Comments on: Crazy stuff they'll teach in Louisiana's publicly funded charter schools

By: spatt2525

spatt2525 — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:45:00 +0000

Jindal is simply trying to cover his ass in the face of “No Child Left Behind” laws–something pushed through by GWB. I taught public school in LA for 30 years (maths, not psuedo-science.) Every change proposed, local as well as national, was for the worse–against common sense. Humans and dinosaurs co-existing?!! Really!! Do you also think we float to work on canoes fighting alligators all the way? Teachers here are required to have university degrees. Did God use evolution to create mankind? IDK. What hubris to say yes or no. I belong to a small Baptist church. We try to help ourselves and others–not tell others what to think. But I know that if we ever saw a “pastor” sharpening his shaft or staff or arrow or whatever, we would kick his balls back where they belong and he would not walk straight again.

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Thanks, i may have to give that a read.

By: Kludgegrrl

Kludgegrrl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:51:00 +0000

I wish I could join you in lauding the situation in Canada BUT we, in Toronto (in Canada) maintain a publicly funded *Catholic* school board, which *does* include religious instruction. Moreover, to teach in the Catholic school board one must provide proof of being of good faith (ie a letter from a priest).

I do not think that the TCDSB teaches complete nonsense, but they certainly do teach religion and they have been embroiled in several recent controversies on account of their desire to uphold particular “religious” values — banning certain works of literature, forbidding gay-straight alliances, etc…

Sure, overall Canada has a better public school system than the States, but that is a pretty low bar. There is room for improvement, eh?

By: Kludgegrrl

Kludgegrrl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:37:00 +0000

For the possible link between fossil finds and belief in dragons (and other fabulous monsters) see: Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. It’s a great read.

By: Kludgegrrl

Kludgegrrl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Sure, this is terrible stuff to officially teach in a publicly funded school (or any school really). No question. But I am quite sure that a lot of similar bullshit is taught in some schools that use textbooks from more reputable publishers — ultimately it is what the teacher tells the students, far more than what the book says, that sticks. And a lot of Americans believe a lot of ignorant mumbo-jumbo. Unfortunately.

By: Rod Rawlings

Rod Rawlings — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:53:00 +0000

Mark Twain is regularly maligned by the rigidly religious. Actually, Twain knew the Old and New Testaments inside and out. Before becoming a writer, he had wanted to be a preacher but could not find the necessary faith, which he called “believing what you know ain’t so.” Twain wrote “Letters From the Earth” to give his controversial view of the bible and Christian beliefs, but his only surviving daughter, Clara, suppressed its publication until 1962 — more than five decades after his death. You can hear the free audio of it at MarkTwainPerforms.com.

By: kpeort

kpeort — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:24:00 +0000

I forget that some people find this stuff unusual…. I grew up in rural Kansas, had this and similar stuff shoved down my throat for a long time, mostly by the backwater church I went to when I was young. Doesn’t seem so crazy when you’re 5 years old and everyone else in your small town believes it too.

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 03:52:00 +0000

I wonder what the likelihood of these dragons being creative attempts at explaining dinosaur fossils…

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 03:49:00 +0000

Ah, so it was an internal link. My bad.

By: Another Kevin

Another Kevin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:02:00 +0000

Of course dragons have to be real. They are mentioned in Isaiah (27:1, 51:9), Job (26:12-13), and Psalms (89:10). Isaiah 27:1, in particular, relates dragons to Leviathan and to the great sea-monsters of Genesis 1:21.

At least in some people’s world view.

By: Green Ghost

Green Ghost — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:07:00 +0000

Hmmmm…..I see a future plot to eliminate the likely valedictorian and take over the top spot for graduation!

Although a top spot a school like that would not be such a big deal I suppose.

By: Mantissa128

Mantissa128 — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:48:00 +0000

Maybe the part where taxpayer money is being put to use propagating hatred against homosexuals, denial of historical tragedies, glorifying of racial supremacists, and villifying scientific thought and inquiry.

You mean the politicians, not the schools, right? And more broadly, American culture?

The schools aren’t doing this by themselves. They represent a very-much-alive stream of American culture which supports these ideas and has been controlling dialogue at the national level since the birth of your country. If this stream of culture didn’t exist, no school would by trying to push it, and if they did, they’d be snapped back so fast it wouldn’t even be funny.

Sometimes I think that the left believes that the right is a bunch of rural nutjobs that can be safely ignored. But they are your neighbours, friends, family. There’s only one way you’re going to change, America, and that’s by confronting yourselves.

By: allium

allium — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:15:00 +0000

They're waaaaaaay ahead of you.

By: allium

allium — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:08:00 +0000

Actually, my girlfriend just let one go last week after nursing it back to health; she found on her dog’s walkies route with a cat’s paw-shaped divot taken out of its left wing feathers.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:18:00 +0000

I’m a teacher in Canada, and if I tried to teach any of this I would probably lose my license, as the Supreme Court has upheld the rights of children to be free from biased information, specifically religious beliefs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Jones
Supreme Court ruled the Crown could intervene in homeschooling if it felt the children were not being given adequate education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Keegstra
Teachers are not permitted to bring religious or prejudiced rhetoric in the classroom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Andrews
Limits of Freedom of Speech to prevent racist groups from spreading slander

I’m aware of the irony of citing Wikipedia, but it is fact checked and really demonstrates the huge differences: If I were to teach or act in the manner asked of teachers in many States, I would lose my license and be barred from teaching

By: jerwin

jerwin — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:39:00 +0000

A Beka is pretty wacky.

