Education the South Carolina way.

You can read more about this at Daily Kos...

A dying civilization

The conservatives are destroying this nation child by child as they attack our intellect. How is it that the stupid people are actually making progress in our modern world?

From Mother Jones...

In biology class, public school students can't generally argue that dinosaurs and people ran around Earth at the same time, at least not without risking a big fat F. But that could soon change for kids in Oklahoma: On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Common Education committee is expected to consider a House bill that would forbid teachers from penalizing students who turn in papers attempting to debunk almost universally accepted scientific theories such as biological evolution and anthropogenic (human-driven) climate change.

Where did we come from?

The dumbing down of the American educational system - teach religion, not science.

It's evolutionary

Science always triumphs - because it is the truth.

Before long...

Before long, idiots like this will win out and some states will have the stupidest kids in the world.

Church wants evolution theory out of science classes

Maybe it's our educational system

Evolution bumper sticker

Evolution gave us the ability to think

Religion is killing our intelligence lelvels

Science vs. stupidity - again.

Dawkins can explain it, but Baldwin is too stupid to understand it or he never would have asked the question to begin with.

Evolution vs. Creationism commentary

Educating our children to compete in math and science

Oh yeah, our kids will score right at the bottom of the international exams if this is the way we teach our science. Next week Republicans want to advance instruction in the fact that gravity is just a theory - in reality the earth just sucks.

Evolution of the human race...

And they wonder why American students score so much more poorly than those in other developed nations.

American Education - Is It Any Wonder?

I'm a retired teacher from a public school system in New York State. I was always proud of the work we did with the best students - those who were dedicated and committed to their education. But there are a lot of weaknesses in our system - not the least of which is "No Child Left Behind" - which forces the same curriculum on every child in the nation, no matter what their interests or background.

Another problem we face in educating our youth to a higher standard are the forces we fight against because of who we are - a nation of immigrants - with differing cultural and religious backgrounds. Just as an example, how do we educate buffoons like the child depicted in the cartoon below? You can't fight it when some folks just WANT to be stupid.

From Acerbic Politics

Intelligence or Design - The Controversy

From Acerbic Politics

Evolution - Even More Proof

Were I only intelligent enough to fully understand the functioning of the human mind. So many of us are prone to beliefs that are based on emotional reactions to stimuli rather than to logical, fact-based stimuli. Just look at the millions of humans in the U.S. alone who buy into a belief in Creationism.

The evidence for evolution is so impressive that it's hard to believe how the human mind deceives so many.

From Boing Boing...

Apr 23, 2008 3:43 PM
Rapid island-lizard evolution
from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

National Geo has the story of a tribe of island lizards who were recently (in evolutionary terms) transplanted to a neighboring island and underwent rapid and dramatic evolution:

Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.

In just a few decades the 5-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) lizards have developed a completely new gut structure, larger heads, and a harder bite, researchers say.

In 1971, scientists transplanted five adult pairs of the reptiles from their original island home in Pod Kopiste to the tiny neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru, both in the south Adriatic Sea.

Genetic testing on the Pod Mrcaru lizards confirmed that the modern population of more than 5,000 Italian wall lizards are all descendants of the original ten lizards left behind in the 1970s...

Video - Teacher Fired for Not Teaching Creationism.

Definitive Word

The following is from American Progress - The Progress Report dated 1/4/2008...

On Thursday, the National Academy of the Sciences (NAS), "the nation's most eminent scientific organization ," produced a book "on the evidence supporting the theory of evolution and arguing against the introduction of creationism or other religious alternatives in public school science." The NAS notes that scientific progress has "reinforced evolution's role as the central organizing principle of modern biology ." "We wanted to produce a report that would be valuable and accessible to school board members and teachers and clergy," said Barbara Schaal, vice president of the academy and biologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Conservatives such as former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, for example, have often insisted that there is still a debate on the origins of mankind and that the science clashes with religion . But as the book states, "attempts to pit science and religion against each other create controversy where none needs to exist ." The book will be available on the NAS website .

There's Two Sides - Or More - To Every Story