Tennessee Legislators Offer Advice on How to Teach "Critical Thinking" in Public School Science Classes

The House and Senate of Tennessee passed legislation that offers their guidance to the Volunteer State's public school science teachers on how to teach science. In the just passed bill [PDF], the legislators find:

(1) An important purpose of science education is to inform students about scientific evidence and to help students develop critical thinking skills necessary to becoming intelligent, productive, and scientifically informed citizens;
(2) The teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy….

Hmmm. What kind of scientific controversy might concern the solons of Tennessee? Are they perhaps worried that high school biology teachers might skimp in their presentations about the RNA world hypothesis for the origin of life on earth?

And why are the legislators particularly concerned about the development of critical thinking skills in science classrooms? Surely such skills could be usefully encouraged in history and political science classes too. Applying such critical thinking to politics might suggest that Tennessee legislators are not really all that worried about the paucity of critical thinking in public school science classes. In fact, critical thinking suggests that the legislators are really concerned about smuggling anti-science views (a.k.a. fundamentalist Christian dogma) into science classrooms.

Tennessee's governor could still veto this bill.

Go here for my column, "Evolution in the Blackboard Jungle," for my solution to this "controversy."

Comments

[Brett L]

What? That pic is obviously false. Even Jesus couldn't cuddle a hungry raptor.

[Warty]

Of course He would, since Jesus was a velociraptor too. Didn't you know that?

[Tacos mmm...]

Nowere in the bible does it say that jesus isnt a raptor.

[Episiarch]

You fucking moron. Everyone knows Jesus was an Allosaur. Fuck, you people aren't even high-functioning retards.

[Warty]

There you go again, with your ridiculous Allosaurus propaganda. There's absolutely no empirical evidence to support the notion that Allosaurs weren't complete faggots, and you fucking know it, you hack.

[Tacos mmm...]

Then why did he say to his apostles "Lo, I am the allosaur and the omegasaur"?

[Episiarch]

By not having faith in the Allosaur, you asshole, you implicitly have faith in the non-Allosaur. Don't you see how this works? God damn you're a fucking idiot.

[Warty]

Listen, for you not to believe that Allosaurs were faggots, there have to have been faggot Allosaurs for you not to believe in not being faggots. How are you not getting this?

[Episiarch]

Your faith in Harley-riding Allosaurs is exactly the same as my non-faith in Harley-riding Allosaurs. They're exactly the same. Don't try and slither your way out of this, asshole.

[Warty]

Look, science has convincingly shown that Allosaurs were total sluts for any Apatosaur who rode by on a Road King. It's not my fault that your antiquated Allosaur-as-not-twink theories have been smashed, but you need to get with the times.

[Episiarch]

Are you saying Apatosaurs are bears? That's patently absurd. Apatosaurs are power bottoms. Why are you so stupid? Is it from when your uncle raped you as a child?

[Warty]

Of course Apatosaurs are bears, stupid. In fact, the term "bear" is a regrettable neologism, completely replacing the older and more correct term, "bronto".

[Episiarch]

I thought brontos were gay bronies. Can't you keep this shit straight?

[SugarFree]

This is what happens when I go to lunch. You idiots come up with the idea that Jesus is a raptor.

Everyone that has done even a little Bible study knows that Jesus was a Protoceratops.

[Warty]

Oh, there you go again with the Protoceratops Heresy. Listen, the Dinosaur Pope will call the believers to stamp you people out someday soon. Believe it, blasphemer.

[Episiarch]

Hah, how fitting that you would pick a dinosaur with a neck frill. You always preferred Fred from Scooby Doo, too. Douchebag.

[Hunh?]

I find it spurious that we're quick to accuse dinosaurs of homosexuality (when they're not around to defend themselves) - whilst WE have something in our evolutionary biology known as "Homo Erectus".

[Episiarch]

Homo erectus was omnisexual. That's why he was "erectus".

[SugarFree]

Homo erectus had to see a doctor every four hours.

[Brett L]

Well, I think 2 generations of Allosaurs would dispel the notion that they were complete faggots.

[wise justice]

six generations of Allosaurs is enough!

[Hunh?]

Look, this thread is getting completely off the rails - we need to clear some things up.

Allosaurs had very good taste in fashion, loved shopping, had delicate personalities, adored musicals, and having copious same-sex, but that does NOT mean they were gay!

