Our Views: Just another waste of time
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If it walks like a duck and squawks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.
The thought comes to mind regarding legislation approved by a Louisiana Senate committee that would require the state to assist teachers, principals and others in encouraging students to pursue “critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.”
The legislation would allow teachers to use state-approved materials that supplement school science textbooks in any examination of these theories.
That sounds harmless enough, but as Baton Rouge educator Patsye Peebles told the Senate Education Committee, good science teachers already reach beyond the textbook and are willing to engage students’ questions.
The bill in question, the Louisiana Science Education Act, is a rechristened version of the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act, sponsored by state Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa.
The original bill suggested that science classes should include the pros and cons of several controversial topics, including biological evolution, global warming and cloning.
Those specific examples were removed from the subsequent version of the legislation.
But it seems clear that the supporters of this legislation are seeking a way to get creationism — the story of creation as told in the biblical book of Genesis — into science classrooms.
Science classrooms should be places to discuss and debate science, and creationism, while cherished by many, is not science.
At this point, the wording of the bill seems more symbol than substance.
But its implication — that real science is somehow being stifled in Louisiana’s classrooms — doesn’t seem grounded in actual fact.
This kind of rhetorical grandstanding is a needless distraction from the real problems the Legislature should be addressing.
There’s ample precedent for this kind of piddling in the Legislature, and despite all the noise about a new day in Louisiana, it seems that exercises in time-wasting at the Capitol are alive and well.
The thought comes to mind regarding legislation approved by a Louisiana Senate committee that would require the state to assist teachers, principals and others in encouraging students to pursue “critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.”
The legislation would allow teachers to use state-approved materials that supplement school science textbooks in any examination of these theories.
That sounds harmless enough, but as Baton Rouge educator Patsye Peebles told the Senate Education Committee, good science teachers already reach beyond the textbook and are willing to engage students’ questions.
The bill in question, the Louisiana Science Education Act, is a rechristened version of the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act, sponsored by state Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa.
The original bill suggested that science classes should include the pros and cons of several controversial topics, including biological evolution, global warming and cloning.
Those specific examples were removed from the subsequent version of the legislation.
But it seems clear that the supporters of this legislation are seeking a way to get creationism — the story of creation as told in the biblical book of Genesis — into science classrooms.
Science classrooms should be places to discuss and debate science, and creationism, while cherished by many, is not science.
At this point, the wording of the bill seems more symbol than substance.
But its implication — that real science is somehow being stifled in Louisiana’s classrooms — doesn’t seem grounded in actual fact.
This kind of rhetorical grandstanding is a needless distraction from the real problems the Legislature should be addressing.
There’s ample precedent for this kind of piddling in the Legislature, and despite all the noise about a new day in Louisiana, it seems that exercises in time-wasting at the Capitol are alive and well.
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