Florida's plan to require evolution be taught in science class is being called "godless".

madfloridian

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Mon Nov-05-07 12:42 PM
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Florida's plan to require evolution be taught in science class is being called "godless".

When I first read the article about the Department of Education's decision, I knew it would not go over well. It was eye-opening that so many people did not realize that it was not a requirement here.
Well, the letters to the editors are beginning. I have also heard comments locally expressing outrage that our schools are abandoning the teachings of the Bible. That's how it has been here for so long that so many see no other way of looking at things.

Godless adults

Jonathan Smith, the Lakeland resident and representative of National Center
of Science Education, was 100 percent correct when he said the standards
change in forcing the evolutionary theory on students are "much deeper and
complex, and aren't just about evolution."

The downward spiral humanity is on is pathetically evolutionary, and is
producing generations of godless adults.

It's certainly not true science. It is a lot of confusion along with
imagination and a wishful doctrine from confused people who cannot accept
creationism.

I trust we have more competent leaders who will stop this nonsense being
perpetrated on our students.

And another letter to the editor shows this is not going to be accepted.

Letter says students will be taught to disbelieve their parents

If The Ledger article is true ("Plan To Require Evolution to Be Taught in
Schools," Oct. 24,) students will be taught to disbelieve what their parents
teach them at home. Jonathan Smith, one of the writers of the new teaching
standards, said, "It (new standards) closed the door on ambiguity" about
evolution. "There isn't both sides. There is only one side as far as science
is concerned."

Citizens have been told for years that teachings of God have no place in
schools, and that such teaching should be left to parents and churches.
We've given in to that position, but now Mr. Smith and his kind are
promoting a totally godless belief.

Why should we (surveys show that most Americans believe in a Creator) pay
for consultants, administrators and teachers in our schools to promote a
belief that denies the existence of a Creator? Why pay for them to contend
that what we believe and teach in our homes and churches is a lie?

If the state Department of Education is going to vote on the new standards
in January, as The Ledger article said, they need to hear from us. Comment
at www.flstandards.org.

When the original article came out I said all hell might break loose in our area with 4 bible colleges and a huge number of churches which espouse creationism as the only way.

Florida puts forth plan to require evolution to be taught in schools

For the first time, standards in science have been written that would require Florida public-school students be taught about evolution. The new standards released last week say that evolution will be taught beginning in the third grade. Current standards do not use the word evolution, preferring the term "biological changes over time".

The state Department of Education is expected to approve the new standards in January.

The proposal will likely fuel a backlash from those who believe in intelligent design, the idea that life began as a result of an intelligent force or being. The new science standards exclude intelligent design.

Florida's science teaching was recently ripped apart, and it led to some self-examination of our standards.

A 45-member committee appointed by the state Department of Education began revising the science standards in May in response to a failing 2005 report on Florida's public school science curriculum by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit group. The Fordham study said Florida's standards are "sorely lacking in content," "naive," and that life sciences and evolution are given "shorter shrift than any of the other" science topics.

"The superficiality of the treatment of evolutionary biology alone justifies the grade 'F,'" the report stated.

It is no exaggeration that a neighbor told my husband that we were all heading for a train wreck in our schools if this went through. Hubby started to argue with them, then he backed off. After all this is the neighborhood that had yard signs given out by churches supporting the war and supporting the president in 2003.

It is the neighborhood in which a neighbor yelled at us in 2003 that we were not to question our God-chosen leaders.

The Department of Education will have to stand firmly.