New Orleans Bans Creationism, But 'Revisionist' History Pushed In Texas

[TruthOut10]

The Orleans Parish School Board, which controls the curriculum and policies for six schools in New Orleans, voted Tuesday to ban the teaching of creationism as science and a "revisionist" history course touted in Texas.

Although none of these six New Orleans schools currently teaches creationism or "intelligent design," outgoing Orleans Parish School Board President Thomas Robichaux is making sure they never will, The Times-Picayune first reported in November.

Click here to view the full measure (PDF).

The newly approved policy bans teachers from including "any aspect of religious faith" in science courses and from using history textbooks adjusted to include Christianity.

The first part regarding textbooks reads: “No history textbook shall be approved which has been adjusted in accordance with the State of Texas revisionist guidelines nor shall any science textbook be approved which presents creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories."

The second part delves specifically into teaching: “No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach any aspect of religious faith as science or in a science class. No teacher of any discipline of science shall teach creationism or intelligent design in classes designated as science classes.”

The Texas State Board of Education in 2010 adopted a statewide social studies and history curriculum that amended or watered down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America's relationship with the United Nations and hundreds of other topics. Its approved social studies curriculum included religious and right-wing viewpoints, the New York Times previously reported. Social studies and economic textbooks were altered to include "the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light."

New Orleans Schools Ban Creationism, 'Revisionist' History Course Promoted By Texas

 

[Stephanie]

omg, we are doomed, doomed I tell ya

 

[jwoodie]

At the risk of trying to turn this thread into an intelligent design, I think that "creationism" and "evolution" are not the correct alternatives for debate. The salient issue should be method rather than purpose (i.e., how rather than why, which is a philosophical concept).

Traditional Darwinists subscribe to a theory of continuous gradualism, where simpler organisms inexorably march towards greater complexity and diversity. Others note the absence of archeological or biological support for this view and believe that external events are largely responsible for the ebb and flow of species on earth (e.g., asteroids killing off the dinosaurs).

I would label the former view Gradualism and the latter view Interventionism. This would allow for a more reasoned and less emotional discussion of this issue because each side could still retain its beliefs as to why things happen (e.g., God's will, aliens, Big Bang, etc.) while objectively considering how they occur.

There seem to be two competing analogies at work: One describes an infinite number of monkeys banging away at typewriters for a long enough time until one accidentally types out the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. The other describes taking taking apart a typewriter and putting all the pieces in a clothes washer. No matter how long you run that washer, the typewriter will never assemble itself without external intervention.

I believe that, ultimately, the truth will be found somewhere in the middle.

 

[4Horsemen]

Nobody can argue that once GOD was taken out of the schools, the schools went to shit. Nobody can argue that. NOBODY.

 

[jtpr312]

That's the difference between a Godless and corrupt town like NO and Tx.