Steven Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science has put up an investigative report on the swift-boating of Christine Comer, the former Texas Education Agency employee who was forced to resign after she recommended a lecture by Barbara Forrest. The creationists have been trying to claim that Comer had a long history of insubordination and misconduct, and that that is why she was fired — none of which is true. Instead, there’s a pattern emerging that when the faction of creationist dentist Don McLeroy took over, there were changes in the administration that look more like harassment to drive out employees who didn’t follow the creationist agenda.
Texans have a tough fight to make down there — keep plugging away!
This is from a Texas Freedom Network email. It does not appear you have to be a Texas resident to submit comments.
Texas Education Agency Opens Comments Period for Proposed Science Standards
Tell the State Board of Education:
Give Texas Schoolchildren a 21st-Century Science Education!
You can play a critical role in ensuring that Texas students get a 21st-century science education by commenting today on proposed new science curriculum standards. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is now accepting public comments about the new standards proposed by writing teams made up of teachers and academic experts. The new standards would require that public schools teach sound science on evolution, and they make clear that supernatural explanations (such as “intelligent design”/creationism) have no place in science classrooms. Click here to read the Texas Freedom Network’s press release applauding the work of the writing teams.
Anti-Science Radicals
Unfortunately, anti-science radicals on the State Board of Education (SBOE) want to wreck the proposed standards by watering down instruction on evolution. Creationist chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, and other board radicals reject the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting evolution — a concept critical to the understanding of all the biological sciences. In fact, they are already encouraging extremists from across the state to flood TEA with comments attacking coverage of evolution in the science standards. If they get their way, Texas schoolchildren will be handicapped with a 19th-century education in their 21st-century science classrooms. It is critically important that mainstream Texans tell TEA and the state board that we demand a sound science education for our kids.
Take Action!
Anyone can submit comments about the proposed standards. At the bottom of this e-mail are step-by-step directions for submitting your comments.
You may choose to comment on standards for any or all science classes in Texas public schools. Most important, however, are the standards for high school biology. In your own words, it is very important to tell SBOE members that you:
1. Strongly support the decision by teacher writing teams to remove unscientific language requiring that public schools teach “weaknesses” of evolution. In fact, biologists have established that overwhelming scientific evidence shows evolution is beyond doubt. The writing teams replaced the “weaknesses” requirement with a more scientific standard that helps students better analyze and evaluate all scientific theories. Click here to read what Texas scientists are saying about the importance of teaching students the sound science behind evolution.
2. Strongly support the decision by the biology writing team to include a definition of science from the National Academy of Sciences that makes it clear supernatural explanations have no place in science classrooms. Discussions about “intelligent design”/creationism and other religious concepts are best left to families and congregations. Public schools have no business deciding whose religious beliefs to teach in our students’ science classrooms.
PLEASE KEEP THESE OTHER POINTS IN MIND WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR COMMENTS:
Don’t attack the religious faith of state board members and others who reject the science of evolution.
DO insist that board members put the importance of giving students a 21st-century education ahead of their own personal and political beliefs.
DO tell board members that the old “strengths and weaknesses” language has been abused by some to mislead students about the overwhelming scientific evidence that clearly supports evolution.
DO tell board members that giving our children a sound science education is critical for preparing them them to succeed in college and the jobs of the 21st century.
DO explain that many people of faith both believe in God and accept the science of evolution. There is no conflict between science and faith.
How to Submit Your Comments to TEA
Follow these simple steps to submit your comments about the proposed science standards.
1. Click here to go to the comments form on the TEA Web site.
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/scienceTEKS.html
2. Scroll down to “Directions for Using the Feedback Forms.” You will find a list of links to feedback forms for Grades K-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and high school courses. Forms for Grades K-8 are in Microsoft Excel. You have a choice of formats for the high school form: Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word.
3. Select whichever grade levels on which you want to comment. PLEASE CLICK ON THE HIGH SCHOOL LINK TO COMMENT ON THE TREATMENT OF EVOLUTION IN THE BIOLOGY STANDARDS.
4. Once you have completed a feedback form (each is short), you may save the file on to your computer. Then you have three options for sending the form to TEA:
– Attach the saved file of the completed form to an e-mail and send it to TEA at curriculum@tea.state.tx.us. Please put SCIENCE COMMENTS in the Subject Line.
