It turns out that the revolution on the Kansas State Board of Education really did happen in August. Two incumbent conservatives, Ken Willard (in photo) of Hutchinson and John Bacon of Olathe, won re-election Tuesday. That denied moderates a chance at anything larger than the six-vote majority they secured in the GOP primary by ousting incumbent Connie Morris of St. Francis and favoring moderate Republican Jan Shaver of Independence for an open seat.
A board with six moderates (four Republicans and two Democrats) and the two remaining conservatives can be expected to revisit the 2005 decisions to adopt science standards that are at odds with mainstream science and to hire an education commissioner who lacked education or management experience. Such actions should bring more common sense to the board table. Still, it’s a shame that Jack Wempe of Lyons couldn’t unseat Willard. Wempe’s experience — as teacher, principal, superintendent, state legislator and chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents — would have served Kansans well on the troublesome state board, whatever its ideological makeup.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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40 Comments
Sorry fundies.No more discussion of the supernatural in science class.Open discussion in science class IS encouraged, as long as it’s science.
Oh, and maybe Rummy can find Bob Corkins a job too.
I hear jim ryun is polishing up his resume too…
heheheheheheheheheheheheheh
…and isnt philllllllll gonna need a real job too? Just like his nephew? And Mr. Operation Rescue in his office? And dont forget…
…bonbon is gonegone too!
Damnit Girl.I forgot my damned NYC pics again.Spacey Tracy.
Rhonda, I’m sick and tired of your liberal drivel on this blog! You and all of your liberal friends want to impose your radical views on the rest of us. Why don’t you do something constructive?
David,Are we upset because we can’t ram our reactionary agenda down thinking people’s throats anymore.Damn, it feels good to breathe the fresh air of FREEDOM again!
Connie Morris is a good lady who cares about education. The students of northwest Kansas will suffer immeasurably because of the dastardly duo of Cauble and Cruz, who did nothing but slander Connie Morris throughout their election campaign.
I did not vote for either one of those clowns, and I can only hope that in 2010, Morris or someone else who shares her views will send Sally Cauble packing!
Mrcontroversy, now you want to push your radical socialist agenda down our throats! Hello pot, I’m kettle…call me black!
Yeah, well…I probably won’t visit this blog much anymore because of other commitments, but I do have to agree with David’s assessment.
So, we shall leave the liberals to their love fest.
I may stop in from time to time, more to read than to post.
Sorry, I won’t be around much to be dogpiled on anymore. :)
Tracy, why don’t you and your liberal friends get a grip and be more open-minded to all theories of creation? You liberals love free speech, but whenever it doesn’t suit your left-wing views, you want it squelched.
David, I’m sick and tired of your fundie drivel on this blog! You and all of your fundie friends want to impose your radical views on the rest of us. Why don’t you do something constructive?
David, you’re new here, so I can forgive you if you try to generalize me.But then again, I’m still to the left of Atilla the Hun, so…
Stein, creation is not a theory it’s a story, a metaphor.The mainstream (read normal) people in this state agree, and have voted as such.I don’t give two flips how “nice” Connie and friends are, they were never anything but disingenous with their “concern” for free speech.This whole thing is not up for debate.It’s been decided in the courts.It’s been decided in the polls.Debate over.
Tracy,Didn’t you, in another thread, say that you ministered to the incarcerated? And now you say creationism is a story? Where exactly do you stand? You either misspoke here, or you misspoke to the incarcerated.
Its funny how liberals will defend a person’s right to call the VICTIMS of 9/11 Nazis, but when it comes to something that might actually be a guiding point, like say, uhmmm… the ten commandments, then the free speech train stops in its tracks.
Sol – I don’t know anyone who would deny you the right to have your Ten Commandments.
Yes Sol, I did.The Bible is about love and morality. Good stuff.It is not, however, history and/or science.I misspoke to nobody.
But put them in a public place and…
Letting a college professor spew hatred against 9/11 victims to a captive audience is A-OK though.
Tracy,Is the Bible a stroy as well? If it were good enough for inmates… but not good enough for kids…
They teach the Ten in religion class at University.
* if it was…
I don’t know about the professor.Not my battle.Sol, you’re not coming up with any logical argument here.No reason to beat on each other because you interpret the bible literally and I don’t.
Okie dokie
Just seems like riding both sides of the fence to me.
BTW, the BOE and you, Sol,are always steering this debate off course.They (disingenously) claimed this wasn’t about religion at all.So we don’t need to debate it.The new BOE members will get the science standards back in the hands of science professionals and all will be well.If you want your children to believe the bible is history then you need to do that at home or in church.
It’s not both sides of the fence.It’s common sense and logic.Most christians are not creationists.
Most non-Christians don’t preach the Bible.
Gotta scoot. Check you’re yahoo Tracy.
“Rhonda, I’m sick and tired of your liberal drivel on this blog! You and all of your liberal friends want to impose your radical views on the rest of us. Why don’t you do something constructive?”
