Politicians + Curriculum = Disaster
One topic that has been in the news lately is the trend of state legislatures wanting to dictate school curricula that align to a particular political ideology. If that sounds like a terrible idea, that's because it is. I love a good political debate as much as the next former PolySci major, but the place for that debate is in coffee shops and on facebook, not in our classrooms where it affects our kids. Period.
In addition to the usual suspects for curriculum debate (sex education and evolution), there are two newcomers these days: history and climatology. Here is a summary of recent history on the matter.
Issue #1 - NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards. 26 States collaborated with the National Science Teacher's Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to develop these standards. This process was supported by wacky left-wing organizations like GE and DuPont. The goal is to provide students with world-class, benchmarked science education. The lightning rods here are evolution and climate change. The standards were finalized in 2013 and have since been formally adopted by 13 states (including Kentucky, home of the Creation Museum) and Washington D.C.. A GOP legislature in Wyoming explicitly prohibited the adoption of these standards, though that "ban" is in the process of being reversed. West Virginia adopted them, but modified them to include their own fairy-tale explanation of climate change. After much public outcry, WV backtracked and adopted them as written. Michigan tried to ban them, thanks to Republican State Representative Tom McMillan.
For review, 97% of climate scientists agree that the Earth is getting warmer AND that this warming is "very likely" caused by human activity. That number comes from a review of "21 years of peer-reviewed scientific papers published on global warming and global climate change, culminating in a 2013 report that found that more than 4,000 paper abstracts authored by almost 10,200 scientists stated a position on human-driven climate change. More than 97 percent of the time, the position was that humans are contributing to a global rise in temperatures." Most of us see something like that and think, ok, that's settled. It takes someone with an axe to grind and/or a penchant for conspiracy theories to look at data like that and say "wait a minute, I smell a hoax."
Enter Wade Linger, an independent on the WV Board of Ed who thinks this is all a crock. Wade is a living proof point for a 2013 study that explains why conspiracy theorists don't trust science. People like Wade think that these 10,000 scientists are part of a vast conspiracy on the topic. They're making this up because it's in their best interest - it gives them something to study, it's job security, if they weren't studying global warming they'd all be unemployed. People like Wade seek out like minded individuals and come up with their own theories of climate change.
These people are almost never trained climatologists, or if they are, they're in the 3% who say this is all a scam. One such climatologist, Willie Soon, was recently outed for having accepted $1.2 million from the fossil fuel industry as compensation for his articles talking about how this is all a hoax. Since 2008, Soon received more than $800,000 from ExxonMobil, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the electric utility Southern Company Services Inc., one of the nation's largest operators of coal fired power plants. They create an echo chamber to reinforce each others' views. You can find people who don't believe in climate change. You can also find people who believe in aliens. In fact, statistically, there's considerable overlap.
Newsflash: West Virginia is coal country. If humans cause climate change, the coal industry becomes even more of a villain than it already is. Wade doesn't want to teach WV kids the truth, because it would mean badmouthing the state's biggest industry. Either that, or he's right, and NASA + 97% of scientists are wrong. If you are a parent who lives in West Virginia, you ought to be scared to death that Wade is setting a curriculum for your kids based in fairy tales rather than facts.
I'm picking on Wade, but he's just one example. Other states have their Wades, with various reasons for actively promoting the notion that 97% of climate scientists are full of crap. Heck a US Senator brought a snowball to the Senate floor last week to say "see, I've got a snowball here, therefore global warming is a hoax." You can't make this stuff up. These people must not be allowed to set education policy (or energy policy!).
Issue #2 - evolution. You'd think this one was settled with the Scopes trial 90 years ago, but far from it. 13 states are allowed to teach creationism AS IF IT'S ACTUAL SCIENCE. If you want a religious education for your kid, by all means get one, at a private school or at Sunday school. Use of public funds to promote a religious agenda is illegal. Use of public schools to promote "the bible = science" is just plain wrong. You bible beaters ok with me teaching your kids the Qu'ran and the Torah and calling it fact? Didn't think so. We're all entitled to our beliefs. None of us is entitled to force our beliefs on someone else's kid.
True, evolution is a theory, and that word has a specific meaning to those of us who like science. Einstein's theory of relativity is still just that, a theory. Same with plate tectonics, the theory that continents were at one point joined in a single land mass. There is observable evidence to support them though, and they are both widely accepted. To less-religious people like myself, teaching that the world is 6,000 years old is as absurd as teaching that we get lightning when Zeus throws a lightning bolt. Sure, a lot of Greeks believed that, but then we learned stuff and realized that's completely bogus.
