You say “non-dumbass institutions,” but the way school boards have become politicized and increasingly dominated by religionist, social conservatives, how much can we really trust individual school districts to vet the degrees of people applying to be science teachers and determine whether they took an authentic scienc curriculum? The state (under this proposal) would recognize the creationist degrees as valid degrees in Science Education, so that means we might have to depend on pro-ID school boards to block their employment as “science teachers” in public schools based on nothing but common sense and integrity, not on state recognized credentials.
Not only that, but if the state of Texas were to recognize the creationist degrees as valid credentials for science education, then school districts might even find themselves accused of religious discrimination for refusing to hire the creationists.
On the positive side, such teachers would still be constitutionally prevented from teaching ID in public school classrooms, but since they’ve never been taught real science, I don’t know what they would be able to teach in its place.
If a school board can’t (or won’t) tell the difference between ICR degrees and UT degrees, chances are they’re already hiring dumbasses.
This is a valid point that I hadn’t considered.
I guess I’m just more cynical than you. My assumption is already that there are large populations of people in the country who get stealth-creation taught. Without appearing too biased, I’ll try and put this as nicely as possible - these people will end up retarded, poor, and Republican.
Whether or not teachers have good degrees or bad degrees or certification or no certification is pretty much irrelevant - the desire for dumbassery is so strong within these people that they will find some way to fuck things up. Ban creationism from the schools and they just homeschool; require credentials and they just set up private schools to evade the rules. These people are hellbent on ignorance, and as sad as it is for the children, there’s nothing we can do short of some sort of dictatorship.
So I say let Texas accredit all the dumbfucks they want. All it will do is cast a longer shadow on the state of rural education - and at some point in the future when they get sick of being a minority among the intellectual elite, they’ll modernize their educational systems.
And by modernize I mean be only 30-50 years behind the state of the art, rather than 100-150.
Not so long as the anti-intellectualism that seems to be part and parcel of this Creationist/Bible literalist mindset prevails. If the Bible is inerrant, that doesn’t leave much room for questioning the natural world–or the opinions and anecdotes relayed within the Bible. Perhaps more literature courses and emphasis on such things as metaphor, analogy and poetry would help…
At this point, I’m willing to deliver a swift kick to the head to all of them.
If you knew anything about Texas you would realize that they would glory in and take great pride in being a minority among the intellectual elite. The intellectual elite, in Texas, would be considered sissies and that is the kindest description I can give.
That’s only because they have just enough intellectuals to keep the state economy moving. They’d change once people started pulling non-dumbass business out of Texas.
Whoa, slow down. You have to organize with several thousand like minded individuals before doing that. Then you must lobby your local representatives and/or have your members elected to local offices. Then you’ll be in business.
What’s really funny is that shit like this is on the verge of becoming reality and all the while we’ve got members of this board claiming Christian persecution. If anything, these Texas retards are making a strong case that Christians ought to be persecuted.
I dream of the day when someone who would even propose something this ludicrous would be laughed out of the room and dealt irreparable damage to their reputation in the community.
Oh, no! We’ve got lots of research going on down here at various universities, NASA & the Texas Medical Center. As long as India & China keep turning out scientists, we’ll be OK.
Most of them settle here & have smart kids. And they won’t send those kids to dumbed down schools.
Of course it is, but since the board hasn’t yet made a decision, then I’m not yet all that worried.
My prediction is that, much like in Kansas, the dumbasses will get their way for about a year or so, then become the laughing stock of the entire world. A dumbass decision is unlikely to be a permanent one.
I think the reason we’re seeing so much controversy over this (as well as gay rights) is that the world is coming to its senses, and the morons are making a lot of noise as they are being escorted out of relevancy.
I was born and raised in Dallas by a Southern Baptist family. Our church membership wasn’t with the First Baptist Church but some of my relatives were members there. I left Texas knowing everything I wanted to know about the place; in spite of my fondest hopes it appears that nothing of consequence has changed.
I work for a graduate school with 36 PhD students (medical research). There are 26 Indians, and 4 Chinese students, and only 6 students from the US (all Texans), in spite of a pretty extensive effort to recruit Texans. It gives a whole new meaning to cowboys and Indians.
The ratio’s not much different for the faculty. So to an extent I agree with you.
Never the less there are not enough people like our grad students or faculty to change the over bearing religious culture in this part of the state.
Say, remember about a month ago when you promised to cut back on that? Now would be a excellent time. Those of us who live here, like it, and want to see the place enter the 21st century hear news like this and bang our head against the wall, because it’s more than a minor annoyance or news item about some far off land, it’s a serious threat to the credibilty and efficacy of our educational sytem. Enough with adding the insult to injury, okay?
My assumption is already that there are large populations of people in the country who get stealth-creation taught. Without appearing too biased, I’ll try and put this as nicely as possible - these people will end up retarded, poor, and Republican.