Uh huh. And here it is, very strong evidence that liberalism and conservatism is in the eye of the beholder. Rhonda’s reputation among many here is at least conservative leaning. But then, to the extremists on both sides, “not us” = “the others”, which is just flat out incorrect. Believing that evolution (in this case common descent) is the only scientifically supported set of theories for explaning biodiversity does not make one a) a liberal or b) anti-christian. Indeed, accepting the reality of evolution does not automatically make one either a liberal or anti-christian. And just because many people who label themselves conservative support creationism in schools or the outgoing self proclaimed conservatives does not make those who oppose them anti-christian liberal secularists. Certainly, some of the people who oppose them are not christian, consider themselves liberal, and are secularists. But particularly in Kansas the opposition to creationism and intelligent design being taught as science also includes christians, including evangelical christians, political conservatives, and even biblical literalists who see evolution as the only scientifically honest theory even though they think it is factually wrong. After all, University Methodist Church had on their letter board for more than a month the statement “Evolution IS God’s Plan”. Therefore, one can oppose the likes of Connie Morris and yet not be a liberal.
On that basis:
“Tracy,Didn’t you, in another thread, say that you ministered to the incarcerated? And now you say creationism is a story? Where exactly do you stand? You either misspoke here, or you misspoke to the incarcerated.”
Sol, you are confused. Believing that creationism is a story and ministering to the incarcerated are not incompatible. The fact that you believe that they are is based on an erroneous assumption on your part (belief in Christianity = belief in creationism), not a cognitive dissonance or contradiction for Tracy.
Rhonda?! Is that Farmgirl’s real name.
Where are you farmgirl! I am just so happy not only for me, but what that election must mean to you.
“Rhonda?! Is that Farmgirl’s real name.”
No, it’s the name of the editor who started this thread on the blog.
You know I can’t help but think so many people had to have gone to the polls and not had any idea what they were voting for. In the well advertised elections, they unseated the republicans handidly. I think too many people go vote republican just cause.
DavidSteinle, I really don’t have a problem with teaching religion in College. But public school is really not the place for religious discussion. We’ve got kids who bully other kids based on religion (just look at this blog), we’ve got teachers who I totally don’t trust to teach an open perspective….hell can’t even teach sex ed without the fundies pushing their views on it. So no, no religious teaching at all, it’s just easier and fairer that way.
Who called victims of 9/11 Nazis?
Did Ann Coulter open her damn stupid mouth again?
Man how far right do you have to be to call Rhonda a liberal? Someone so far right to support Connie Morris I guess.
Nutjob.
As a scientist, I think ID is fine. It teaches fact-examination and argument. If the ultimate decision among students is evolution, THAT’S SCIENCE. Science is skepticism. This is a way of thinking. Dogma has never been science.
“As a scientist, I think ID is fine. It teaches fact-examination and argument.”
Really? I am not aware that ID teaches any such thing. In fact, I am not aware that ID offers a really coherent much less testable theory at all. Certainly, I have seen no honest representation of biological science from ID advocates as to the evidence for evolution.
” If the ultimate decision among students is evolution, THAT’S SCIENCE. Science is skepticism. This is a way of thinking. Dogma has never been science.”
Science is hypothesis testing. But there is a difference between the kinds of hypotheses tested in the classroom and those tested by professional basic or applied scientists. In the science classroom, students are not asked to evaluate Einstein’s Theory of General Special Relativity and decide whether it is correct. They are taught why scientists in applicable fields believe that those theories represent best available knowledge regarding the interactions of objects with space time. By the same token, explanations concerning modern theories of evolution (i.e., common descent) should also be presented with information as to why scientists in applicable fields believe that evolution is the model that best explains what is known about biodiversity. ID is not science.
The Wedge Document from the “Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture” explains the reasons for advocating ID. The reasons are not scientific, they are theological and philosophical:
“Governing Goals
To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and hurnan beings are created by God.”
To present ID as science when the above is the goal is fundamentally dishonest. Methodological (not metaphysical) materialism is the basis of science. The supernatural is incompatible with science by definition because supernatural explanations are by definition outside of nature, and therefore non-replicable.
David Steinle,
Cauble & Cruz didn’t have to malign Morris in their campaigns.
Morris hung herself using her own tongue for a rope.
It couldnt be concon’s own fault in the culture of personal responsibility, could it?
Nawwwwwwwww
Must be the media’s fault.
heartlander is a brilliant and good man. ID/evolution is his only Achilles heel. (He is not the only physician I have known to suffer from this problem). I have decided that since I have mine, he can have his.
“heartlander is a brilliant and good man. ID/evolution is his only Achilles heel. (He is not the only physician I have known to suffer from this problem). I have decided that since I have mine, he can have his.”
I have been very very impressed with heartlander’s posts. And you’re absolutely right, we all have our “Achilles heels”.
That being said, I will still continue to have a tendency to defend the teaching of evolution on this blog and elsewhere.