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How do we create/maintain a reality-based education system?

AlBell said:
The new Common Core fed initiate must impress you (and trakar) then?
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I really don't know anything about a "new common core fed initiate," but if you have a link I would be glad to look at it and give you my personal perceptions regarding it.
 
tyr_13 said:
Federal decisions in the federal government made by people elected in federal elections.

There is a compelling governmental interest in having an informed and educated electorate. If one of the most populated states in the nation teaches abject lies and stupidity to their next generation of voters, they will (and ARE!) elect adversarial morons that gum up the works.

I eagerly await what will likely be the perfect solution fallacy in response.
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Eh, we're already at poisoning the well. Probably best to stop while we're ahead.

Maybe we'll have better luck the next time around.
 
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Manopolus said:
Computer screens are just plain harder to read than actual paper. An e-reader is OK up to a point, but I sincerely believe that important things (e.g. textbooks, as opposed to crap like advertising) should still be printed on paper for ease of use.

Admittedly, I may be biased, having studied in a field involving the printing industry (and having had no luck getting a job in it, due to large portions of it dying out or outsourcing elsewhere), but a paper book really is the most comfortable reading medium.
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I don't disagree with any of that. I was just pointing out that the ever-increasing move to digital means Texas will lose its influence over textbooks sooner or later.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Texas has undue sway over what gets printed in public school textbooks, .
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Yes. That is true, but in this case we are looking at a small publisher whose textbooks are used in a charter school system in Texas. 17,000 students are affected, but it is not a case of a big state swinging a big stick.
 
As for solving the problem in the OP, I have a question. At what age should students be told that some things in their textbooks are not factually correct?
 
jj said:
So, let Texas, Missouri, and the like pump out an entire generation of crazy anti-science nutters who vote?

No.
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Evolution is not science. Being anti-evolution is not being anti-science. Science theories have to be testable and falsifiable; evolution is not.
 
Texas is not mass-adopting these textbooks; it's a small charter system. Let's try not to inflate the impact this will have. While I'm all for critical thinking and teaching real science, I'm also a realist. Most kids don't care a whit about science or evolution. It's a class they take and quickly forget. The ones that do care about such things will learn the real science on their own and in college.

Let me put it another way: If a person is a Creationist, how does that matter when it pertains to their voting record? Should Christians/Creationists/Hindus/Scientologists not get votes?
 
icebear said:
Evolution is not science. Being anti-evolution is not being anti-science. Science theories have to be testable and falsifiable; evolution is not.
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I see nothing in your post that is in accord with rigorous, compelling evidences. Please provide compelling, reality-based evidences in support of your assertions.
 
xjx388 said:
Let me put it another way: If a person is a Creationist, how does that matter when it pertains to their voting record? Should Christians/Creationists/Hindus/Scientologists not get votes?
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Public schools should not be using lesson plans designed to promote particular religious beliefs. Public school curricula should be balanced and neutral with respect to such belief systems. If you want your children to learn the beliefs and various world view aspects of your religion, they should be studying and learning such in the churches of your faith.
 
icebear said:
Evolution is not science. Being anti-evolution is not being anti-science. Science theories have to be testable and falsifiable; evolution is not.
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Ha ha! Hah ha ha hah ha!

Oh, wait, you were being serious? Let me laugh even louder.

HA HA! HAH HA HA HAH HA!
 
It's telling that conservatives here are defending the teaching of lies as fact.
 
Trakar said:
Public schools should not be using lesson plans designed to promote particular religious beliefs. Public school curricula should be balanced and neutral with respect to such belief systems. If you want your children to learn the beliefs and various world view aspects of your religion, they should be studying and learning such in the churches of your faith.
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That doesn't really answer the question though.

You said in the OP (paraphrasing) that if people want to send their kids to private schools that teach anti-evolution that only they would have to deal with the consequences. But that isn't really true. Those people are all part of the larger society. So you have America as it is now -people of all faiths and no faith.

Others have said that we all have to be educated and informed in order to participate in our society. Germane to the discussion at hand, that viewpoint seems to imply that everyone has to accept evolution in order to participate. But the majority of people in this country are Christian or follow some other faith and, if polls are to be believed, the majority of people believe that God either created people as they are or guided evolution. So should those people who reject the theory of evolution or at least see it as only part of the story be excluded from participating in society?

I guess the main point is that I don't have a huge problem with the establishment of alternative schools, even publicly funded, where parents can decide to send their kids that would reflect their own values better. Not everyone can afford private schools. In my ideal scheme, every school would be a "charter school," or at least there would be several competing districts that reflect the communities they are a part of and gives parents choices in directing their kid's education.
 
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