

Baraka in the White House

2-Terms of Kombat
Supporters of charter schools have been pretty transparent and shameless about using them to push creationism and religious education.

It's infuriating that tax dollars help pay for it.
 

Trouble

Banned
I'm always reminded of this video when it comes to people eventually growing out of creationism and thinking critically for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0fPDnjZpz0

That was painful to watch.

The argument put forth by most of the kids boils down to "I don't understand biology and evolution, therefore it is false and god created everything." Strikes me as extremely intellectually lazy and shame on any teacher for letting them get away with that.
 

docbon

Member
The curriculum tells students that a “lack of transitional fossils” is a “problem for evolutionists who hold a view of uninterrupted evolution over long periods of time.”

A funny thing. The more transitional fossils you find, the more missing links there are to fill in. Not to mention you can find a fossil timeline on the Smithsonian website dating from 6 million years ago, to today (with some even in 3D!)

edit: not that it matters because scientists are agents of satan.
 
A section on World War II suggests that Japan’s military aggression was led by the samurai. They write, “Following World War I, Japan attempted to solve its economic and social problems by military means. The Samurai, a group promoting a military approach to create a vast Japanese empire in Asia, wanted to expand Japan’s influence along the Chinese mainland including many Pacific Islands.”

lol, holy shit at this.

Responsive Ed continues to demonstrate its religious and cultural biases in a section on the Philippines, describing the population as made up of “Catholics, Moslems (Muslims), and pagans in various stages of civilization.”
What provokes someone into spelling it "Moslem" in the 21st century?
 

~Devil Trigger~

In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
elements.png

bad science...
1012.gif
 

White Man

Member
One of my friends took a job at a charter school in Pennsylvania and quit soon after once she found out they were teaching kooky creationism.
 
I live in Texas and there is a relatively new charter school in my town that is actually administered by a local church. It has the same name as the church, is built adjacent to the church, and the pastor of the church is on the school board. I don't know if they are teaching creationism or not, but it's hard not to assume.
 

MikeDown

Banned
I say let the students judge for themselves, if young earth creationism doesn't hold water they should be able to figure it out.
 

Piecake

Member
I say let the students judge for themselves, if young earth creationism doesn't hold water they should be able to figure it out.

Critical thinking actually needs to be taught. You don't necessarily learn it in the classroom, but that is usually the place where it happens
 

sans_pants

avec_pénis
Shouldn't it be possible to set a national standard in re-guards to education? I know it wouldn't stop stuff like this from happening but it would make it a lot harder for them to weasel out of it.

Yes but of course dumbasses in Georgia believe they have different educational needs from the rest of us


And the gov isnt really great at this kind of thing either
 

rrs

Member
Those books seem to be overflowing with weasel words, and serious logical errors.

I really can't stand the charter movement.

I wish public schools and their students could somehow turn around, but having a "giving a damn" lotto isn't going to make the problems disappear.

I really can't stand the charter movement.
Libertarians.

I would have loved to have been liberated from the awful high school experience I had. Such a numbing experience in almost all of my classes until I got to college.
 

Gorillaz

Member
I wish public schools and their students could somehow turn around, but having a "giving a damn" lotto isn't going to make the problems disappear.

.

Well there is more then one style of public schooling. A few different ones are showing up. For the most part you can give a damn all you want........as long as it falls in line with state testing tho
 
Regarding that mention of the Philippines, I have to wonder if they'll ever teach what actually happened during the Philippine-American war. I personally don't remember ever learning this in school, but apparently, depending on who you ask, our war over there resulted in anywhere between a couple hundred thousand to over a million civilian deaths. We were putting civilians in concentration camps (a.k.a. "protection zones") where they died of disease by the thousands before the Nazis were showing people how it's done.

The .45 caliber gun was invented because the US soldiers were having trouble killing the Moro soldiers with .38 caliber bullets. The Moros would tie a leather string tightly around their scrotum, and that pain would supersede any lesser pain like a bullet wound. We needed a round with a little more stopping power. I'm not sure what that says about the level of civilization in the Philippines, but I doubt they'll teach either of our facts.

I went to school in West Virginia in the 1970s. I don't recall any mention of Creationism in that time. Although, the last chapter in my American History book said that we were going to go to war in Vietnam to quickly defeat Communism.
 
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