– Print out the completed form and fax it to TEA at (512) 463-8057; Fax to: SCIENCE COMMENTS
– Mail the completed form to TEA at the following address:
Texas Education Agency
Division of Curriculum, Science Comments
1701 N. Congress Ave.
Austin, Texas 78701-1494
Christine Comer must be convinced (if necessary) not to settle out of court.
Did Christine even go as far as recommending the lecture? my impression was that she simply forwarded the information she received.
If there is anything that can be done to support Ms. Comer’s sticking this through the discovery and trial phase (instead of settling) I would love to participate. Fund raising, or letter writing, or whatever. These kinds of abuses of power have got to be thoroughly outed, or they fester and grow.
They’re taking that act as a recommendation, which in all honesty seems reasonable. She’s an educator, or at least works for the body involved in Texas education, forwarding something about education.
The rest of their reaction, not so reasonable.
“DO explain that many people of faith both believe in God and accept the science of evolution. There is no conflict between science and faith.”
I confess I don’t see the point in this. If a World History course is taught the subject of Communism should come up at some point. Teaching the tenets of it, its history, the fact that a billion Chinese and most of Asia followed it (willingly or unwillingly) for half a century or more is just a set of facts and ideas that should be understood. Must history teachers give caveats in their classes, “I’m not asking you to become communists”?
Art classes might discuss Dadaism. You don’t have to think that stuff is art (I don’t know art but I know what I like); but as a student you might be required to learn about the movement’s origins and influences. Art teachers don’t need to provide caveats, “I’m not trying to make you hate Rembrant!”
Just because a teacher tries to make you learn stuff doesn’t mean that there is a conspiracy afoot to make you reject your political, social, cultural, or religious beliefs. While I understand fully how sensitive this subject is with some people, I can’t help but believe that part of the problem here is our willingness to apologize for these newfangled ideas making people uncomfortable. “Not my problem”, we should say. “We’re not asking you to give up God, Democracy, or Rock and Roll when we teach you about Evolution, Socialism movements of the 20th century, or Beethoven. We’re just teaching you stuff. It is up to you to learn it and integrate it into your life appropriately.”
#1: “There is no conflict between science and faith.”
I’m sorry but that’s bullshit.
I’m all with Pharyngula. However, I have to say that when a report whose author is styled “Schafersman, Ph.D.” include the following in its first paragraph — it’s leader, Mark Ramsey — I get discouraged about the quality of education behind that Ph.D.
B. Scott Anderson at #6:
Excellent points.
Very well said. As a youth I had a little ideological conflict with some things I learned in the classroom, and it took a while, as well as some gentle instruction from my parents, before I realized the teacher wasn’t “out to get me” (thankfully, I got there).
I wonder if the heavy compartmentalization that is found in some of the more fundamentalist thinkers contributes to this false equivalency of New Information = Malicious Attempt To Make Me Deny What I Believe.
Although, it is always a possibility that gaining new information will alter one’s beliefs. I would hope.
Regardless, great post. Which is why I’m sorry for this next part:
Rembrandt. Sorry, I know pedantry is annoying, but that happens to be one of my favorite painters and I couldn’t let that one go by, he said light-heartedly.
PZ posted:
Yea, verily. The fight continues.
No kings,
Robert
I, too, am “all with Pharyngula.” But any regular reader of this wonderful blog will have noted Dr. Myers’ frequent use of “it’s” for the possessive “its.”
This doesn’t really alter my respect for Dr. Myers, but it does give me pause – especially in view of the fact that he writes so well. I often wonder: is he making this mistake on purpose? some anti-prescriptivist linguistic agenda, perhaps? or is he just thumbing his apostrophaic nose at us spelling/grammar Nazis? Surely he must be aware of the traditional norms governing usage of “it’s” and “its”?
And then I get over it and move on.
Wait. The head of the Texas Education Agency is a dentist? As in, someone who probably never actually took an education class in college, or has actually bothered to research anything about the subject?
No offense to dentists, but this education major is tired of random people thinking they can lead a school system because “anyone can do it” or something like that.