[Citizen Nothing]

It's only gay if you bring the gay with you -- Dino (the Dinosaur, not Martin)

[Bill Hicks]

"And behold! Jesus came upon a brontosaurus, and it had a splinter in its paw."

[Warty]

Science!

How The Cost of Computation Restricts The Processes of Life

[Bill Hicks]

There are a lot of assumptions in that writeup that I don't share. Can't be arsed to read the article to see how many are introduced by the summarizer.

[Brett L]

Stupid joke handle. Only for quoting Mistah Hicks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Teaching students how to think instead of what to think is too drastic a change in method for any class. And everyone knows that God could create a carnivore so rapacious that even He could not coddle it.

[scopes o3]

teaching how to think is why fundie politicans got involved. duh

[Suki]

Question authority, think freely, unless you question the establishment.

[Episiarch]

Please go jump off a bridge, JohnSukiBot. Please. I'll even give you five dollars. That's a lot to you.

[Warty]

It was easy to forget how annoying it/her is during the Great Rectal Infestation, wasn't it?

[Episiarch]

No, dumbass. I never forgot.

[Warty]

Kind of like how you forget how bad your ass itches during your herpes flareups.

[Episiarch]

Look, my viral load is as low as it's ever been. The flareups are rare. Asshole.

[Warty]

I know your asshole is the problem, but for once we're not talking about it.

[Episiarch]

You just did. Are you this stupid on purpose?

[Warty]

I was speaking metaphorically, you idiot. Don't you know Jesus's Parable of the Inflamed Asshole?

[Episiarch]

Again with the assholes with you. Are your hemorrhoids flaring up again?

[Warty]

Metaphorically speaking, yes.

[Suki]

Look bitch, nobody was hitting on your prison daddy. Have a nice day.

[The Real Mary Stack]

Soooo...what's new?

[darius404]

Why?

[spencer]

I thought jesus RODE dinosaurs, not cuddled them! My whole world view is shattered... SHATTERED!

[T]

You start with young dinos and cuddle them so they trust you. Dinos don't just come into the world broke to the saddle.

[anon]

(2) The teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy....

So?

When did controversy become a bad thing?

[Spartacus]

Two remarks:
1) Legislators offering advice on critical thinking is like 4-year-olds offering advice on dating and relationships. The main difference is that some of the 4-year-olds may one day be actually capable of it.

2) While I agree with Bailey's overall take on the motivation for this, it could also be considered as part of a phenomenon that considers rational analysis to somehow be uniquely "scientific". I can remember a day when the basics of deductive logic used to be considered part of argumentation and rhetoric. Today it is considered mathematics, and a lot of students have little to no exposure to it outside of math courses.

[Res Publica Americana]

I wonder if our exceedingly terrific public schools are to blame at all.

Wait, no, that's libertard bullshit. Forget I mentioned it.

/Tony.

[Brett L]

Shit. Like they teach argumentation and rhetoric at all to anyone except the AP/IB kids anymore. And debaters -- well, the L-D debaters. The CX kids long ago gave up any sort of rhetoric in favor of reading cards as fast as possible.

[skr]

LIES!!!! The c-x kids are just faster and better with their rhetoric. Anyone who thinks that all the c-x kids do is just read cards really fast does however belong in Loser-Debate.

[R C Dean]

I can remember a day when the basics of deductive logic used to be considered part of argumentation and rhetoric.

Back in the dim mists of the early '80s, I took symbolic logic as a mandatory prereq for my Philosophy degree.

The guy who taught it was actually a nationally known lecturer on the philosophy of religion.

In advanced symbolic logic, it was not unusual for all five of us to spend minutes on end staring at some particularly convoluted statement on the blackboard.

Its a funny world.

[Spartacus]

Our philosophy program wants students who are going to grad school to take symbolic logic but otherwise it's an elective. If you look at any standardized test that has logic on it, it is always in the mathematics portion of the test.

Also, students can no longer read. I'm trying to teach proof-writing to a generation that cannot parse a sentence and has no idea what even the basic parts of speech are. The other day I was trying to point out the difference between "The ball is yellow" and "The yellow ball" (namely that one of these is NOT A GODDAMN SENTENCE) and I just got a bunch of blank looks.

