Sorry Students – Thanks To Religious Zealots, Science Class Won’t Be Teaching Science Anymore
House Bill 1472 was introduced in the Missouri legislature in January and had its first public hearing last week. The bill would require school districts to inform parents when evolution is being taught so parents could opt their kids out of those lessons. This is ridiculous.
This isn’t the first time Rep. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) has introduced a bill to alter the teaching of science to conform to his narrow religious beliefs. Last year he introduced a bill that would require that intelligent design get the same textbook space in Missouri schools as the theory of evolution. He told KCTV “Our schools basically mandate that we teach one side,” said Brattin. “It is an indoctrination because it is not objective approach.”
“What my bill would do is it would allow parents to opt out of natural selection teaching,” Brattin told KCTV. “It would not prohibit the child from going through biology from learning about cell structure, DNA and the building blocks of life.”
From The Huffington Post :
David Evans, the executive director for the National Science Teachers Association, told The Kansas City Star that the teaching of natural selection is a crucial part of biology education.
”Evolution by natural selection is the unifying principle in the study of biology,” he told the outlet. ”Would you want to pull your child out of class if you didn’t like grammar?”
Apparently, some parents would: “Evolution is not taught in the Bible so it shouldn’t be taught in the class,” parent Brandon Eastwood told KCTV. “Even if I had to spend some time in jail I wouldn’t subject my kids to that nonsense.”
Okay – that’s one of the more ridiculous statements I’ve ever read. Is math taught in the bible? Is grammar? Is any other school subject you can possibly think of besides “creative storytelling?” Well, that’s not a subject either – but it should be.
Brattin told The Riverfront Times.“I’m a science enthusiast…I’m a huge science buff.”
No you’re not. How about this; you tell your kids whatever mythological stories you’d like to tell them in your own home, and leave the teaching of actual science to actual science teachers.
(photo: Sergey Nivens/ shutterstock)