EXCELLENT point at #6.
Evolution and creationism should not be presented as two compatible “belief systems,” any more than they should be seen as two competing “belief systems.” Schools shouldn’t be in the business of teaching “beliefs,” but should deal in facts. (Instructors might teach ABOUT beliefs, of course, but that’s different.)
Swiftboating won’t work in a court of law if one has good lawyers. It can even backfire badly.
There was a high profile case of a whistle blower who was dismissed for, blowing the whistle on financial crimes.
He sued in court. The company involved swiftboated him.
1. They made up a bunch of deleterious materials after the fact. This can be perjury, a felony.
2. They changed their story 5 or 6 times. The employee kicks puppies and kitties, hates mommies, is a drunk, is incompetent, is a commie, is a nazi, and so on.
The judge caught it all and issued a scathing opinion about the veracity of the company.
In a court of law when everyone puts the cards down face up, the creobots look like what they are. In daylight, they are demented cockroaches. For jesus of course.
If Comer keeps cool and has good lawyers, McElroy will be reduced to running around on 6 legs waving his antennae and yelling, “there is too much light, and not enough bread crumbs.”
Mike (@8)…
…and dveej (@10)…
Speaking as a professional editor, I can tell you that this error (along with other Fun With Apostrophes™ such as using apostrophe‘s to form plural‘s) has become endemic in our culture. That may tell you something about our culture, but it does not (IMHO) tell you anything meaningful about the intelligence or general competence of individuals making those sorts of errors. Plenty of incredibly smart people write it’s instead of its.
More broadly, I’m not convinced that rhetorical/syntactical ability is a reliable indicator of intelligence: While I don’t think I’ve ever met a truly stupid person who was well spoken or a notably good writer, I have met plenty of profoundly intelligent people who weren’t either.
Finally, there’s a whole class of errors that excellent writers are more susceptible to in impromptu writing (such as on blogs): In my experience, really good writers are constantly editing in their heads as they write, and any interruption or distraction (or just haste) can lead to errors arising not from fundamental incompetence, but just to incomplete in-process rewriting. These errors can look really stupid to the reader, when they’re really (ironically) just the residue of attempting to apply a greater-than-normal level of care and craft to a basically casual medium.
Bill Dauphin: Argh, yes, I do that kind of thing all the time. Usually, with me that kind of thing manifests as a sentence fragment that is obviously incomplete (as opposed to the kind of sentence fragments someone might use for emphasis).
Also, everyone’s got about 12 or so habitual spelling errors they make…
What Bill Dauphin said.
Really, confusing its with it’s is an easy mistake for the fingers to make. The “correct” choice can even seem a little capricious: if PZ’s is another way of writing the genitive of PZ, then why shouldn’t it’s expand to of it?
[sigh]
It strikes me as cosmically appropriate (or maybe it’s just cosmic retribution) that the following sentence from my post @14 is (totally unintentionally, I swear) a perfect example of the condition it describes:
Obviously, it should be:
Tell me again: What’s the law that says anyone correcting an error on the internet will surely make a worse one in the process?
@#11: What are you, some sort of anti-dentite?
In all seriousness, I echo Schafersman’s hopes that this thing at least makes it through discovery so that the public gets to see exactly how flimsy the TEA’s arguments are.
It strikes me that people who rely on faith for their worldview aren’t very good at covering their tracks when they make poor professional decisions. Maybe they think God will fix things for them.
–and you were all very kind not to point out the two (that I noticed) typos in my own post about it’s v. its. Can somebody point me to any site bemoaning an even worse trend, making the verb match the number of the last preceding noun?
It’s not Internet specific, but I believe that falls under Muphry’s[sic] Law.
mds (@20):
Yah, I’m sadly way too familiar with Mruphy [g]; I thought there was a Murhpy-like, but internet-specific, law that dealt directly with grammar-correction karmic backlash.
I am intimately familiar with this law, whatever it may be called.
