A good scientist and educator was fired from the TEA, only they called it a resignation, and the circumstances surrounding her firing look a lot like an intelligent design political maneuver. This reaffirms my decision to homeschool.
What follows is a round up of the reporting across the bloggosphere:
TEA Clearing a Path For Intelligent Design?
Texas Education Agency Forces Science Curriculum Chief To Resign In Continued War Over ‘Intelligent Design’
Video and actual email Comer forwarded.
The further devolving of Texas education
TEA: We must remain neutral on junk science theory
Director of Science Forced to Resign
The real reason Director of Science Chris Comer was forced to resign is because the top TEA administrators and some SBOE members wanted her out of the picture before the state science standards–the science TEKS–were reviewed, revised, and rewritten next year beginning in January 2008, and she would have some influence to make sure the standards were scientifically accurate and of high quality. Plans are underway by some SBOE members and TEA administrators to diminish the requirement to teach about evolutionary biology in the Biology TEKS and to require instead that biology instructors “Teach the Controversy” about the “weaknesses” of evolution, that is, teach the Creationist-inspired and -created bogus controversy about evolution that doesn’t exist within legitimate science. They may even want specific bogus weaknesses required. There are, of course, no legitimate scientific weaknesses with biological evolution as the natural process is understood by scientists. At the level at which it is taught in high school, evolutionary biology has no weaknesses, gaps, or problems. At higher levels, there are poorly-understood concepts, but these are not weaknesses: these are areas that need more research. Therefore, it is duplicitous to pretend such “weaknesses” and “controversy” exist. The so-called controversy is a manufactured controversy, one created primarily by the Discovery Institute to trump up the notion that there are disagreements among scientists about evolution and these should be taught to high school students. This “teach the controversy” and “weaknesses of evolution” ploy is an attempt to disparage, diminish, and distort evolution so students will not have confidence in one of the most highly-corroborated explanations in science.
Intelligent design and the TEA
TEA Science Curriculum Director Fired Over ID
Incompetent Leadership
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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C’mon over to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub on occasion, will you?
On this issue, you may want to start here:
http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/religiouspolitical-bias-against-good-education-at-texas-education-agency/
Thank you for rounding up other Texas bloggers’ remarks. A most useful post.