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Now Any Florida Resident Can Challenge What Is Taught In Public Florida Schools (orlandosentinel.com)
New submitter zantafio shares a report from Orlando Sentinel: Any resident in Florida can now challenge what kids learn in public schools, thanks to a new law that science education advocates worry will make it harder to teach evolution and climate change. The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) last week and went into effect Saturday, requires school boards to hire an "unbiased hearing officer" who will handle complaints about instructional materials, such as movies, textbooks and novels, that are used in local schools. Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system. If the hearing officer deems the challenge justified, he or she can require schools to remove the material in question. The statute includes general guidelines about what counts as grounds for removal: belief that the material is "pornographic" or "is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented, or is inappropriate for the grade level and age group."
I loved banned book week, when my kids were encouraged to read books that had been banned at some time and discuss the reasons behind the ban. In florida they'll have to make it banned book month now.
Nullius in verba
Well let's look at what it takes to be a public school teacher in Florida. Wow, look at that. Credentials and training are required. It's almost like you're one of those ignorant morons I mentioned earlier. Thanks for providing such a good example!
Complain to get it removed. What is the reference supporting the claim that God created the Earth and creatures that live upon it? AFAIK, it's only one book.
And the bible is full of pornography. Easy to find examples.
I would think for sufficiently creative people with appropriate resources, this law could easily be turned around to cause all kinds of problems for it's proponents.
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Texas public schools are proof that phony religionists with a political agenda can convert public schools (and public school curriculum) into their own publicly funded religious institutions.
It's happened in other states, of course, but I'm most familiar with Texas.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Public education... having public input?! wow what a novel concept!
Input is one thing, being able to challenge material in the curriculum when you may not know the material yourself is a different thing. Education is like health care or indeed any other profession: you want to be able to give input on the best course of action to a professional who can weigh that input along with what they know to devise the best course of action.
If your doctor's course of treatment for you could be challenged by random members of the public and judged by a random bureaucrat who likely has little to know medical knowledge you would get terrible health case. The same is true for education.
Yep.
http://www.slate.com/articles/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
this is just an extension of the "all opinions are just as good" method from fox etc.
basically.. in order to be "neutral, unbiased" you have to provide both sides of a discussion equally. basically, what it means that if someone says that they should teach that the sun is made of cheddar and the moon out of marshmallow, they should get just as much of a platform to present this opinion.
it's fucking stupid and it makes stupid people even more stupid so there's that.. and it fits the binary notion.
like, about the composition and how the moon came to be.. there are like 100 scientific, kind of sense making theories. if people were sensible about unbiased they would present 1000 of those theories and the 40 DIFFERENT "god made it" arguments. in any case it would be pretty great to teach that if you teach the religious explanation, then you would also tell of the 100 OTHER RELIGIOUS EXPLANATIONS.
because basically, the quickest way to make an atheist or at least an agnostic is to simply teach that, hey, there's these fucking 100 different religious views that are totally incompatible with each other.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"I'm here to challenge this district's use of Brave New World in the curriculum."
"Ok, here's the 'Ban Brave New World' form, goes in that stack over there. What's your objection? Promiscuity? Irreligion? Drugs? Socialism?"
"No, it's inaccurate. Huxley says Alphas belong in charge, but we seem to be doing pretty great with Epsilons running the state of Florida."
"... You can write that, but you know the Board's not going to get it, right?"
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I grew up in Florida. My senior year, my English teacher let us watch "Full Metal Jacket" IN CLASS. And to think we went through almost the entire year without realizing how cool she secretly was.
The most twisted part is that if any member of the public had found out and complained, their primary objection would have probably been the film's antiwar sentiment and implied criticism of America and its military (that same year, my American History teacher admitted point blank that he was EXPLICITLY prohibited from saying anything about either Watergate or the Vietnam War because the Principal deemed both topics to be "too controversial").
Garbage in, garbage out.
What happened was simply that people got disillusioned, and that the TV heroes changed big time. In the 60s, the heroes were astronauts and everyone could make a living on a single income. Getting rich, or at least comfortable, was something you could realistically achieve with hard work. The 80s came and the TV and movie heroes were the yuppies who also convinced anyone that you gotta and gonna get rich if you are smart, climb the corporate ladder and get to the top.
Today the TV heroes are washed up idiots and wannabe-celebs in reality docu soaps and getting rich is something you could hope for by winning the lottery or suing the pants off some rich guy who hit you with his car. Even the TV shows we have feature bumbling fools and underachievers as the protagonists.
How do you want to motivate kids in such an environment to waste their time on learning anything? It's moot anyway. And I can't blame them, they're mostly even right.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The problem is that this position isn't really about public input, it's about appeasing religious extremism and undermining scientific literacy.
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