Groups Working to Keep Teachers from Teaching Science (if science discloses problems of industry)

​One of our readers sent this to us. We give credit and thanks to Mark Strauss and IO9 The FUTURE, for writing and his thoughts, which stimulated similar thinking we have had in observation of other disturbing trends.  We note that throughout history there have been those who wanted to destroy knowledge and science (Hitler burned books, Pol Pot destroyed libraries), while others invited avid knowledge and learning (Dalhai Lama stresses study of science, Cyrus the Great of Persia, Isis and Osarus of Ancient Egypt, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson).

Now in America, we have a move, by many in a political mode, who wish to make some science illegal, or wish to 'spin' and change the discussion.  I remember the words of the Bible, "Believe and test all things" or the words of HH the Dahlai "When a religious person is proven wrong by the knowledge of science, he must reconsider, and learn from it."  We have an emerging mode of almost fanatical thought in this world, that would even ignore and destroy science, if it disturbs their political preferences.   Read this article and pass it on, unless you want our children and grandchildren to be withheld science, because of politics. Publisher comments are marked. BootheGlobalPerspectives 

The Two Organizations Trying to Destroy U.S. Science Education

Mark Strauss  Mark Strauss

The Heartland Institute, a prominent, Chicago-based organization opposing climate science, has teamed up with the creationist Discovery Institute to launch a smear campaign against a group promoting the nationwide adoption of updated science education guidelines.

The guidelines in question are the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), adopted so far by 11 states and the District of Columbia. The National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science—working with 26 state governments—developed the NGSS to update and improve K-12 science education in schools for the first time since 1998.

But, because the NGSS includes material on evolution and how humans are causing climate change, it has faced opposition in some states. Most recently, the Wyoming legislature became the first in the U.S. to reject the NGSS. Lessons on climate change, lawmakers said, would brainwash kids against the state's coal and oil industries. (Publisher's note: Heaven forbid that we teach facts about any industry that has potential harmful impacts upon health, the air we breath, the water we drink. It would seem that Wyoming would rather keep it's children in the dark, rather than let truth and knowledge expand, to protect the profits of a few giant companies.  Wouldn't it be better to encourage them to learn everything they can, and then be leaders of a future to show us a better way?)

The non-profit National Center for Science Education (NCSE)—whose members include thousands of teachers and scientists—provides information and advice to defend and encourage quality science education at local, state, and national levels. And its advocacy on behalf of the NGSS has made it a target for both young-earth creationists and climate change deniers. (The Tea Party crowd, especially those who have little knowledge of science seem to  have made scientific knowledge a new 'evil' to be banned by law.) 

And thus, a partnership is blossoming.  Recently, the main article on the Heartland Institute website is written by the Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin, who some have observed has an  ignorance of science that is legendary. 

His article is the first in a two-part column on "how the National Center for Science Education is targeting the nation's schools to enforce a mythical consensus on global warming alarmism."

Mr Luskin, in his attack upon the National Center for Science Education, tries to discredit it, (in terms that would appeal to an uneducated, reactionary base).

He calles it 'an elitist, scientific cabal' (phrases long used by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) in a way to recruit a following from a base of largely uneducated and below average income folk who are easily manipulated by these words.  Consider that they seem to tend to make having a college education or the incentive to study and reasearch a negative.

All of this is in keeping with another group, to stop or  inhibit science and open teaching.  The long-term strategy of the Heartland Institute is to create a political effort to pass laws

and to encourage a "re-written" view of the environment, which might omit any information about global warming, or scientific data about polluting industry.

Two years ago, leaked documents revealed its plans to promote a science curriculum for schools that would raise doubts about human-caused climate change. They even discussed strategies for "dissuading teachers from teaching science."   

(Publisher comment: Alas, next they will be burning books again. Don't we ever learn from history?)