Thursday, March 27, 2008

Skeptologists

With all the pseudo-science shows on TV this would be a welcome addition.
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Ruling from courts on Home Schooling

When wrote my last post on the crazy creationist tour guides I made the point that home schooling is a problem because there is a lack of regulation. I missed this story when it first came out but back on February 28th a California Court passed a ruling making it unlawful in a particular case for parents to home school their children without having a teaching certificate.
Justice Walter Croskey said, "Parents do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children." If they don't comply with the law, he ruled that they can be prosecuted.
This case has brought about a flurry of gnashing and wailing from home school parents, advocacy groups, and the general christian conservatives in the country. Now the case is going to be reheard.

At first glance I would say that I don't have an objection to home schooling as long as it's done properly. I also don't necessarily agree that the parent has to be a certified educator. Don't get me wrong. I still think home schooling is a poor option and that we should be working harder to improve public schools. However, if you're going to allow home schooling there should be regulation to ensure that the children are getting what they need. The advocacy groups like the Home School Legal Defense Association say they're for minimal government intervention and that they trust parents to do what's best for their children. This is a completely flawed strategy. Sadly you can't just trust that all parents will do what is best for their children. If you could then we would never heard of cases of neglect or abuse. But you do because sometimes parents do horrible things.

In a recent episode of the Diane Rehm Show, Rob Reich, associate professor of political science and ethics in society, at Stanford pointed out that there are no studies or reliable statistics on how well these home schooled children are doing academically. He also feels that a teaching certificate is not necessary for parents but basic regulations are needed so that we can track how many students are being home schooled and so some kind of standardized testing can be performed. On the show Mike Donnelly of the HSLDA was trying to claim that they do have studies showing home schooled children performing better on the ACT and doing as well or better than traditionally schooled children in socialization studies. Professor Reich quickly pointed out that all the studies presented by Donnelly were of varying degrees of 'badness', ranging from small volunteer samples to the fact that all the studies were actually performed by advocacy groups. If you have time to listen to the show please check it out. It is terribly frustrating at times but overall I think professor Reich made Donnelly look foolish.

I also came across this editorial which points out the knee-jerk reaction of home school advocates. Most newspapers are toeing the line that parents should be able to exercise guardianship in terms of where and how their children are educated.
But pause for a moment and substitute the word "nourishment" for "education" in all this. Do parents have the right to provide as much or as little nourishment for their children as they like? If they don't provide adequate nourishment, don't they at some point become guilty of child abuse?
That sounds extreme but it goes back to the parents who tell their children that the world is only 6000 years old, or the ones who teach their children that prayer is more important than medical science. We don't grant parents unlimited rights to discipline their children physically. At some point it is abuse. Just because they don't have bruises doesn't mean the children's rights aren't being violated.

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Girl dies after parents prayed for help instead of seeking a medical professional



In Wisconsin an 11 year old girl died of diabetic ketoacidosis. The reason? Her parents prayed for her instead of taking her to the doctor. The autopsy showed that she was probably ill for about a month suffering from symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite, and weakness.
The girl's parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to "apparently they didn't have enough faith," the police chief said.
They believed the key to healing "was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray," he said.
The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.

And now the most dumbfounding part of the whole tragic story.
The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said.
"They are still in the home," he said. "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

This is a sad story and I'm sure these parents are distraught over the loss of their girl. I have no doubt that they loved her but they were making bad decisions based on ignorance which led to the her death. This was neglect and abuse brought on by ignorance.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

'Biblically Correct' Tour Guides for Jesus

This is a completely appalling video of home schooled christian children being subjected to a kind of child abuse. They are systematically being stripped of rational thought by their parents and these hucksters who take them around a natural history museum and teach them that it's all wrong. They're creationists tour guides for Jesus. Fortunately the news report isn't exactly sympathetic to them but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.

Watch as they feed the children factually inaccurate information and ignore displays that explain the 'supposed' problem they just identified. Be amazed as they claim that people regularly lived to be 800 years old in the old testament. Gasp as they tell the kids that Tyrannosaurus Rex had to have been a vegetarian before the fall of man in the garden of eden.

The ignorance is astounding but as curator of the museum says, "Regardless of what those tour guides say, some of those kids are to start thinking for themselves."

Actually the bigger problem to me is the home schooling of children. That some states allow this and do not regulate is a problem. If a parent has the option of keeping their children home to educate them, then those children should be entitled to the same educational standards as those in public school. Which means that if the state has a set of science standards that includes teaching evolution as central to biology then the parents should be required by the same standards to present that information. Testing could be conducted to verify if the children are getting that education. You can't feasibly regulate so that the parents don't spin the information but if you at least present the information to them then hopefully the kids will have half a chance of undoing the damage. These children are prisoners of ignorance and are being disenfranchised by their own parents who I'm sure love them but are still royally screwing them out of the development of rational thought.

