You could attend decades’ worth of school board meetings in East Tennessee and most other places without ever seeing what observers were presented with on April 7 by the Knox County school board: an actual motion by a board member to ban a textbook.
snip:
Kurt Zimmermann, a Farragut High School parent, filed a complaint in December about the honors biology textbook’s characterization of creationism as a “Biblical myth.” (The reference comes in a section of the book that discusses the political and cultural history of the concept of evolution.) A Farragut High School review committee made up of two teachers, two administrators, a student, and a parent considered Zimmermann’s complaint and concluded that the textbook was “appropriate.” Zimmermann appealed to the school board, setting the stage for last week’s collision of politics, religion, and science.
snip:
Donna Wright, the school system’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said a few days after the meeting that she had never seen a textbook complaint reach the point of a board motion to remove material from the classroom. “This is not to negate or minimize the parent’s concern with the language,” she says. “My concern is when we get to where we are going to ban a book, pull a book, because of the actions of a few.”
Becky Ashe, who works under Wright as executive director of curriculum and instruction, says she found it “shocking” that a board member would move to ban the book. Ashe, a former science teacher who oversaw the most recent science textbook evaluations, says the treatment of evolution in particular gets careful attention to make sure that the material is scholarly and presented clearly. “In both cases, in this textbook, it’s exemplary,” she says.
http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/apr/14/knox-county-school-board-considers-banning-science/?partner=RSS
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