Say It Ain't So Already

Next to Evolution, Teaching Climate Change is the Thing That Upsets Parents the Most

August 9, 2011 at 1:01 PM Leave a comment

This is just sad and it bodes so poorly for our country that science teachers are being made to tell their students that the existence of climate change is “controversial.”

I tell you, the money the energy companies have spent propagandizing about the alleged doubts about climate change has really paid off (for them, not for us):

An informal survey this spring of 800 members of the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) found that climate change was second only to evolution in triggering protests from parents and school administrators. Online message boards for science teachers tell similar tales. Unlike biology teachers defending the teaching of evolution, however, earth science teachers don’t have the protection of the First Amendment’s language about religion. But the teachers feel their arguments are equally compelling: Science courses should reflect the best scientific knowledge of the day, and offering opposing views amounts to teaching poor science. Most science teachers don’t relish having to engage this latest threat to their profession and resent devoting precious classroom time to a discussion of an alleged “controversy.” And they believe that politics has no place in a science classroom. Even so, some are being dragged against their will into a conflict they fear could turn ugly.

Geezus.  Sometimes I feel like the United States has reverted back to the Dark Ages.

(Image via.)

Entry filed under: Corporatocracy, Dumbed Down, Energy, Nature, Repression, Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates", Science, Technology, The Environment, Weather, Etc., We the People. Tags: .