Well, sort of anyway.
Although from what I understand, the education regarding the theory of evolution is still pretty dismal.
In any event, here’s a petition for Georgia, to get them to adopt a proper study of evolution.
Now now Meatros, why don’t you just let the good people of Georgia call “evolution” whatever they want to call “evolution”. After all “biological changes through time” is what evolution is.
Heck, I don’t want to say " mind your own business" but it would be nice if you would let the Georgians run Georgia.
I wonder…Why did you post the petition to the Georgia Board of Education regarding matters pertinent to the state of Georgia in your opening proposition page? Did you want nosy northerners and ilegal aliens to sign it?
Surely you didn’t post this non-debate thread just to point out how backwards the Georgians are,…of course not.
Did you?
Or perhaps he realizes that we all have a stake in the education of our children, or that ignorance like this needs to be fought on principle.
There is no practical reason for changing the terms used in the curriculum. This school official was clearly pandering to a creationist constituency, and I for one am glad that this silly notion has been brought to light where it can be laughed at.
If this idea can not withstand national scrutiny, better that it die. Ideas that are only workable if no one knows about them are seldom good for anyone.
I find it hard to belive any evolution occurs in Georgia. 
Well now Stonebow, that’s a nice platitude about the little Georgia kiddies being the concern of folks everywhere, but being kind like you are, you completely missed the point. The individual states that make up the United States have mores that differ from state to state, and these different understandings of life must be left to the particular determinations set by that particular state. This is called a Republic.
You see Stonebow, each individual state was meant to be an experimental unit of progressive governmental methods that could elvolve through time towards even better ideas of democratic government. And if you and Meatros and other people who consider themselves a bit smarter than the Georgians when it comes to the children of Georgia, then you are messing up the neat system set up by the founding fathers and are underminding the spirit of our Constitution.
Now you wouldn’t want to do that, would you?
That’s not how I interpreted it. I thought she was trying to pull a fast one on a largely creationist constituency. Teach the kids the correct science, but don’t let momma and daddy know that you’re really learnin 'em evolution. It was an interesting idea I thought, but probably not the one I would have actually settled on.
Ah! That’s why there are still white restrooms and black restrooms and white water fountains and black waterfountains and white schools and black schools all through the South! How silly of me to think they’d disappeared!
Of course, if one wants the southern states’ children to become eligible for remedial biology when they get to college, I guess this would be the proper way to do it.
Milum-
I understand the principle involved. I also support it in most cases. However, I don’t accept ‘states’ rights’ as trumping all other considerations, as you do.
I’m going into this assuming that this is a pandering to creationists, and is simply the first move in an effort to push Intelligent Design, Young Earth Creationism, or other theories as being just as valid as evolution, and the prelude to a demand for ‘equal time’ in classrooms. I could be wrong in that. CurtC brought up a plausible alternative, though I don’t believe that to be the motivation here.
Invoking the constitution isn’t much of an argument in my opinion. It isn’t a sacred document, it contains a mix of good and bad ideas.
Perhaps because “biological changes through time” is not equivalent to “evolution”. Development, for example, is a “biological change through time”. Ecological succession is a “biological change through time”. Heck, even the progress of a disease in an organism is a “biological change through time”.
Evolution, in its essence, however, pertains to the changes in allele frequencies through time. A very specific kind of biological change. By altering the curriculum such that “evolution” is replaced with the non-equivalent phrase “biological changes through time”, it is entirely conceivable that the latter could very well be taught with nary a mention of anything resembling evolution; the exclusion of true evolutionary subject matter from biology classes could still be justified on the basis that other forms of biological change were being taught, in keeping with the letter of the law. ID could also be allowed, since ID is just biological changes with divine assistance.
Actually, our friend, Millum, is correct in this instance. If I understand the argument here.
The feds certainly have no business messing with the education system in Georgia. If they want to withold funds or decertify schools or some such thing, then maybe they would be in the right. But if the people of the great state of Georgia want to teach their own brand of evolution, then it is perfectly within their rights to do so.
Those favoring a federal intrusion in this matter, as in a civil rights case, I’d like to hear the legal and constitutional argument to support it.
Now, if you want to ask me my opinion of the idea of teaching this stuff: I think it’s just plain stupid to teach psuedo-science in our schools. But, as the link explains, the idea was scrapped anyway.
