Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

I understand that JO's mother really thought he was quite handsome. Ill let the readers decide. AND he did die of gluttony, look it up, you seem to only get partially invested in things

Thank you for your opinion but I am on my side, not your's. I am an anti-IDer if IDer means the world was created 10,000 years ago and evolution did not happen.

I said food poisoning. And knock off pretending you haven't been rooting in Google. You had never heard of the guy before I mentioned his

We had several dsicussions on him going back a few years.

Calif. bill would block Texas textbook changes
(By ROBIN HINDERY, Associated Press, 05/16/2010)

SACRAMENTO, Calif."California may soon take a stand against proposed changes to social studies textbooks ordered by the Texas school board, as a way to prevent them from being incorporated in California texts.

Legislation by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, seeks to protect the nation's largest public school population from the revised social studies curriculum approved in March by the Texas Board of Education. Critics say if the changes are incorporated into textbooks, they will be historically inaccurate and dismissive of the contributions of minorities.

The Texas recommendations, which face a final vote by the Republican-dominated board on May 21, include adding language saying the country's Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and a new section on "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s." That would include positive references to the Moral Majority, the National Rifle Association and the Contract with America, the congressional GOP manifesto from the 1990s.

The amendments to the state's curriculum standards also minimize Thomas Jefferson's role in world and U.S. history because he advocated the separation of church and state, and require that students learn about "the unintended consequences" of affirmative action and Title IX, the landmark federal law that bans gender discrimination in education programs and activities.

States that place the largest textbook orders have traditionally held significant sway over the materials used in American classrooms. Texas is the country's second-largest textbook buyer, behind California, which has more than 6.2 million public school students in grades K-12.

Under Yee's bill, SB1451, the California Board of Education would be required to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks. The board must then report any findings to both the Legislature and the secretary of education.

The bill describes the Texas curriculum changes as "a sharp departure from widely accepted historical teachings" and "a threat to the apolitical nature of public school governance and academic content standards in California."

"While some Texas politicians may want to set their educational standards back 50 years, California should not be subject to their backward curriculum changes," Yee said. "The alterations and fallacies made by these extremist conservatives are offensive to our communities and inaccurate of our nation's diverse history."

But some publishing industry experts say worries that the Texas standards will cross state lines are unfounded.

"It's an urban myth, especially in this digital age we live in, when content can be tailored and customized for individual states and school districts," said Jay Diskey, executive director of the schools division of the Association of American Publishers.

Diskey, whose group has not taken a position on SB1451, said the California Board of Education's existing review process is so rigorous that the state "may be the last place that would end up with the Texas curriculum."

Tom Adams, director of the state Department of Education's standards and curriculum division, said the Texas standards could make their way into national editions of textbooks, but those aren't used in California.

"Our main concern is whether materials meet California's standards," he said. "There's nothing in our review process that says we should be following Texas or anything like that."

Adam Keigwin, Yee's chief of staff, acknowledged that SB1451 was "a precautionary measure" and that California's curriculum standards already are strong.

"But there are still things that could sneak their way into our textbooks, and we want to be sure. We don't want any of those changes that Texas has proposed," he said.

Three companies are responsible for about 75 percent of the country's K-12 textbooks, Diskey estimated. Representatives for two of them"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill"on Friday referred inquiries from The Associated Press to Diskey. The third, Pearson Education Inc., did not respond to a request for comment.

The ignorant leading the innocent.

Adults know they are illusions.