[Voros McCracken]

"While I agree with Bailey's overall take on the motivation for this, it could also be considered as part of a phenomenon that considers rational analysis to somehow be uniquely "scientific"."

Yeah if you really wanted to teach Critical Thinking you'd have classes on Logic and Critical Thinking. Also "trust the learned Scientists" is not critical thinking, but the exact opposite.

[Robert]

Everyone uses what you're calling rational analysis intuitively. Even tiny animals & plants do it. Studying it formally is a type of meta-analysis, trying to describe what we're already doing; OK as an academic exercise, pretty useless in ordinary life. You don't have to study pulmonology to breathe.

[Res Publica Americana]

OT: Why does everybody HURR KENTUCKY = REDNECKS HURRRR when Kentucky wasn't even a part of the Solid South? Fucking Yankees.

[Warty]

Because some of us have been to Kentucky. FLORENCE Y'ALL

[Res Publica Americana]

Carpetbagger.

[SugarFree]

If you want to go back to the Civil War, Kentucky's moron bona fides probably come from the fact that we became a wildly pro-Confederate state after the war.

"I know the race is over and horse number three came in last, but I'm gonna go place a bet on him anyway."

[Brett L]

So Kentuckians are the original hipsters, backing only discredited trends that doom them to associate with losers?

[SugarFree]

Pretty much. We are just now at the point that every place has PBR in a can.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I would have figured every bar in Kentucky already had PBR cans. White trash had been drinking that in a non-ironic way decades before the hipster crisis.

[SugarFree]

Since we have never had a local cheap beer, it's a toss up around here. Since the 90s, Natural Light (and the "Ice" variant) seem to be pretty dominant, but that is college students.

[Ted S.]

I think my grandfather (who died in 1987) drank the stuff, because I remember seeing cans of PBR in his house. Unless it was Grandma drinking it.

But then, I also come from a place where people were drinking Genesee Cream Ale back in the day.

[Taxpayer]

Get back to work, SugarFree.

[anon]

I think it's the prevalence of "mountain culture," which is often confused for redneck.

[Brett L]

^^This. People don't know the difference between hillbillies and rednecks anymore. To some extent much the same phenomenon as Country and Western becoming a single genre of music.

[Episiarch]

"What kind of music do you normally play here, ma'am?"

"Oh, we got both kinds: Country and Western."

[Brett L]

I'll get on a soapbox right here and now to expound the difference between the Carter Family on one hand and Bob Wills on the other. Then Nashville got big and became the center of gravity for anyone in either genre who wanted a record contract. Now its all worthless poppy crap. How's that for a summary of C&W post WWII?

[anon]

You left Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Sr. out. They have to at least get a mention.

[Brett L]

Sr. was Country, JC did his own thing, mixing a distinct gospel, country, and R&B sound but somehow never quite becoming Elvis. Waylon, he and Willie Nelson were boys raised on Western who got sucked into the early days of Nashville, chewed up spit out, and went to do their own thing.

[Res Publica Americana]

Anything south of Virginia is neo-Confederate flyover country, a vast and evil existential darkness. Don't you watch MSNBC, you uncultured rube?

[HeroicMulatto]

Miami is pretty cool.

[UNY graduate]

Don't be silly. I just got mommy's atlas out, and Miami's more than two miles south of NYC.

Don't let the teabagger suck you in. Nothing down there is "cool".

[Episiarch]

What the fuck is UNY? Are you retarded? You do know that there's SUNY and NYU, but no UNY, right?

[Subsequent Introspection]

1) Somehow translated New York University to rearrange the word order in my head. My mistake.

2) Run out of hard liquor?

[Episiarch]

I don't know, have you run out of collectivism and KULTUR WAR stupidity? Because you seem to have an endless font of it. Tell us again about the University of New York. You know, UNY.

[Warty]

It's always SUNY in Buffalo.

[Subsequent Introspection]

1) I wasn't being a dick.

2) If you're referring to my "Yankee" quips, I'm not actually culturally southern. I was kidding. No need to flare up like that, dude.

[HeroicMulatto]

2) Run out of hard liquor?

A very bad situation, my friend.

As per my Indo-Trinidadian roots:

NO MORE RUM!

[HeroicMulatto]

You're confusing me. Do you mean CUNY or NYU...or was that part of the joke?