Issue #3 - sex education. Really, I could just say, see Issue #2 above. Sex education is something that varies widely across the states. As of January 1st of this year:
Statistically though, we know that states which stress abstinence have the highest birth rate. States which promote comprehensive sex ed, including education about contraception, have the lowest rates. If we agree that teen pregnancy is a problem and something we want to reduce, we can't logically allow states like Mississippi to continue promoting abstinence as the "best method" when we have an abundance of evidence demonstrating that approach DOESN'T WORK!!!
Issue #4 - US History. This one is a real head scratcher until you review the definition of propaganda: biased information used to promote a particular political cause. There is a movement in this country, exclusively among Republican politicians, to re-brand the teaching of certain chapters in American history as un-patriotic. Basically, they want to only tell kids that America is awesome and it's totally the best country ever, we can do no wrong. Any account of US history that talks about oppression or exploitation is misleading and has a liberal bias.
AP History has been around since I was in high school, so it's old. It's a way for good students who like to work hard to earn some college credit before they even get out of high school, while taking an in-depth look at US history. Republican legislators in Oklahoma, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia have all attempted to either eliminate or change the AP History curriculum. The two commonalities among all these cases are 1) they are led by the Republican party, a private organization with a specific political agenda and 2) the complaint that AP history fails to sufficiently emphasize the notion of "American exceptionalism," which is basically the notion that America is extra super special.
These debates are being falsely framed by Republicans as issues of states rights; "keep the big bad federal government out of our schools!" This couldn't be further from accurate, but as you've hopefully learned by this point, accuracy is not a goal of the GOP. I have no problem with states setting their own education standards, quite the contrary, I think that's appropriate. The problem I have is with states who want to make up their own facts, and politicians who want to use curriculum as a way to promote a particular agenda. In some cases here we see both of those - a politically motivated promotion of non-facts. And yes, I'd be equally upset if the Democrats were doing this. The fact is, they're not.
In addition to the usual suspects for curriculum debate (sex education and evolution), there are two newcomers these days: history and climatology. Here is a summary of recent history on the matter.
Issue #1 - NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards. 26 States collaborated with the National Science Teacher's Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to develop these standards. This process was supported by wacky left-wing organizations like GE and DuPont. The goal is to provide students with world-class, benchmarked science education. The lightning rods here are evolution and climate change. The standards were finalized in 2013 and have since been formally adopted by 13 states (including Kentucky, home of the Creation Museum) and Washington D.C.. A GOP legislature in Wyoming explicitly prohibited the adoption of these standards, though that "ban" is in the process of being reversed. West Virginia adopted them, but modified them to include their own fairy-tale explanation of climate change. After much public outcry, WV backtracked and adopted them as written. Michigan tried to ban them, thanks to Republican State Representative Tom McMillan.
For review, 97% of climate scientists agree that the Earth is getting warmer AND that this warming is "very likely" caused by human activity. That number comes from a review of "21 years of peer-reviewed scientific papers published on global warming and global climate change, culminating in a 2013 report that found that more than 4,000 paper abstracts authored by almost 10,200 scientists stated a position on human-driven climate change. More than 97 percent of the time, the position was that humans are contributing to a global rise in temperatures." Most of us see something like that and think, ok, that's settled. It takes someone with an axe to grind and/or a penchant for conspiracy theories to look at data like that and say "wait a minute, I smell a hoax."
Enter Wade Linger, an independent on the WV Board of Ed who thinks this is all a crock. Wade is a living proof point for a 2013 study that explains why conspiracy theorists don't trust science. People like Wade think that these 10,000 scientists are part of a vast conspiracy on the topic. They're making this up because it's in their best interest - it gives them something to study, it's job security, if they weren't studying global warming they'd all be unemployed. People like Wade seek out like minded individuals and come up with their own theories of climate change.
These people are almost never trained climatologists, or if they are, they're in the 3% who say this is all a scam. One such climatologist, Willie Soon, was recently outed for having accepted $1.2 million from the fossil fuel industry as compensation for his articles talking about how this is all a hoax. Since 2008, Soon received more than $800,000 from ExxonMobil, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the electric utility Southern Company Services Inc., one of the nation's largest operators of coal fired power plants. They create an echo chamber to reinforce each others' views. You can find people who don't believe in climate change. You can also find people who believe in aliens. In fact, statistically, there's considerable overlap.
