Well, not ALL of you. Just the ones who also happen to be Scientists. Texans only, please. If you are not a Texan Scientist do not read this blog post.
The National Center for Science Education is asking Texas Scientists to contact the State Board of Education regarding the Proposed Texas Educational Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Amendments.
Find your SBOE member here.
You are being asked to write your State board of Education member regarding the TEKS amendments passed in Janurary, 2009.
In general, the amendments single out topics touching on evolution (including the age and evolution of Earth and the universe as a whole) from other scientific topics included in the TEKS. They uniformly weaken the presentation of these subjects, incorrectly communicating to students that evolution and cosmology are more tentative than the scientific community considers them. Many of the amendments would open the door to the inclusion of creationist ideas.The amendments should be rejected for reasons of scientific accuracy and pedagogical appropriateness.
There's about five of these atrocious amendments. The details, including the wording and what the objections to them are can be found here.
Read that material over, write up something intelligent about it, and contact your board member!!!!
Write your board member using this email (they all use the same email). You put the one you are trying to contact in the subject line. When you email your school board member, please blind-copy (BCC) NCSE so we have an indication of the pro-science support. Send your BCC to newton@ncseweb.org.
Education & Careers
Comments
You're not the boss of me, I read the whole post.
/ and passed it on to some Texas friends.
Posted by: Newfie | March 8, 2009 9:56 PM
I couldn't help it! You said 'Don't read!', what was I supposed to do?
Posted by: pixelsnake | March 8, 2009 10:09 PM
"You're not the boss of me, I read the whole post.
/ and passed it on to some Texas friends."
Me neither. I passed this on to a very good friend who is a Texas scientist.
Posted by: Randy | March 8, 2009 10:13 PM
What about Texan science students?
Posted by: Michael | March 8, 2009 10:20 PM
"Don't Read This" ?? I mean, come on. It's like telling James Bond not to push the Big Red Button. To answer Michael's query, if it is going to be a student, then at minimum, they should probably be a graduate student.
Posted by: Mark | March 8, 2009 10:25 PM
Oh fine. Being in high school just takes away all the fun of everything, eh?
Posted by: Michael | March 8, 2009 10:40 PM
I didn't read it. I didn't read any of the comments either. In fact, I've never heard of this blog. I was over on ebay the whole time.
Posted by: simea mirans | March 8, 2009 10:41 PM
Story about McLeroy in the Austin paper. I think they're too nice to him:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/08/0308mcleroy.html
This man is a liar and does not belong anywhere near the word "science"
Posted by: ross | March 8, 2009 11:00 PM
Genie tells me that the key thing here is that they want the comments to come from within the state. Those Texans are tired of being told what to do by outsiders. Personally, I think hearing from citizens of Texas generally would be just fine.
Posted by: Greg Laden | March 8, 2009 11:04 PM
Those Texans are tired of being told what to do by outsiders.
Then those assholes can secede from the union.
Posted by: Thomas Lee Elifritz | March 8, 2009 11:42 PM
McLeroy and his ilk are not tired of being told what to do by outsiders. Only by outsiders who do not share their Bronze-Age beliefs. McLeroy actively recruited aid from outside the state(Discovery Institute).
Posted by: ChuckP | March 9, 2009 12:00 AM
Well, I don't follow instructions well, so of course I had to read the post.
I wish the best for those in Texas who are continuing to fight the "dumbing down" of our country.
Posted by: Dan J | March 9, 2009 12:00 AM
I wonder whether the word of a former Texan carries any weight? I'll forward this to my engineer father in Houston, but as a programmer with a history in bioinformatics, I want to write in too.
Posted by: mlp | March 9, 2009 12:17 AM
visit
http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=18652#post18652
to see the open letter to Richard Dawkins
and how we won the million dollar paranormal challenge...
Posted by: davem | March 9, 2009 12:33 AM
You didn't win jack shit, Dave Mabus.
Get help. Your meds have worn off. Again.
Posted by: Aquaria | March 9, 2009 6:15 AM
davem, I went to your link and all I could find was a bunch of lame youtube videos and some unintelligible ramblings about Nostradamus. I only briefly looked over it, but I've heard it all before and its all bull. Anyone can make vague enough predictions and say they will happen "sometime" in the future, and then 400 years later be either proven right or made to look right by those who want to believe. It's all crap, and has been thoroughly debunked. QED you win nothing.
Unless I missed the entire point of that link, and there was, in fact, some extraordinarily powerful evidence for whatever your fantastic claim may have been. In which case, maybe you should more clearly, concisely, and intelligently state it, and then move on to the proof, in your next attempt at posting. I won't hold my breath, and neither will the JREF.
Posted by: ross | March 9, 2009 8:43 AM
"Proposed Texas ->Educatoial
Posted by: DoesNotMatter | March 9, 2009 9:03 AM
That's pretty funny. OK, I fixed it. Obviously, I meant "Edumacational"
Posted by: Greg Laden | March 9, 2009 10:01 AM
"If you are not a Texan Scientist do not read this blog post."
Either you have a wonderfully warped sense of humour, or you are a complete idiot. . .
I am still very scientifically trying to figure out which of these two things you are. :-)
I am not a Texan and not *officially* a scientist although some of what I do can be properly described as science.
Posted by: Robin Edgar | March 9, 2009 10:04 AM
Wow. Davem - either you're on drugs or you need them.
I did take a moment to check out all the random youtube vids you dropped into your extremely weird "press release", and I have to say I'm impressed by how little they relate to the rest of your rant.
I'd rate you at about 0.87 Timecubes, and rising.
Posted by: calladus | March 9, 2009 10:38 AM
Creationists have worked patiently for years to pack the State Board of Education with their people. Scientist or not, if you want science to be taught in the schools, you need to pay attention to this obscure bit of politics.
If you live in or near Austin, TX, there is an active group working to replace the creationist representing district 10, and spreading the word in other parts of the state.
They can be contacted via:
educationfirstsboe10@gmail.com
Go to the meetings, get politically active. Change the way things are done.
Posted by: Don Hyde | March 9, 2009 11:54 AM
If y'all don't wanna hear from outsiders then quit allowing your feebly edunacated, bigoted mysogonystic, homophobic spawn to migrate outta state and infect and annoy the rest of us w/ the Texaatupidity imposed upon them by s bunch of people too lazy to bother to read more than one book or think for themselves.
Posted by: nosmokes | March 9, 2009 7:16 PM
Wow, just wow. Once again, my home state embarrasses itself even further. I'm just not surprised at this point anymore. When I was growing up in TX 'science' education was horrible; I couldn't imagine how it could get any worse. Until now. Ugh.
Posted by: JAJ | March 15, 2009 11:28 PM