Tom Ames

Puh-raise G-CISE!!!

RufusAtticus

I sent the following letter today to the AJC (amongst other places), and it will be published as an op-ed on Wednesday. (They've requested a headshot.) Thanx to everyone who offered suggestions. I'll probably have some interesting hate-mail to share in a few days.



GEORGIA'S POOR SCIENCE STANDARDS

Last month Merck & Co. chose North Carolina over Georgia for the site of a new vaccine manufacturing facility. The pharmaceutical giant cited the more highly skilled workers and better educational system of our neighbor in making their decision. Then earlier this month the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) released drafts of the proposed science standards for K-12 public school education. These standards are supposed to be �stronger� and the foundation of a �world-class curriculum.� Sadly they verge on being a joke. GADOE has gutted biology education by removing the very basis of modern biology, more than likely for religious and political reasons. Instead of enlightening opponents of modern science through education, GADOE will perpetuate ignorance through silence. We do not compromise history education for those who deny the holocaust, why should we compromise biology education for those who deny evolution?

As the foundation of our state's draft standards, GADOE utilized the Project 2061 benchmarks, which were formulated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Instead of strengthening these national benchmarks to create a truly world-class curriculum, the GADOE has weakened them by removing sections concerning the history of life, common descent, human origins, the role we play in the ecosystem, the Big Bang, the age of the Earth, etc. The pattern is clear, and the pseudoscientific sympathies our governor and state school superintendent expressed during their election campaigns now threaten our state�s educational and economic future.

GADOE has even eliminated the mere mention of �evolution� in the biology standards and is sorely mistaken to think that entering college freshman are not expected to know what evolution is. The best biology teachers will still prepare their students properly for college, but the lack of proper standards means that, as most teachers choose to teach only the standards, the majority of Georgia's high school students will graduate with a weak science education.

What students know when they get out of high school directly impacts what they know when they get out of college. The more time that is spent in college learning things that should have been learned in high school, the less chance there is to succeed, and the less time there is to prepare for employment after college. Thus compromising K-12 science education directly compromises the economy of Georgia. At a time when the state is desperately trying to court the biotech industry, these science standards encourage them to look elsewhere. Merck was not the first company to bypass Georgia because our public education avoids modern biology, and surely will not be the last if we fail to adopt a truly world-class curriculum. Complete adoption of the AAAS benchmarks, including the sections that ignorance finds controversial, is the best and easiest way for the state to proceed at this point. With such improved standards the high-tech companies will come to us, instead of us going to them.

The Georgia Department of Education needs to hear from the people that these proposed standards are not world-class and that the complete adoption of the AAAS benchmarks is needed. The standards and links for public comment can be found at http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/spotlight/gps2.htm. Further information and links can be found on the website of Georgia Citizens for Integrity in Science Education, www.georgiascience.org.

RufusAtticus

Please sign the following petition. (You don't have to be a GA resident to do so.)

http://www.petitiononline.com/gasci04/petition.html

RufusAtticus

I've forwarded the petition link to talk.origins, evoldir, evolistga, my department, and the SecWeb newswire.

Anybody got any other ideas about places to send it like skeptic, freethinker, pro-science, or liberal websites, newsgroups, or forums?

Albion

Have you sent it to NCSE so that they can circulate it, or is that covered by the lists you already mentioned?

RufusAtticus

I think they're covered by evolistga, but I probably should send it just in case.

RufusAtticus

I've sent an email to Eric Meikle of NCSE about the petition, which now has 100 signatures mostly from Georgia residents and educators.

Yea!

Derec

That's great, but now I will have to fork over $0.50 tomorrow.

Good luck with actually effecting something with all this Rufus.

UMoC

RufusAtticus

You'll need to do it again Thursday because there'll be more articles on the standards then.

Derec

You tryin' to bankrupt me here?
But yeah plus there is a chance you'll get some interesting hate mail by then.

UMoC