Newsflash: West Virginia is coal country. If humans cause climate change, the coal industry becomes even more of a villain than it already is. Wade doesn't want to teach WV kids the truth, because it would mean badmouthing the state's biggest industry. Either that, or he's right, and NASA + 97% of scientists are wrong. If you are a parent who lives in West Virginia, you ought to be scared to death that Wade is setting a curriculum for your kids based in fairy tales rather than facts.
I'm picking on Wade, but he's just one example. Other states have their Wades, with various reasons for actively promoting the notion that 97% of climate scientists are full of crap. Heck a US Senator brought a snowball to the Senate floor last week to say "see, I've got a snowball here, therefore global warming is a hoax." You can't make this stuff up. These people must not be allowed to set education policy (or energy policy!).
What we're really talking about here is something between propaganda and brainwashing. Let's review definitions, I don't want to be accused of exaggerating. Propaganda is "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view." Branwashing is when you "make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure." That's exactly what these people are doing when they promote a curriculum that goes against the consensus of experts. We've got new science standards here that could help us compete better in the global economy, and a hand full of yahoos in 3 states are trying to ban them.
Issue #2 - evolution. You'd think this one was settled with the Scopes trial 90 years ago, but far from it. 13 states are allowed to teach creationism AS IF IT'S ACTUAL SCIENCE. If you want a religious education for your kid, by all means get one, at a private school or at Sunday school. Use of public funds to promote a religious agenda is illegal. Use of public schools to promote "the bible = science" is just plain wrong. You bible beaters ok with me teaching your kids the Qu'ran and the Torah and calling it fact? Didn't think so. We're all entitled to our beliefs. None of us is entitled to force our beliefs on someone else's kid.
True, evolution is a theory, and that word has a specific meaning to those of us who like science. Einstein's theory of relativity is still just that, a theory. Same with plate tectonics, the theory that continents were at one point joined in a single land mass. There is observable evidence to support them though, and they are both widely accepted. To less-religious people like myself, teaching that the world is 6,000 years old is as absurd as teaching that we get lightning when Zeus throws a lightning bolt. Sure, a lot of Greeks believed that, but then we learned stuff and realized that's completely bogus.
Issue #3 - sex education. Really, I could just say, see Issue #2 above. Sex education is something that varies widely across the states. As of January 1st of this year:
- 22 states and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education (20 of which mandate sex education and HIV education)
- 33 states and the District of Columbia require students receive instruction about HIV/AIDS.
- 19 states require that if provided, sex education must be medically, factually or technically accurate.
- 37 states require sex education that includes abstinence, 26 of which require that abstinence be stressed as the best method.
Statistically though, we know that states which stress abstinence have the highest birth rate. States which promote comprehensive sex ed, including education about contraception, have the lowest rates. If we agree that teen pregnancy is a problem and something we want to reduce, we can't logically allow states like Mississippi to continue promoting abstinence as the "best method" when we have an abundance of evidence demonstrating that approach DOESN'T WORK!!!
Issue #4 - US History. This one is a real head scratcher until you review the definition of propaganda: biased information used to promote a particular political cause. There is a movement in this country, exclusively among Republican politicians, to re-brand the teaching of certain chapters in American history as un-patriotic. Basically, they want to only tell kids that America is awesome and it's totally the best country ever, we can do no wrong. Any account of US history that talks about oppression or exploitation is misleading and has a liberal bias.
AP History has been around since I was in high school, so it's old. It's a way for good students who like to work hard to earn some college credit before they even get out of high school, while taking an in-depth look at US history. Republican legislators in Oklahoma, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia have all attempted to either eliminate or change the AP History curriculum. The two commonalities among all these cases are 1) they are led by the Republican party, a private organization with a specific political agenda and 2) the complaint that AP history fails to sufficiently emphasize the notion of "American exceptionalism," which is basically the notion that America is extra super special.
These debates are being falsely framed by Republicans as issues of states rights; "keep the big bad federal government out of our schools!" This couldn't be further from accurate, but as you've hopefully learned by this point, accuracy is not a goal of the GOP. I have no problem with states setting their own education standards, quite the contrary, I think that's appropriate. The problem I have is with states who want to make up their own facts, and politicians who want to use curriculum as a way to promote a particular agenda. In some cases here we see both of those - a politically motivated promotion of non-facts. And yes, I'd be equally upset if the Democrats were doing this. The fact is, they're not.
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