Also in today's news:

[featherynscale]

Somebody in Kansas gets a clue.
University to teach intelligent design as modern mythology.

Comments

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Lots of people in Kansas have clues. Lots and lots of clues. We just can't get elected to the Kansas State Board of Education.

Yet.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Wasn't implying that you didn't. But they don't let you design the curriculum (yet), which is a damned shame.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew you didn't mean me. It's just annoying how weird shit comes out of the people in charge of stuff, that no one really wants in the first place.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Also, this article says that how things are taught is largely left up to the local school board. Is that still true? Where does the 'Dotte sit on the ID issue?

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

By and large, I find WYCO to be fairly progressive. It's full of Democrats, as it would happen. We haven't heard one peep about having to change anything, and if we had, the science teacher on my team would have been bitching about it. Of course, they're studying the endocrine system right now, so I doubt it came up. :-)

A non-evolution related fer instance: two of the pretty big movers and shakers in the district are two women, former nuns, who are openly living together. It isn't bandied about necessarily, but it's out there, and no one bats an eye.

And you don't hear of any big censorship issues coming out of WYCO either. It's an odd mix of NASCAR redneck, Black Baptist preacher, and liberal Democrat out here. Sometimes all in the same person.

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with this if they promise to include an equal-sized section on the FSM, and maybe the ecology of the jackalope and chupacabra.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Those are other Special Topics courses. American Cryptozoology and Deities of the Internet, perhaps. We could write the school and request them; I think they'd be popular.

Not to soapbox...

[maximumbob.livejournal.com]

But in reading the article I'm not at all offended by this. I'm COMPLETELY against intelligent design being taught in science classes and personally I think its a giant load of crap. However this article is pretty specific is saying that Kansas U is going to teach about ID in a class about religious mythologies. In other words, untruths. I mean if you are going to teach intelligent design THIS is the class that all the scientist say it should be taught in. Its not being taught as science here, its being taught in a religious studies class, and as a myth. Isn't that where it belongs?

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Calling it mythology is certainly a hot-button move because most people do equate "myth" with "not true." From a religious standpoint, however, great truths are related through myth. It's not the same exact thing as fiction. That's why mythology gets filed under nonfiction in the Dewey Decimal System.

But the fact that it's bound to piss off a bunch of religious zealots who don't make that distinction is funny as hell.

[maximumbob.livejournal.com]

My point exactly. I have absolutely NO objection to KU teaching a class of this nature. I would have a freak-out if they announced they were going to teach ID in all freshman biology classes.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm agreeing with you, just in an annotated manner. :-) The fact that they are putting right where it belongs is a pretty in-your-face move. I respect that.

Re: Not to soapbox...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with that. I think that if people want to learn about this (and they probably should, since it seems to be a major cultural force, for whatever reason), then this is how it should be dealt with. The entry was meant to applaud KU.

[kieyra.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That one little word makes all the difference, so it's nice to see this.

Woo-hoo!

[drummel.livejournal.com]

*Signs up for the Course* Oh wait, I got to get back to Kansas First, Damn, foiled Again!!*