[HeroicMulatto]

It's all about distance. Close up hillbillies and rednecks are different, but as you get further away they merge into one. Just as to a Southerner, a "Yankee" is anyone in north of D.C. To Northerners, a Yankee is a New Englander, to a New Englander, a Yankee is a Northern New Englander (VT, NH, ME). To us in Northern New England, a Yankee is northern VT, NH, and Maine.

[BakedPenguin]

Yuh.

[HeroicMulatto]

Ayup.

[Res Publica Americana]

Ja?

[Karburetor Kristen]

I speak Freakinese, therefore I am a Yankee.

[The Vapors]

I think I'm turning freakinese
I think I'm turning freakinese
I really think so

[Episiarch]

Have you seen NutraSweet? You might want to recheck your premises.

[SugarFree]

Kentucky is easier to spell than Tennessee.

[Res Publica Americana]

Yeah, but 'Tennessee' is fun to type. Tennnnnnneeeeessseeeeee Tennessee Tennessee. Nice.

[GILMORE]

RPA = you are the first person here to mention 'Kentucky' at all. The story was about Tennessee.

Are you suggesting Tennessee is in fact a haven of modern intellectual cosmopolitanism...? I missed that when I lived there. I do remember the country music wax museum though. And the largest porn shop in the world.

[Res Publica Americana]

"RPA = you are the first person here to mention 'Kentucky' at all. The story was about Tennessee."

It was OT, and I marked it as such.

"Are you suggesting Tennessee is in fact a haven of modern intellectual cosmopolitanism...? I missed that when I lived there."

Yeah, you get that with the remaining strongholds of the Deep South and inverted shitholes like Illinois. Tough world, ain't it? Where would you have to go for some genuine modern intellectual cosmopolitanism?

[Brett L]

Atlanta? Raleigh-Durham? If you don't mind hipsters so much, Austin.

[anon]

Raleigh-Durham?

I can tell you that RDU has been overrun by hipsters and their ilk. You're too late. Save yourself.

[SugarFree]

Nashville isn't that bad, it's one of those places that the visitors ruin far more than the permanent residents.

[Tman]

Nashville is awesome. We have a food scene to rival any mid-sized city, a music scene that supports way more than just country, a plethora of jobs and some of the cheapest cost of living in the country.

And the booze is cheap.

We've also managed to segregate the hipster community to one side of the city and they pretty much stay there.

I love it here, don't believe the redneck hype.

[dunkel]

Pretty much this. East Nasty is chock full of hipsters, but they don't tend to wander. The music scene is pretty amazeballs. City House is a kick ass restaurant.

We do redneck shit in our backyard--shooting air rifles at beercans and burning shit, and my next door neighbor has a chicken coop, but it's good clean fun.

No fucking way my son will ever go to a Davidson County school though. No. Fucking. Way. (we came to this conclusion long before this particular bit of lunacy was introduced)

[Montani Semper Liberi]

That's nothing. West Virginia formed as a separate state because the western counties of Virginia wanted to stay in the union, but we still get lumped in with the South in the eyes of most people.

[Res Publica Americana]

I know, and I noticed that a few times in the past. Generic discussions about "those dumb racist redneck places and stuff" usually involve examples, and West Virginia gets brought up frequently.

I guess you don't need to know anything about history when you're on a loan for some shitty Women's Studies major with a minor in Jewish Studies talking shit about places you know nothing about in the company of other, similarly clueless assholes.

[anon]

Well, to be fair, knowing how WV was created is pretty irrelevant when you're talking to pretty much anyone that's managed to avoid Reason.com their whole life.

[HeroicMulatto]

Not to start a flame war, but you frequently talk shit about every other region of the U.S. and their ways-of-life.

What's good for the goose..., right?

[Episiarch]

It's also highly collectivist. KULTUR WAR bullshit always is.

[Subsequent Introspection]

Of course. That's not what I meant. I was talking about picking a place because it's located below the Mason-Dixon line, and reciting a completely fictional history that you put together in your head to the assembled bros. Talking shit's a completely different thing here.

[Romulus Augustus]

Well, if students develop their "critical thinking" skills, I don't think that would be too favorable for the "Adam and Eve" crowd.
Considering how many Americans are "unchurched," there must be hundreds of thousands of kids out there, who don't attend Sunday School but "believe in God," who have only vague ideas of religious teachings.
Once they are exposed to magical thinking, a good many of them will rationally reject a religious view of
nature.

