blivet 2.0

I can not comprehend that the state I was born and raised in could be so proactively and willfully blind to these issues. Those of us in Kansas that were not Republicans used to think that Bob Dole was over the top, even after he mellowed from being Nixon’s hatchet man. Now they have Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback the Senate and Jim Ryun (who I used to idolize as a High School runner) in the House. American Taliban indeed.

Kansas Education Board First to Back ‘Intelligent Design’
Schools to Teach Doubts About Evolutionary Theory [Washington Post]
[via Kevin]

The Kansas Board of Education voted Tuesday that students will be expected to study doubts about modern Darwinian theory, a move that defied the nation’s scientific establishment even as it gave voice to religious conservatives and others who question the theory of evolution. (…)

“This is a great day for education. This is one of the best things that we can do. This absolutely teaches more about science,” said Steve E. Abrams, the Kansas board chairman who shepherded the conservative Republican majority that overruled a 26-member science committee and turned aside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association. (…)

“This is a sad day, not only for Kansas kids, but for Kansas,” said Janet Waugh, who voted against the new standards. “We’re becoming a laughingstock, not only of the nation, but of the world.”

I sometimes think it might be nice to return to Kansas and find a small town to raise Ian in, but I don’t think we would be comfortable or especially welcome. I just don’t think I know the place any more. A greater likelihood is that I never knew it.

Update: Susan points to this excellent piece at Scientific American Editors Blog:

Kansas, Where “Ignorant” is the New “Educated”

Somewhere right now in Kansas, there is a little child who may grow up to be a brilliant scientist. She may make fantastic contributions to science, and future generations may remember her as one of the brightest intellectual lights of her time. But if so, it will be despite the public education that she received in Kansas, because today six dimwits on the state’s Board of Education voted to lower the standards for how science is taught.

Needless to say, they don’t think they are lowering the standards–to the contrary, they think they are raising them. That’s how you can tell they are dimwits.(…)

It wasn’t enough for them to undermine the teaching of biology by falsifying a scientific controversy over evolution. No, the Board of Education went as far as to redefine what science is: it’s no longer just a search for natural explanations for natural phenomena. Now it’s a search for… well, that’s a bit hard to say. Any sort of explanation, apparently. Pixies, ghosts, telekinesis, auras, ancient astronauts, excesses of choleric humor, they all seem to be fair game in the interest of “academic freedom.” Oh, and God, of course. The Board might not say that because it could get them into trouble with the Supreme Court, but can anyone say with a straight face that getting God into the science classes isn’t the goal of the people who pushed for these changes?