For anyone following the whole “supplemental classroom materials” conflamma, Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education have come to some conclusions:
The state education board has adopted guidelines on what types of “supplemental materials” public school science teachers can use in their classes.
The move came in response to a new law passed last year that allows local teachers and school districts to use materials beyond the state-approved science textbooks in class.
The guidelines adopted by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education include language banning promotion of any religious doctrine and requiring that information presented by teachers be “scientifically sound and supported by empirical evidence.”
But the board didn’t include a specific ban on the teaching of creationism or intelligent design, as had been requested by some opponents of the new law. [NOLA.com]
Given our governor’s bible-(t)humping tendencies, I suppose it could’ve been worse. Still, it’s annoying to hear the Louisiana Family Forum folks complain about the policy’s “religious hostility”. I mean, the classroom is a place of intellectual engagement; it should be hostile to every staid, traditional mode of thinking–not only religion, but also accepted scientific theory. Ironically, that’s precisely why the conservatives behind the law lobbied for it in the first place.
sturtle [dot] com 