[T]

Once they are exposed to magical thinking, a good many of them will rationally reject a religious view of
nature.

???

[Ice Nine]

Why did Daenerys Targaryen decide to go redhead?

[Mordant Piffler]

Link, or it didn't happen.

[Ice Nine]

Yeah it did. Game of Thrones; last minute of last episode. The pop cultures boy here are falling down on the job.

[Warty]

We're not falling down, we're just stunned that you're mistaking Ned Stark for Dany.

[Ice Nine]

Heh. Thank you for getting it. My faith is restored.

[Proprietist]

The counter-argument is that by not presenting controversial ideas like creationism, the case against AGW and cloning, etc. side by side with their more traditional, scientifically accepted counterparts, one is engaging in the idea that science is not a field of theories but of settled facts, and indicating that students do not have the intellectual capacity to see two arguments (scientific or pseudo-scientific) side by side and make their own determinations as to which is more believable. I'm not advocating for pseudo-science based on faith, just that there's no harm in briefly presenting alternative theories, and explaining why they are considered alternative by the scientific community, especially if the purpose is improving critical thinking.

[Sy]

Yeah, siding with people who demand full control of what theories everybody else kids be taught in public schools seems like the least libertarian thing to do in this situation. The better thing to do would be to have logic be reintroduced in required elementary curriculum, and let the kids figure it out on their own.

[sarcasmic]

If kids were taught logic at an early age they'd realize that most of what Authority tells them is utter bullshit, and the entire system would crumble.

Not that that would be a bad thing, but they'll never let it happen.

[Sy]

we can dream, can't we?

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but... Separation of Church and State!

It's right there in the Constitution!

Right next to the Separation of Powers, The Right to Privacy, and Freedom of Expression.

It's all in there in those exact words!

[GILMORE]

Q: Did you hear that the governor's mansion in Tennessee burned down?

A: Almost took out the whole trailer park.

Q: Why are there so many unsolved murders in Tennessee?

A: There are no dental records and everyone has the same DNA

Q: Why do ducks fly over Tennessee upside down?

A: There's nothing worth crapping on!

Q: Why did Tennessee raise the minimum drinking age to 25?

A: They wanted to keep alcohol out of the high schools!

Q: How can you tell if someone in Tennessee is married?

A: The tobacco spit stains are on both sides of his pickup truck.

[dunkel]

One of our neighbors just put a new floor in their bathroom. They liked it so much they ran it all the way back to the house!

[Sy]

"This section only protects the teaching of scientific information, and shall not
be construed to promote any religious or non-religious doctrine, promote discrimination
for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or non-beliefs, or promote discrimination
for or against religion or non-religion."

Yeah, sorry Bailey, having a hard time seeing the Christfag angle on this..
The bill looks like it's designed to assist schools and teachers that will likely have to, at some point, deal with students who were taught 'intelligent design' or some other alternate OL theory.

[?]

Well yeah but see, it says right there, "Tennessee."

Therefore, Jesusaur.

Because science.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"(b) [educational authorities] shall endeavor to create
an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages
students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical
thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about
controversial issues.

"(c) [educational authorities] shall endeavor to assist
teachers to find effective ways to present the science curriculum as it addresses
scientific controversies. Toward this end, teachers shall be permitted to help students
understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths
and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being
taught.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"(d) [no education official] shall prohibit any
teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand,
analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific
weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.

"(e) This section only protects the teaching of scientific information, and shall not
be construed to promote any religious or non-religious doctrine, promote discrimination
for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or non-beliefs, or promote discrimination
for or against religion or non-religion."

[Sy]

Like I said, what's the issue here?

[Eduard van Haalen]

I'm inclined to agree with you - but for some people, just put "Tennessee" and "evolution" in a story, and out come the Jesusaurs. Venturing outside the narrative is simply too scary.

The fire behind all the smoke is that the legislators are probably trying to subject evolution to criticism with a bill crafted to withstand federal court review - and in crafting such this bill, they have fallen back on promoting critical thinking and the responsible exercise of academic freedom by teachers.

They also threw in global warming, which some people (though not Reason) treat as settled science just like evolution - another boost to the broader media narrative.

[Sy]

Yes, perhaps the injection of global warming into the bill was a way to remain bipartisan on this. Either way, I can't find a problem with this. It's not like they're demanding evolution be scratched...yet, anyways.

