Maintained by the ScienceBlogs Overlords at Seed Media Group, Page 3.14 points you in the direction of some of ScienceBlogs' finest offerings, plus the tastiest tidbits of science news and opinion from around the web.
Last week, Dan Delong, an English teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois was suspended for allowing students to read an article on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. The article in question, "The Gay Animal Kingdom," was written by ScienceBlogger Jonah Lehrer of The Frontal Cortex, and published by Seed magazine in 2006. Mr. Delong faced a school board hearing on Monday and stood to lose his job over the incident. Jonah, along with many other ScienceBloggers, rallied support for Mr. Delong, as well as science education and literacy everywhere. Mike Dunford of the Questionable Authority pointed out that "the content was an optional, extra-credit assignment," and provides readers with the email contact for the school's superintendent. Greg Laden of Greg Laden's Blog spoke out along with Jonah and Mike, urging readers to check out the Facebook page replete with comments of support from Mr. DeLong's former students. In the end, the effort was worthwhile—Mr. DeLong returned to his classroom this morning.
- The Gay Animal Kingdom on The Frontal Cortex
- The Gay Animal Kingdom, Part 2 on The Frontal Cortex
- Seed Magazine in the Classroom: Grounds for Suspending the Teacher?? on The Questionable Authority
- Teacher Suspended, Seed Magazine Banned, Teh Gay Blamed. on Greg Laden's Blog
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Comments
Is them deer Mormons?
Posted by: Rob Jase | November 3, 2009 6:32 PM
I wish people would stop saying "a Seed article" when the plain truth is that he was suspended for a GAY article. Half of this publicity makes it sound as if Seed was the cause - any Seed article - and it's a specific one. If he'd assigned a non-hot-button article, nobody would have cared.
This is not to say that the article was inappropriate or the response wasn't draconian. It's just not "a Seed article": it's THAT Seed article.
Posted by: The Ridger | November 3, 2009 6:44 PM