Bill Dauphin(@21)
The Wikipedia article also mentions McKean’s Law (typos or grammatical errors when pointing out the same), as well as a list of similar laws, some of which pertain more closely to electronic communication (with each means or venue having its own law; see http://confiteminidomino.blogspot.com/2007/01/skitts-law.html). It’s such a universal rule that even if a standardized name did come up, there’d be another dozen by the end of the day ;)
Usually, with me that kind of thing manifests as a sentence fragment that is obviously incomplete (as opposed to the kind of sentence fragments someone might use for emphasis).
I would chalk this up to the “conversational” nature of blog posting/commenting. Personally, my internet prose tends to lie in a middle ground between formal writing and shooting the breeze.
More importantly, we really have to be vigilant about Texas’ educational standards because textbook standards nationwide tend to follow Texas’ lead.
Good point; didn’t mean to hijack the thread.
I understand we’ve already lost one step in the Texas standards battle, with the removal of the “critical thinking” components of the reading standards for English.
Is it Texas or Wyoming that’s the origin of the “Sum’bch needed killin'” defense?
“Is it Texas or Wyoming that’s the origin of the “Sum’bch needed killin'” defense?”
Probably.
From your link
“The TEA letter of November 5, 2007, from Monica Martinez, states clearly that “I propose to terminate the employment of Chris Castillo-Comer due to misconduct and insubordination.””
I’m not sure if it helps, but I know of a fellow in the UK who was sacked for “insubordination” and managed to sue the company involved. The tribunal found that insubordination is a military term and cannot be applied to civilians.
#11: No, McLeroy is the appointed (by Governor Perry) head of the State Board of Education, which is separate from the Texas Education Agency. The Texas Education Agency is headed by Robert Scott, who was also appointed by Perry. The SBOE, which consists of elected members and the appointed head, is responsible only for curriculum standards and the management of the Permanent School Fund. All else is managed by TEA, which reports directly to Perry, not to the SBOE.
abb3w #26
The story as I first heard it though it may be apocryphal was
from Annals of the Former World in the chapter Rising from the Plains. The story involves the youth of Dave Love the geologist who is a central figure in that chapter and his growing up in central Wyoming. I don’t recall the details off hand but to the best of my knowledge in reference to someone asking about why someone had been shot the response was, “he needed killin'”.
HTH
Back on topic. IMHO the larger issue respecting Texas and the primary reason for the fundie’s focus on Texas is the influence the state has over textbook publishers. This is why Texas science standards are a national issue. This is also why a national outcry and protest should be made in the strongest possible terms not just to the appointees who are waging this stealth campaign to dumb down curriculum and impose religious beliefs on students, teachers and textbooks but also to those elected officials who knowingly have made appointments that will result in unconstitutional actions.
Yes it will be a long uphill struggle. It has been going on for decades.
There are more people (and presumably, more students) in CA. Why, then, does Texas have a disproportionate influence on textbook standards?
Taz — my comments (I live in suburban Dallas and am a newspaper editor, Mr. Dauphin!)
And, yes, the 180-day school year, beyond ID/Creationism vs. science, really chaps my ass; it’s an issue where both Repubs and Dems (Green voter here because we have no socialist party in Texas) are wayyyy behind the curve.
PVL —
You are correct, sir. Comer “recommended” nothing, but just forwarded information.
Taz —
I remembered not to add my e-mail signature to the TEA e-mail:
There is no god and I am his prophet — SocraticGadfly
Some Muslim, somewhere, is picking up stones as we speak [g]
I’ve read Pharyngula for a while, but never commented. Just wanted to say thanks for not writing off Texas with a roll of the eyes and a smirk like so many internet commenters on the lefty/intellectual side of the internet do. I definitely live in the lefty/intellectual side of the internet, and I love it here, but I also live in Texas, and it gets tiring when every resident of that state is lumped together as some sort of ur-troglodyte.
That said, I do wish there weren’t so many people who actually are troglodytes. Sigh.
Chancelikely —
Tejas is the largest state with a big RR presence, so it can serve as a cutout for the rest of the lower Midwest (which is what it really is) and the South.
Second, some of the bigger publishers are wusses.
Third, some of the bigger publishers publish crap even without a pushback from the RR here in Tejas.
I take that back… on things such as what really happened in American history (vs. the truth as told by Eric Foner, James van Loewen, etc.) basically all textbook publishers publish crap.
Ah, crap. Is this the last word? Really? Ah, crap.