The “truth in education” bill won’t mention religion, God, or Adam and Eve. Instead, the bill vaguely suggests that students challenge teachers and make them prove the truth. As Kruse’s colleague, Sen. Tim Skinner (D-IN), pointed out, this bill describes the basic interaction of teacher and student…
I’m a little baffled as to the point of this bill. Here’s how Kruse describes the bill: “If you’re teaching something, then a student could question that and say, you know, ‘How do you know that’s true?’ And so the teacher would have to come up with different sources, ‘This is why I think this is true.’”
Isn’t this what’s supposed to happen in a classroom? This is how it generally works, isn’t it? Obviously there are plenty of situations where the teacher isn’t any good and/or the students aren’t paying attention. Education is pretty far from perfect in America, sometimes, but basically, this is how teaching works. The teacher says something, the kids ask questions, the teacher clarifies, etc. I guess I just don’t see how this bill changes that or enforces Kruse’s apparent goal of getting creationism taught in science classrooms.
It makes me wonder what Kruse thinks is going on in a classroom. Does he think the students are just sitting there in wide-eyed, silent wonder, taking everything a teacher says as the ultimate truth? (Does he think students are even paying attention most of the time anyway?) Does he think science teachers are just shouting “OMGCREATIONISMEVIL!!1!” and moving on with the rest of their day without covering at least some of the incredible mountain of scientific evidence that supports evolution? Or maybe he thinks that if he gets this bill passed, that crappy Facebook copypasta about the Christian and the atheist philosophy professor will suddenly start coming true in classrooms all across America.
I don’t know, but the whole bill just seems really pointless and inane to me. It’s sad that time has to get wasted on junk like this – it sure seems like the Indiana state senate must have more important things to do.
But the announcement sparked scepticism from some theologians.
Jim West, a professor and Baptist pastor in Tennessee, said: “A statement on a papyrus fragment isn’t proof of anything. It’s nothing more than a statement ‘in thin air’, without substantial context.”
Wolf-Peter Funk, a noted Coptic linguist attending the same conference as Ms King, said there were “thousands of scraps of papyrus where you find crazy things,” and many questions remained about the fragment.
In a bizarre twist, it’s currently 80+ in my home state of Michigan. Meanwhile, here in Oregon’s usually balmy Willamette Valley, it’s been 30 degrees and snowing up a fit all day. If I were a believer, I’d say Somebody Up There is having a good laugh at my expense.
So, today has been just the perfect day for curling up in a comfy chair with a big fluffy blanket, a pile of puppies and kitties, some hot chocolate, and a good book. Sadly, I’m out of good books, so I had to read this stuff instead. Not that these aren’t well-written, insightful articles – just that the topics being written about are the sort of thing that makes me want to shout bad words as loudly as possible, which inevitably scares the dog, causing the cats to dart off my lap and spill the hot chocolate, which I then have to go clean up. It doesn’t lead to a restful afternoon, is what I’m saying here, folks.
I’m speaking, of course, about the required-transvaginal-ultrasound thing that seems to be the flavor-of-the-month in politics.
I do not care what your personal politics are. I think we can all agree that my right to swing my fist ends where your face begins.
John Scalzi lends his blog to an anonymous doctor, so he or she can sound off on the utter bullshit that is forcing women to have transvaginal ultrasounds before they can have an abortion. I would love to see Doctor Anonymous’ idea of civil disobedience and protest via refusing to perform the transvaginal ultrasound take off on a grand scale. That would make me giddy with glee.
Apparently the whole Religious Right versus same sex-romance-in-Star Wars-video-games dogfight isn’t over yet.
Quick rewind: Recently, BioWare, the makers of the massively popular MMO video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, decided that one of your role playing options should be a same sex romance. Diverse, the universe is, hm?
The Religious Right is having a panty-knotting hissy-fit over the fact that players can choose to have gay relationships in SW:TOR. “OMG, think of the children!” they say. Newsflash, Religious Right: it’s not going to hurt the kids to know that homosexuality is a thing. Actually, I think I’ll just let Louis C. K. take it from here. May I direct your attention to the quote on your right?
Two top executives at Susan G. Komen for the Cure have announced their resignation, amid reports that the breast cancer charity is struggling to raise money and repair its reputation after its decision to defund Planned Parenthood and subsequent reversal.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation tried to throw their not inconsiderable weight behind a hateful political ideal. To no one’s surprise, this play came back to bite them in the ass. Komen managed a lot of good for a lot of women over the years, so I feel a bit bad in rooting for their downfall, but honestly, the more people who pay, and pay hard for backing hateful, repressive, socially conservative policies, the better. Maybe if enough people get burned for backing this insane crap, they’ll stop trying to shove their prudery down our throats.
At least, that’s what Harold Camping, an 89-year-old reverend and talk-radio host, claims. Of course, he’s been wrong before. Back in 1994, he said the world was ending, too. Turns out he screwed up his math. I can sympathize. I’m not so great at math, myself. Read more >>