Mathematics Mathematics is the language God used in His creation of the universe, and thus it is logical, orderly, beautiful, and very practical in science and in daily life. No subject matter better reflects the glory of God than mathematics. To study mathematics is to study God's thoughts after Him, for He is the great Engineer and Architect of the universe.Unlike the "modern math" theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, we believe that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute. All of the laws of mathematics are God's laws. Our knowledge of God's absolute mathematical laws may be incomplete or at times in error, but that merely shows human frailty, not relativity in mathematics. Man's task is to search out and make use of the laws of the universe, both scientific and mathematical.A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory. These books have been field-tested, revised, and used successfully for many years in Christian schools. They are classics with up-to-date appeal. Besides training students in the basic skills that they will need all their lives, the A Beka Book traditional mathematics books teach students to believe in the absolutes of the universe, to work diligently to get right answers, and to see the facts of mathematics as part of the truth and order that God has built into the real universe.

By: elix

elix — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:06:00 +0000

I thought I’d stumbled onto Conservapedia for a moment.

By: Paul Boudreaux

Paul Boudreaux — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:19:00 +0000

While I agree that what they’re teaching at these particular schools is completely nuts, these are the schools the parents chose to send their children to. Some parents, who are probably homeschooling their children currently, may now send their kids to other nutty schools like this. It’s not like the state is forcing *your* kids to go to the school full of nutters. I think it’s important to point out the horrendous lack of education some of these schools will offer and bring light to it. Pretending that other private schools in Louisiana are all this way and are incapable of offering a good education is a fallacy of composition based on those who can’t get over their own planned state ideology.

By: hymenopterid

hymenopterid — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:51:00 +0000

I’m confused. I was under the impression that they still spoke English in “you’re” country. Is this not the case?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:45:00 +0000

For every evolutionary advance, there are about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 acts of predation. It’s not the kind of process where taking a wait and see attitude really pays off.

By: Arys

Arys — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:20:00 +0000

It must get tiring to be that frightened all the time…

By: disillusion

disillusion — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:13:00 +0000

And this is why I don’t like to associate with people near where I live.

Also, it gets worse. Just last night my brother was mentioning how one of the Charter schools not too far off from here has it in their code book where they can force a girl to have a pregnancy test if they suspect she might be pregnant, and if she is will be expelled. This also applies if she refuses the test.

So, basically, if someone rapes a girl, they can force her to be tested for being pregnant and if she refuses, she gets expelled, if she is, she gets expelled, and because of where we are, she will most likely end up having to keep the baby…

This is why I hate where I live…

By: Steven Lord

Steven Lord — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:26:00 +0000

Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure they’d say non-believers went in the opposite direction.

By: ChicagoD

ChicagoD — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:22:00 +0000

If you were from anywhere other than England this would come off as something other than snarky sour grapes. Remember when Britain was good at all these same things? And colonization!

By: schlocktober

schlocktober — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Remind me never to hire anybody who grew up in Louisiana. Sorry guys, but you voted yourselves in the foot.

By: ChicagoD

ChicagoD — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:19:00 +0000

Right. That was the point. Northern males and females travel to a city in the South to make complete asses out of themselves, but don’ t have the same tradition in their home states.

By: aikimoe

aikimoe — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:19:00 +0000

When making fun of other people’s ignorance, it’s a good idea to check “you’re” grammar.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:18:00 +0000

@boingboing-88bade49e98db8790df275fcebb37a13:disqus Psychopathy is just one example. What I’m trying to get across is that being a fairly tolerant, open society also has disadvantages. For example, western democracies have fairly open borders and I think this is a very good thing. They’re open on the understanding that there are certain “rules” pertaining to them — their primary uses are education and tourism. The problem arises when certain groups or individuals decide to take advantage of the conditions predicated on those rules without themselves following the rules. For example, Islamic terrorists have in many cases taken advantage of fairly open borders not to see the sights or go to college but to kill human beings.

That said, I think open borders are great and the threat from Islamic terrorism is so small that it would be foolish to close them on this account. Likewise, I think religious tolerance is an important value and I don’t think religious beliefs should be criminalized or pathologized — in fact, I think this is exactly what’s objectionable about witch hunts. On the other hand, I don’t want to fool myself into thinking these (my own) positions on these issues don’t have any downsides.

By: vance_tam

vance_tam — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:11:00 +0000

They are welcome to consider their sort of schooling prestigious if they wish. For a bible school, perhaps it is prestigious. However, unless I was interested in finding a well-schooled religious nut job, I wouldn’t look for graduates from a bible school.

I’d look askance at any future doctors educated in Louisiana.

By: Zak McKracken

Zak McKracken — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:08:00 +0000

Sometimes I think these people have such weird theories about fantasy stories being the gate to demonic whatnots and witchcraft and so on because they’re actually not good christians and in fact they are the only ones on the planet who believe that these things exist for real. By extension, they are then probably afraid that demons or whathavyou might overpower the forces of good, because … dunno, god is o weak to defend against them? At this point my logic fails, but there’s the thing with logic and religious extremists … maybe it’s also because they deny the existence of metaphors (and any figure of speech, really) in the bible, and probably by extension in any other literature. Maybe this is because many of the arguments for whe the bible must be taken literal are based on semantics (i.e. making a true, figuratively worded statement and then taking it literally) and not logic.
… maybe I’m just making this up? Stereotyping? I’d like to read a proper deconstruction of the religiously fanatic mindset. But maybe there’s more than one, though. I heard they are individuals too.