I can’t believe it doublejay, you equate the practice of segregation with the rescinded proposal of a word change in Georgia? No wonder folks down south think you people dumb.
Look, I privately think that that squench Superintendent of Education in Georgia was just caught singing the fairyland mantra of the unseemly Politically Correct, that is, the foolish idea that the world can be changed by simply changing a few of the distasteful words that offend.
But then again, this is nobody’s business but the people over in the lovely but unloved Peach State of Georgia.
By the way** jayjay**, I think you are wrong in saying that the Georgia kids might need remedial studies in biology when they reach college. Most of the kids in Georgia have had a hands-on knowledge of biology ever since they became old enough to milk a cow or slop a hog.
No, I equate the mushmoufed idea that just anything can be covered by a hands-off states’ rights mantra with segregation (ooh, look! Shiny!).
Yes. Unfortunately, if evolution is not taught, the foundation for all that animal husbandry experience (and modern biology in general) will be pretty much unknown by Georgia students. It’s nice to know that screws are better fasteners than nails in most situations, but knowing WHY they’re better than nails will let you extrapolate unfamiliar carpentry/cabinetry/home repair situations much better.
Read the link. Removing the word “evolution” is just the change the caught the headlines. Even though that change has been rescinded, the curriculum is still gutted of many important concepts.
So nobody has any right to get involved in anything outside their own state? Well, this Georgia resident is grateful of all help to change the minds of our idiot state “leaders”. I don’t know how this point got translated into Federal involvement later in the thread. The petition is open to individuals.
Yes please. Anyone concerned at the willful miseducation of children is welcome to sign, wherever they live.
Fair enough John Mace, and how refreshing Stonebow, to hear your moderating words so nicely spoken. But Darwin’s Finch, don’t be mad, but I must question your understanding of words and evolution…
So then does…
allele frequency changes throught time = evoloution.
Of course not. The term “evolution” is a proccess that is still being uncovered and there are many ways in which it is understood by different evolutionists. Unconfortably, some aspects of the process are “mutually exclusives” and are being taught differently in different colleges in different states.
To which, **Mr. D Finch **would you apply the term “Evolution”?
Now for your edification…
Does evolution exist in a vacuum? Would it be proper to say that the envelope of gasses that envelop the earth is a necessary part of human evolution.
Of course.
Now would it also be fair to say that laws and cultural rules that direct human behavior are central components of human evolution?
Well they are, and it is my dollar-to-a-doughnut bet that Darwin’s Finch will say that they are not; and therefore he will single-handedly prove my point that people from other states should not try to impose their conceptions of reality on people until they realize that they too have dogmas that are hidden from their own self-assured open-mindedness by virtue of the rightness of the way that they look at things.
It truly is amazing how much you can write without actually saying anything.
WHAT are the competing theories of evolution you push out there so vaguely?
Culture has nothing to do with human physical evolution. Cultures are too short-term to have any effect on physical evolution. There is such a thing as cultural evolution, but cultural evolution doesn’t demand some sort of Trekkian Prime Directive that prohibits cultural contamination. And with the speed and growing presence of worldwide communication, cultural contamination is becoming impossible to avoid.
So…what’s your point again?
** 
jayjay, you sweet wonderful magnificent narrow stereotypical yankee.
You owe me a donut!
Mnnnnnnnnnnn…KISS** :smack:
And again we venture into Looneyland with Milum. That was…bizarre. And slightly disturbing…
I’m thinking you need to put those stones away, given what is to come…
Maybe not “evoloution”, but certainly evolution.
It would seem it is you who has little grasp of what evolution is, based on the above…whatever it is. “Mutually exclusives”? What the heck are you taking about? As for it being taught differently in different colleges in different states…uh…so? Physics is taught differently in different colleges in different states. It’s taught differently by different instructors in the same college, for that matter.
However, any decent physics, or evolutionary biology, course still touch upon the same basic themes. If a physics instructor taught that cold fusion was valid, would you consider that program to be viable?
You have failed to edify me. You have, however, convinced me that you have no grasp of what you’re talking about. Different states now have different conceptions of reality which they are not allowed to impose upon one another? Where the hell did that come from?
And please let me know when you are done arguing what you “bet” I would say, and what that “therefore” proves. I’m sure there’s a cornfield somewhere that needs that strawman more than you do.
And Georgia was intended in this experiment to be a “control” state in which idiots were in charge … along with Texas and California.