Florida: The Whole World is Watching

Hearings will be held today in Jacksonville and early next week in Miramar Florida to determine if the word “evolution” will be integrated into the school science curriculum.

Information on the Jacksonville Hearing is here:

A public meeting about the new draft of the state science standards is tomorrow. If you are in the area, please take the time to attend in support of sound science education. Those opposed to evolution are sure to be there in force. If you wish to speak at the meeting, you may want to show up early in order to get on the list. If you do go, please report back to us what happened.

January 3, 2008, 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership

http://www.schultzcenter.org/

4019 Boulevard Center Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32207
(904) 348-5757

[source]

There has been a lot of support in the press and in other areas for the “evolution side” of this discussion, but a lot of numbers … of crazy yahoos emerging form the community … in support of teaching intelligent design along side of evolution, essentially as a compromise to not teaching evolution at all. They will be at these hearings in large numbers. The event may be very circus like. We will all be watching.

Comments

#1 Scott Belyea
January 3, 2008

Florida: The Whole World is Watching

Hmmm. I’m curious whether this is intended to be sarcastic or serious.

If the latter, it sounds like a case of navel-gazing so deeply that your nose gets stuck …
#2 cope
January 3, 2008

Actually, I believe these are the last couple of public meetings soliciting public feedback on the new standards. No decisions will be made in these meetings. Several have already been held without any major dust-ups. The final approval/disapproval of these science standards will be at a meeting of the Florida State Board of Education next month.

There was also a website (now closed to comment) also soliciting input from anybody who cared to add their 2 cents.

As a teacher on the committee to rewrite the state standards (earth/space science only, but evolution and the big bang are both in our portion of the rewritten standards), I am fairly familiar with what is going on. We members of the committee (well, at least the ones I am in contact with) are cautiously optimistic. We were charged by the State Department of Education with (among other things) “creating world-class standards.” We hope they hold themselves to this same level of expectation.
#3 RobertC
January 3, 2008

I’m sure this has been said before, but we have got to stop hosting science conferences in states hostile to science!
#4 motm
January 3, 2008

I suggest the opposite: host MORE science conferences in hostile states. By removing them, you only help to widen the gap making things harder in the future when something like this goes to court.