[Sy]

"Toward this end, teachers shall be permitted to help students
understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths
and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being
taught."

Objective reasoning. Scientific method.. The Horror..

[anon]

'intelligent design'

Slightly OT:

How the fuck does this shit get taught in schools?

Why are we training kids to use inductive logic?

When will it all please just end?

[Ron Bailey]

Sy: With due respect, a bit more reading around the web will show you that the language is only ostensibly neutral. Ask yourself again, what "problem" the legislators are actually addressing with their bill.

[Sy]

"In fact, critical thinking suggests that the legislators are really concerned about smuggling anti-science views (a.k.a. fundamentalist Christian dogma) into science classrooms.

Ron: With due respect, you're the one that sounds like you've got a dogmatic axe to grind on this. Ask yourself again, why should I be worried about what state representatives elected by TN voters want to teach their kids?

I'll start worrying when they push to remove evolution from the text. Until then, quit hand-wringing.

[Sy]

A good portion of scientists and textbooks teach that global warming is man-made and is a settled matter, but its clearly not. Are you saying that you prefer not allowing discussion of alternate theories on global warming (mentioned in the bill) in the classroom?

[Marshall Gill]

Public schools do not want to teach critical thinking or they might get shut down and from all appearances they have excelled at this plan.

[Sy]

Based on my GPA these past 3 semesters at a public CC, prof's teaching basics do not enjoy students with that skill set.

[Mordant Piffler]

In my experience as a lifelong Tennessean, who works in the edumacation field, "critical thinking skills" has at least two opposite and mutually exclusive meanings:

To schoolteachers, the phrase means "able to see through the Republicans' propaganda." To Republican legislators, it means "able to see through the Democrats' propaganda."

(Hey, some of my best friends are schoolteachers!)

[J_L_B]

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 26 (3)
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

It is better that a child's educational cirriculum be decided by their parents than a governmental body of any sort.

[johnl]

Science education really stinks. 99% of what's taught in "Science" is a survey of popular scientific thinking. Students are not taught to form or test theories. We formed and tested our own theories of gravity for one week in the 7th grade. I learned as much in that week as I did in the rest of my decades in school.

[Old Mexican]

In fact, critical thinking suggests that the legislators are really concerned about smuggling anti-science views (a.k.a. fundamentalist Christian dogma) into science classrooms.

... To be then summarily rejected by those convinced of Evolution as fact or meaning nothing for those convinced of Intelligent Design as fact.

The bottom line is that the discussion is meaningless and further feeds the narrative of a secularist conspiracy against traditional family values through the teaching of evolution, which totally obscures the real and frighteing fact that it is compulsory schooling the main culprit for failing education standards and ridiculously ignorant kids, not "intelligent design" or evolution.

[Eduard van Haalen]

When this case goes to federal court, if you get true-believing zealot judges who view this through the frame of the Conspiracy of the Religious Right to Smuggle Religion Into the Schools Under Specious Pretexts, then I suppose they'll strike the law down.

If you get more relaxed judges, the kind who don't think they're a Super School Board, then the law will probably be upheld - or at least, the court will probably say that the law is perfectly OK on its face, unless it's applied in practice to teach religion, but they'll need specific evidence of that.

From the public-relations standpoint, the Tennessee solons have hit on a clever formula to maneuver their opponents into looking extreme - "what do you have against critical thinking and academic freedom?" and it would be amusing to see the ACLU types sputter in indignation at such questions.

[Brandt Hardin]

Tennessee is dead-set on herding its citizens back to the dark ages. In the past two years, the Governor and Republican Party have squashed Gay Rights statutes in the city of Nashville, developed laws targeting peaceful protesters and made it illegal to post "potentially offensive images" to the internet. The "Monkey Law" now brings religion back into the classroom by opening debate for creationism. In addition, a new law puts the Ten Commandments back in public buildings around the state. There is a clear cut suppression of progressive thinking by the Republican Party and I addressed these issues "illegally" on my artist's blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.....ernor.html with a portrait of the Governor to address his party's absurd agendas.

[Doctor Whom]

Let the schools teach critical thinking. Critical thinking includes the ability to recognize the fallacy of false balance, if you catch my drift.

[shrike]

Britain Deserves Better

[????? ??????]

Thanks