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[Phys-l] Science Education in Texas

Michael Paul Goldenberg (2009) recently transmitted an "Open Letter to the Texas Education Agency regarding science education and the termination of Chris Comer" [Pennock et al. undated - I assume the letter was written recently, but it's anyone's guess].

Pennock et al. wrote:

"As representatives of various scientific societies, we write to express our deep concern about the recent termination of Chris Comer from her job as Director of Science Curriculum for the Texas Education Agency (TEA). According to press reports, Ms. Comer was forced to resign for political reasons, directly after she forwarded an email
announcement about a lecture critical of Intelligent Design (ID). These reports are deeply troubling. Not only has Ms. Comer suffered an apparently grave injustice, but it appears that members of the TEA administration are willing to sacrifice standards of science education in the state of Texas to partisan political ideology. This is just the kind of
purging employed by Trofim Lysenko and other ideologues within the Soviet Union during the Stalin era, when rejection of well-established principles of Mendelian genetics set Soviet biology back by 50 years. We fear that the stage is now being set for a similar erosion of science education for a current generation of Texas students. . . . . . . . . . . . . ."

Subscribers interested in the status of science education in Texas might also be interested in:

a. "An Update On Evolution in Texas" [Cavanagh (2009)], and

b. "Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences' Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They're Descended from Reptiles" [Johnson (2009)].

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands.
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/>

REFERENCES
Cavanagh, S. 2009. "An Update On Evolution in Texas," Curriculum Matters Blog, 28 March; online at <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2009/03/un_update_on_evolution_in_texa.html>.

Goldenberg, M.P. 2009. "An Open Letter to the Texas Education Agency regarding science education and the termination of Chris Comer," Math-Teach post of 27 May 27, 11:29 AM (what time zone?); online at <http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1942479&tstart=0>.

Johnson, R.B. 2009. "Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences' Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They're Descended from Reptiles." Solving Light Books Publishers. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/dcuma7>.

Pennock, R.T., J. Schmitt, D. Waller, R. Amasino. Undated. "An Open Letter to the Texas Education Agency regarding science education and the termination of Chris Comer," online at <http://www.evolutionsociety.org/download/ComerLtr_RP_JS_DW.pdf> (80 kB).