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Sean Hannity doing what Sean Hannity does...

Over at NewsHounds they've got video from an episode of Hannity & Colmes of Sean Hannity and Frank Luntz discussing Obama's recent speech on race. Most people found the speech inspiring, moving, and overdue. In true Hannity form he manages to be a complete jackass, spouting ignorance, and being divisive. This is the same guy who loves to refer to Obama by his middle name in order to conjure negative feelings about the candidate.
“What if (Obama) deep down in his heart thinks like (his controversial pastor) Wright?” Hannity asked. Luntz had his neutral pretense back in place. “It’s not for anyone to answer that question.” Hannity persisted. “Is that dangerous for this country? I think that would be dan… That would mean we would have, if he agreed with Wright and I don’t know that does, but if he did, that would mean a racist and an anti-Semite would be president of the United States.”
This isn't really surprising behavior from a hack like Hannity. The guy has made his career off of being a bigoted asshole, using fear and spin to influence conservative Americans. He tries to give this impression that he doesn't really believe what he's saying is true and that he's just asking a question. That's right, at Fox News you can say whatever the hell you want as long as you pose it as a question or hypothetical situation. I mean come on Sean...who could possibly imagine having a racist, anti-semite for a president. Guess there's a first time for everything...dumbass.


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Expelled from 'EXPELLED'


This absolutely made my day. PZ Myers over at Pharyngula blog recounts an interesting story. If you're unfamiliar with the 'Expelled' documentary that Ben Stein and Mark Mathis are putting out then continue reading. Other wise skip the next paragraph.

Ben Stein and company are working on a documentary called 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allow'. The theme or idea they are putting forth is that scientists are being drummed out of academia for holding controversial views such as supporting something called Intelligent Design which is just Creationism rebranded. The movie is built on false information and equates Darwinian theory with Nazi Germany, genocide, and eugenics. They have been holding pre-screenings for church groups and other people who they feel are friendly to their cause. They have repeatedly tried to keep any critics out of these screenings. When one got in and wrote a review it caused quite a ruckus.

So PZ Myers was at the Mall of America with his family to see this 'turd' of a movie. They used the online mechanism provided by the producers to reserve seats and used their real names. So contrary to stories floating around they didn't try to sneak in. PZ was recognized by Mark Mathis and had him 'expelled' from the theater. Read the rest of his account here to get the punchline. This is priceless.

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Clinton takes Texas and Ohio; Huckabee doesn't affect school board elections

Well I'm a little more than perturbed that Hillary won both Ohio and Texas. I was kind of hoping this battle would come to a close with these two primaries. I appreciate the fact that they have both lasted so long and that Democrats are so passionate about both candidates. However, now that McCain is officially the Rep. nominee he can start campaigning for the national election. Obama and Clinton, however, will continue to spar for the Dem. nomination.

I've heard several bloggers and news sites say that Hillary can't mathematically win the nomination now and that it would require something underhanded involving the superdelegates to get the nomination. I've also seen plenty of people in support of Hillary staying in and fighting it out. And of course now she has said that she would support a joint ticket. In principle that would be amazing but I think unlikely and not a good solution for either of them.

And as a follow up to my post from yesterday Huckabee being on the ballot in Texas did not impact the school board elections. The two seats that were highest risk of being taken by creationist nutters were held onto by more science friendly candidates.

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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Teaching Darwin: The Huckabee Factor


This could be bad. Huckabee had hoped to gain ground in Texas by marshalling evangelical voters. However, it looks like McCain will pull out the win and clench the Republican nomination. Honestly, I thought he already had it.

Evangelicals don't like McCain. That's something we can at least agree on although I'm sure we have different reasons. Their boy is Huckabee but he isn't going to be president. That doesn't mean he can't still rally his whackjob supporters. And that could have a serious impact on a crucial issue in Texas.

Next year the Texas State Board of Education will be writing the science curriculum standards for Texas public schoolchildren, and Huckabee may bring enough conservative fundamentalist voters to the polls on March 4 to swing the balance of power on the board to the supporters of creationism. "If Huckabee marshals the religious right in Texas, particularly in North Texas, it has profound implications for the state board," says Kathy Miller, executive director of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), an Austin-based advocacy group whose stated goal is to "counter the religious right" in public policy issues, particularly education.
We shouldn't have to go over this again but don't forget what happens when religious conservatives get elected to school boards and start tinkering with science standards. But Texas is different.

Given the Lone Star state's influence as the second largest purchaser of textbooks nationally, any changes likely would have had a ripple effect across the country. Miller says she is concerned that if the social conservatives gain the upper hand they may try to reassert that influence by drawing up a conservative curriculum that would necessarily have to be addressed in textbooks. "One vote, one member, could be the difference between kids getting a 21st century science education or a 19th century education," Miller said.
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