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The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a bill that says that a student can receive a passing grade in an Earth Science class if they say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Earth an hour ago, and then planted false memories into every single living creature on Earth to make it seem like they’ve been around longer.
Of course, that’s not the intent of the bill. The intent is that a student can say the Earth is 6000 years old and still get a passing grade. The bill itself says that a student cannot be graded down if they say that what they are being taught interferes with their religious beliefs.
Specifically, the bill states:
"A school district shall treat a student’s voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint, if any, on an otherwise permissible subject in the same manner the district treats a student’s voluntary expression of a secular or other viewpoint on an otherwise permissible subject and may not discriminate against the student based on a religious viewpoint expressed by the student on an otherwise permissible subject."
It’s the "otherwise permissible subject" phrase that’s sticky. That can easily be interpreted as meaning tests, besides just normal classroom discussion.
Just astounding. And a reaction from Mainstream Baptist:
A colleague phoned Representative Jones' office on Tuesday to advise him that I would like to speak in opposition to the bill as it came before the Education Committee on Wednesday. She was informed that no input from citizens would be permitted.
I decided it was unusual for citizens to be barred from giving input at Capitol hearings. Under previous leadership at the state capitol, citizen input was welcome but often limited to one or two minutes. So, I went to the state capitol and attended the committee meeting. Citizens were permitted to give input on the other legislation that came before the committee, but I was not permitted to speak against HB 2211.
US State Government officials have drafted and passed a bill that not only blatantly violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, but completely flies in the face of simple educational and scientific reasoning.
Oh, yes, and it was done undemocratically too.
Oh my F**king God.
1 comment:
It would seem far more reasonable to me that a student should get a passing grade in the course if he's mastered the material, whether or not he agrees with it.
A clause at the end of a detailed exam answer stating that the student believes the earth is a result of the giant sneeze from the cheesecake monster may induce some eye-rolling, but at least he's demonstrated knowledge of the material, whether or not he believes it's bunk. That's strange, but acceptable.
Writing the crap about the cheesecake monster as a complete answer and expecting marks for it? Ridiculous.
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