ISEN-ASTC-L Archives

Informal Science Education Network

ISEN-ASTC-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
martin weiss <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informal Science Education Network <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:26:40 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (122 lines)
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

	Yes, Dennis good news. BUT, how can you run a school system 
if ID proponents can be be voted in, voted out and then voted back 
(and perhaps voted out again) in as in Kansas. And each time the 
science standards are changed.  It's a nutty system; participatory 
democracy but still its nutty !

	If, and this system is not going to change, parents don't 
understand the implications for their children's future, we are 
doomed to this cycling due to the vagaries of political power.

Had to get this off my chest.

Martin
>Finally some good news for evolution.
>
>"Work hard to find something that fascinates you.  When you find it you will
>know your lifework" -- Richard Feynman
>
>Dennis Schatz
>Vice President for Education
>Pacific Science Center
>200 Second Ave. No.
>Seattle, WA 98109
>phone - 206-443-2867
>fax - 206-443-3631
>
>Pacific Science Center
>A non-profit bringing science and kids together
>in every county of Washington State
>>
>>  The New York Times -- November 9, 2005
>>  School Board:  Evolution Slate Outpolls Rivals
>>  By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
>>
>>  All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that
>>  had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an
>>  alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office
>>  yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent
>>  design policy.
>>
>>  Among the losing incumbents on the Dover, Pa., board were two members who
>>  testified in favor of the intelligent design policy at a recently
>>  concluded federal trial on the Dover policy: the chairwoman, Sheila
>>  Harkins, and Alan Bonsell.
>>
>>  The election results were a repudiation of the first school district in
>>  the nation to order the introduction of intelligent design in a science
>>  class curriculum. The policy was the subject of a trial in Federal
>>  District Court that ended last Friday. A verdict by Judge John E. Jones
>>  III is expected by early January.
>>
>>  "I think voters were tired of the trial, they were tired of intelligent
>>  design, they were tired of everything that this school board brought
>>  about," said Bernadette Reinking, who was among the winners.
>>
>>  The election will not alter the facts on which the judge must decide the
>>  case. But if the intelligent design policy is defeated in court, the new
>>  school board could refuse to pursue an appeal. It could also withdraw the
>>  policy, a step that many challengers said they intended to take.
>>
>>  "We are all for it being discussed, but we do not want to see it in
>>  biology class," said Judy McIlvaine, a member of the winning slate. "It is
>>  not a science."
>>
>>  The vote counts were close, but of the 16 candidates the one with the
>>  fewest votes was Mr. Bonsell, the driving force behind the intelligent
>>  design policy. Testimony at the trial revealed that Mr. Bonsell had
>>  initially insisted that creationism get equal time in the classroom with
>>  evolution.
>>
>>  One incumbent, James Cashman, said he would contest the vote because a
>>  voting machine in one precinct recorded no votes for him, while others
>>  recorded hundreds.
>>
>>  He said that school spending and a new teacher contract, not intelligent
>>  design, were the determining issues. "We ran a very conservative school
>>  board, and obviously there are people who want to see more money spent,"
>>  he said.
>>
>>  One board member, Heather Geesey, was not up for re-election.
>>
>>  The school board voted in October 2004 to require ninth grade biology
>>  students to hear a brief statement at the start of the semester saying
>>  that there were "gaps" in the theory of evolution, that intelligent design
>>  was an alternative and that students could learn more about it by reading
>>  a textbook "Of Pandas and People," available in the high school library.
>>
>>  The board was sued by 11 Dover parents who contended that intelligent
>>  design was religious creationism in new packaging, and that the board was
>>  trying to impose its religion on students. The parents were represented by
>>  lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for
>>  Separation of Church and State, and a private law firm, Pepper Hamilton
>>  LLP.
>>
>>
>
>***********************************************************************
>More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
>Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
>To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
>message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
>[log in to unmask]

-- 
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2