Case in point, from the AiG website, mocking intelligent design:
United they are not, that's for sure.
(Once again, I feel guilty for giving their website another hit on their counter.)
Posted on 10/27/2005 1:41:22 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A former school board member who denied advocating that creationism be taught alongside evolution in high-school biology classes changed his story Thursday after lawyers in a federal courtroom played a TV news clip that recorded him making such a comment.
William Buckingham explained the discrepancy by saying that he "misspoke."
Buckingham's testimony came in the fifth week of testimony in a lawsuit filed by eight families who are challenging the Dover Area School District's policy that students hear a statement about intelligent design in biology classes. Critics say intelligent design is a repackaging of the biblical view of creation and thus violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
Buckingham, who led the board's curriculum committee when it approved the policy a year ago, confirmed Thursday that he said during a June 2004 board meeting that the biology textbook is "laced with Darwinism." The clip that was shown later in the day came from an interview that he gave to a news crew from WPMT-TV in York later in the month.
"It's OK to teach Darwin," he said in the interview, "but you have to balance it with something else, such as creationism."
Asked to explain by a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Buckingham said he felt "ambushed" by the camera crew as he walked across a parking lot to his car and that he had been consciously trying to avoid mentioning creationism.
"I had it in my mind to make sure not to talk about creationism. I had it on my mind. I was like a deer in the headlights. I misspoke," he told U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, who is presiding over the non-jury trial.
Earlier in Thursday's court session, Buckingham claimed that he had been misquoted in stories from two newspapers that reported his advocating the teaching of creationism to counterbalance the material on evolution.
"It's just another instance when we would say intelligent design and they would print creationism," he said.
When Stephen Harvey, the plaintiffs' lawyer, noted the similarity of the newspaper reports to what he told the TV crew, Buckingham replied, "That doesn't mean it's accurate."
Buckingham moved to North Carolina in July and resigned from the board, citing health problems.
The statement that the Dover teachers are required to read before ninth-grade biology lessons on evolution says Darwin's theory is not a fact and has inexplicable gaps. It refers students to a textbook, "Of Pandas and People," for more information.
Intelligent design supporters argue that natural selection, an element of evolutionary theory, cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
The trial began Sept. 26 and could last through early November.
The plaintiffs are represented by a team put together by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The school district is being represented by the Thomas More Law Center, a public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that says its mission is to defend the religious freedom of Christians.
If you feed your kid Wing-Dings....
I thought there was something in those twinkies we ate....
It seems that anyone who is for superior education would be for the privatization of education.
Private school students generally outperform public school students academically on every study I have seen and they do it using far less money.
or a public school education that they are not partaking in.
But using others' money to do it.
Whose money and to do what? I am not sure what you mean.
I guess it depends if it is from the private or public sector. It it is from the private sector, then it is not others' money for a personal choice. If it is the public sector, it is.
Case in point, from the AiG website, mocking intelligent design:
United they are not, that's for sure.
(Once again, I feel guilty for giving their website another hit on their counter.)
But people are already allowed to do that all the time.
Doesn't make it right all the time. That is mostly involved in a general sense. This is more specific.
Liberals only oppose a return to private schooling because it would eliminate their monopolistic control concerning education.
It is not an education issue with liberals, it is an ideological and political issue.
Thanks for the ping!
That's what is causing the politics in my area.
There are many factors in many areas to be considered and which take much more time than I have to discuss them.
Just as one can question the motives of this particular witness, the defendants can, and did, delve into the motives of the plaintiffs. It goes both ways.
Even though this defendant would likely prefer to include creation in the biology class, the fact remains that the policy and statement of the school board makes absolutely no mention of it. As it stands now, the statement of the school board doesn't even mention the 'Pandas' book.
As a practical matter, this witness is not a very important one to either side.
Harvey also pressed Buckingham, who appeared to recall little of what he said at board meetings, on inconsistencies in his deposition and his testimony Thursday.
In his deposition earlier this year, Buckingham said he did not know the source of the $850 donation to buy 60 copies of the book "Of Pandas and People" - an intelligent design textbook Dover students were referred to as part of the curriculum policy change.
Then Harvey produced a cancelled check from Buckingham for $850 to a Dover school administrator clearly marked for the purchase of the textbook and Buckingham confirmed it came from his church.
"You lied to me in your deposition didn't you Mr. Buckingham?" Harvey said.
"How so?" replied Buckingham.
"When I asked if you knew where the money came from," Harvey said.
"I did not take a collection," he said.
Another red flag is, "mistakes were made".
Ooooooh Noooooo.
LOL!
whoo Hoo
Whoo Hoo Hooooo
whoo Hoo
Whoo Hoo Hooooo
whoo Hoo
Whoo Hoo Hooooo
...
I'm virtually certain that at least some of the creos are paid staffers for their website businesses.
That's OK, we should all spend as much time there as possible, to raise their bandwidth charges. ;)
I wouldn't stop anyone from choosing a public school, but the demise of public schools would have a downside of the "unintended consequences" variety. Here are a couple of past posts I've written when that subject came up:
I can't think of a single good reason why people can't choose between an 'evolution-in' school and an 'evolution-out' school.And:I'm not against school choice or vouchers or home-schooling, but I *can* think of "a single good reason" or two why there might be a downside to it.
1. It accelerates the balkanization (i.e. cultural fragmentation) of America. For better or worse, uniform public schooling has been one of the stronger influences assisting the "melting pot" effect of America.
2. It's not going to help America's competitiveness in today's technological world when a significant portion of the younger generation has been taught that large portions of established scientific knowledge are bunk, that scientists in general are deluded fools, and that science itself is a poor way to acquire knowledge about how things work.
But there's a silver lining to this ominous cloud -- it will hasten the demise of government schools.Works for me, since it appears they are beyond repair, unfortunately. I'm concerned, however, that if all public education is done via private schools, before long it would lead to (or since it may already be underway, hasten) a Balkanization of the US.
In the past 2-3 generations, the biggest forces maintaining the "melting pot" nature of the US have been public schools, and TV. Back when TV (and before that, radio) was limited to a few major stations, everyone was exposed to the same news, same broadcast opinions, and the same entertainments (e.g. the sitcoms on the "big three" networks and "American Top 40" on radio all across the country) to be discussed around the water cooler. Whether they accepted those opinions or not, or viewed the news in the same way, etc., it still provided a central, core, common focus to American life that everyone shared as a society.
Likewise for public schools, which while they suffered from many of the problems of institutions formed by consensus (i.e. community consensus, state standards, etc.), they still provided a common foundation of facts, ideas, and teachings which everyone shared as a starting point for their lives.
But with TV and the news/entertainment sources fractioning into thousands of cable channels and internet sources, and primary education devolving into countless private schools and homeschooling, is there really any common American experience anymore? While there are many upsides to parents and individuals being able to choose and customize their own news, entertainment, and educational choices, the big downside is that America may fractionate into multiple insular social groups which find little if any common ground with others, and even less reason to seek any.
Like the Balkans, we may find ourselves with a single geographic expanse inhabited by multiple groups of people with incompatible religious/social/political "national" identities.
Lie much?
Text of Statement Read to Students
The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part.Because Darwin’s Theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.
Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view. The reference book, Of Pandas and People, is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what Intelligent Design actually involves.
With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the Origins of Life to individual students and their families. As a Standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on Standards-based assessments.
As a practical matter, this witness is not a very important one to either side.
Dream on.
Nice quote, Doc. I'll be humming it all day now.
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