Sorry, Texans, but as long as you keep doing this, the rest of the world is going to keep making jokes that are not so funny about you. Please get your acts together and fix this, OK?
Enjoy this commentary by David Newman in the Austin American Statesman:
Power has attracted some strange and disturbing minds to the State Board of Education. Its chairman, Don McElroy, believes the Earth we all share is younger than the light we see coming from the nearest galaxy. God is, I guess, playing tricks, suggesting that the humility with which science views the heavens can't hold a candle to the obeisance we should show to archaic strips of parchment.Now the board's Cynthia Dunbar has suggested that President-elect Barack Obama is a terrorist sympathizer. Dunbar thinks that within six months of his election, there will be "a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is threat to tyranny." I wonder, sometimes, what it is in American history that most inclines us towards tyranny. Is it tiny groups of "infiltrators," or arrogant majorities for whom "difference" equals "danger"?
Ironically, the Bible curriculum Dunbar endorses for all Texas public schoolchildren might provide the most compelling answer.
The State Board of Education has mandated that public schools teach a Bible course. According to a recent Associated Press report, four board members actively endorse a particular course, a product of the National Council for Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. As those members see it, the council's curriculum "has been implemented successfully in numerous school districts within the state of Texas."
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Comments
I am filled with shame, for I am a Texan. However, I am planning on college somewhere not Texas, so I might not be forced to shamefully admit that much longer.
Posted by: kerovon | November 24, 2008 9:06 PM
I wonder which bible they plan to use?
Do Muslims get a bye? Jews? Hindus?
Oh, wait. They don't get a say in this. Sorry I forgot it's Texass.
Posted by: Mike | November 24, 2008 9:09 PM
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. -- Mark Twain
Posted by: OriGuy | November 24, 2008 9:46 PM
WTF?!! Is there a court date set yet?
Posted by: Stacy S. | November 24, 2008 10:17 PM
And all it will take is one teacher who uses a lesson plan from Richard Dawkins.
S/he will, of course, be fired. The settlement will bankrupt the district.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | November 24, 2008 10:24 PM
Dawkins is not exactly a reputable bible scholar.
How about Hector Avalos?
Posted by: Sigmund | November 25, 2008 7:46 AM
I had never heard of Avalos but a quick look through the net marks him as perfect for the job. Kudos Sigmund.
Posted by: Mike | November 25, 2008 8:51 AM
I'm a Texan, but I'm not filled with shame because I had NOTHING AT ALL to do with this. My tax money is used for purposes I don't agree with, if I am even aware of them. I already do as much as I can afford to to fight B of E idiocy.
Posted by: speedwell | November 25, 2008 9:20 AM
Not all of Texas is an educational sinkhole, and for those of you that think you should avoid it all together you should be aware of people like Ed Darrell who is a teacher in the Dallas ISD. You can keep up with him at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub. He is actively fighting for the quality of education in Texas. The universities in Texas are for the most part very strong and house good educators and researchers. If you have been following the hearings at all, they have been showing up and trying to get through the thick heads of the SBOE that "teaching the controversy" is not teaching.
Finally I want to give a shout out to the elementary teachers at Kramer Elementary in Dallas, and for the teachers in Balch Springs for sticking to science in their education classes. My daughters' teachers there were very good at what they do.
Terri Leo may win in the short run, but this is all going to come crashing down on McLeroy and Leo when the people of Texas wise up to them.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | November 25, 2008 3:01 PM