This teaching that not just evolution, but other scientific knowledge is wrong, and addressing history misconstrued and the superiority of cultures over others is outrageous. This long Slate piece sheds a lot of light on a few groups creating intelligent design curriculum being taught at public schools in Texas and other states and will probably enrage anyone who believes that science should be taught in a comprehensive, intelligent way without bringing opinion and religion into it.
I will leave you with a few quotes from some of these curricula that are cited in the article:
Values:
"Responsive Ed also asserts that a person’s values are based on solely his or her religious beliefs."
History:
"In the section on the causes of World War I, the study materials suggest that “anti-Christian bias” coming out of the Enlightenment helped create the foundations for the war."
"Instead of being taught that 16th-century Spain had a monarchy, students at Founders Classical Academy are incorrectly learning that it had a form of republican government that was superior to anything that “native peoples” had created."
Science and history:
"A few days before my visit, writing for Salon, Jonny Scaramanga, an activist who reports on Christian education, had exposed a section of iSchool’s curriculum that blamed Hitler’s atrocities on the theory of evolution."
Science:
"ACE is a popular Christian home-school curriculum that’s also used in many private schools and publicly funded voucher schools. It’s the most infamous Christian home-school curriculum and for years taught that the Loch Ness monster was real in its attempts to disprove evolution."
By the way, if you haven't heard of the author, Zack Kopplin, before, you should really Google him or look up his videos on YouTube. As a high-schooler in Louisiana, he became an involved activist in science education, and has spoken out at many public hearings. He even has a Wikipedia page.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.single.html
I will leave you with a few quotes from some of these curricula that are cited in the article:
Values:
"Responsive Ed also asserts that a person’s values are based on solely his or her religious beliefs."
History:
"In the section on the causes of World War I, the study materials suggest that “anti-Christian bias” coming out of the Enlightenment helped create the foundations for the war."
"Instead of being taught that 16th-century Spain had a monarchy, students at Founders Classical Academy are incorrectly learning that it had a form of republican government that was superior to anything that “native peoples” had created."
Science and history:
"A few days before my visit, writing for Salon, Jonny Scaramanga, an activist who reports on Christian education, had exposed a section of iSchool’s curriculum that blamed Hitler’s atrocities on the theory of evolution."
Science:
"ACE is a popular Christian home-school curriculum that’s also used in many private schools and publicly funded voucher schools. It’s the most infamous Christian home-school curriculum and for years taught that the Loch Ness monster was real in its attempts to disprove evolution."
By the way, if you haven't heard of the author, Zack Kopplin, before, you should really Google him or look up his videos on YouTube. As a high-schooler in Louisiana, he became an involved activist in science education, and has spoken out at many public hearings. He even has a Wikipedia page.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.single.html