Ethics

1 in 8 Teaching Creationism in Science Class

By Ed Brayton

Here's an absolutely frightening study by researchers at Penn State that finds that 1 in 8 public school science teachers in the US are teaching creationism as a valid alternative to evolution in their classrooms. Here's the problem: we only find out who they are if a student or parent comes forward and contacts us. So I'm proposing that we get more aggressive and start rooting them out one by one. Most states have an open records law that allows people to request documents, including documents used in public school classrooms. If we file such requests to get our hands on the supplemental materials - handouts, videos, etc - that are being used, we will undoubtedly identify the teachers who are doing this and we can put a stop to it. Long excerpt from the study below the fold:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).