Posted on 06/20/2008 5:36:39 PM PDT by forkinsocket
A Mount Vernon teacher undermined science instruction in the public school district by discrediting evolution in his classroom and focusing on creationism and intelligent design, an investigation has found.
Eighth-graders who were taught by John Freshwater frequently had to be re-taught in high school what they were supposed to have learned in Freshwater's class, according to outside investigators hired by the district.
For 11 years, other teachers in the school district and people in the community complained about Freshwater preaching his Christian beliefs in class and slamming scientific theories, a school administrator told investigators.
"There is a significant amount of evidence that Mr. Freshwater's teachings regarding subjects related to evolution were not consistent with the curriculum of the Mount Vernon City Schools and state standards," the consultants reported.
Freshwater was told to stop teaching intelligent design and creationism, but he continued, the report found.
HR on Call Inc., the consultants who investigated allegations against Freshwater, released their findings yesterday. Mount Vernon school board members will meet today to discuss the report and decide what, if any, action they will take.
The report confirmed that Freshwater burned crosses onto students' arms, using an electrostatic device, in December.
Freshwater told investigators the marks were X's, not crosses. But all of the students interviewed in the investigation reported being branded with crosses. The investigation report includes a photo of one student's arm with a long vertical line and a short horizontal line running through it.
The family of one student who was burned filed a federal lawsuit last week against Freshwater and the district, saying the student's civil rights were violated.
Yesterday, the family's attorney, Jessica Philemond, said it was "unfortunate" that the school district didn't do anything sooner to stop Freshwater.
"These concerns had been going on for at least 11 years, and the school had not done anything," she said.
A teacher who worked in Freshwater's classroom last year also reported to investigators that Freshwater told his class that homosexuality is a sin.
Neither Freshwater nor his attorney, Roger Weaver, could be reached for comment last night. Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.
"With the exception of the cross-burning episode. … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he said.
Daubenmire is a former London High School football coach whose district was sued in 1999 by the American Civil Liberties Union because he led his players in prayer at games, practices and meetings.
"Do you think there are other teachers in the public classroom that are trying to drive their opinions in the classroom?" Daubenmire asked. "I don't care who you are. You cannot separate your value system from your teaching."
The debate about Freshwater's actions became public in April after he refused to remove a Bible from his desk, as the district had ordered.
The report says he was insubordinate for failing to remove the Bible and other religious materials from his classroom but also found other issues about his teaching and behavior.
Speaking strictly for myself, and just myself, To me it does not matter if God created an evolutionary system, or if He created man as a entity apart from the rest of creation, just so long as God's hand is recognized in creation.
I really think it makes much more sense than Dawkins theory of "Seeding by space aliens." Because frankly Dawkins never explained where the aliens came from. In other words the uncaused cause.
Okay, so the evolution theory backs up the Genesis account of the order of things.
“Okay, so the evolution theory backs up the Genesis account of the order of things.”
Yes, so it’s not exactly original.
Heresy! Heresy!
All part of moving in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.
“The question isn’t ‘why not evolution,’ the question is simply, why.”
Fair enough. Evolution is a unified theory that explains everything. It’s elegance comes from the idea that once it was set in motion, all that we know would come to pass by it’s inherent genius.
Other theories suggest that God designed everything one way and then stepped in later to add humanity. why not give God credit to get it right the first time?
"With the exception of the cross-burning episode. … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district,"
It's like the old joke "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Seriously, "With the exception of the cross burning episode"??? ..... Unbelievable.
There are many evolution books written by evolutionists which present evolution as a cosmic process--far more than just changes in existing forms of life. And in the very same post you write:
One can see Evolution in Genesis as the Universe and our planet are taken from nothing and progress through light, consolidation of matter, oceans, simple life to the complex life of today.From which we can deduce that, at least to you, evolution is far more than just changes in existing forms of life, but is precisely the sort of doctrine which you say it isn't.
They go bonkers at the thought that GOD explains the origin of life.
Evos claim they are not concerned with how it all began! Yet, Darwin wrote about Origins, didn't he? Does that not have something to do with how it STARTS...?
"...his point is illustrated in the second half of the entry by looking at current debates in the philosophy of evolutionary biology on these five themes, with a special focus on Stephen Jay Gould's The Structure of Evolutionary Theory." -Stanford Encyclopedia of PHILOSOPHY(online)
Darwin wrote on the origin of species not the origin of life. His meaning of origin was to explain how one species evolved into another. I challange you to show me where he wrote to explained the origin of life.
No life, no evolution! Of course, your religion doesn't need that part...
I can hear the choir now..."there is no god, there is no god...lalalalalala..."with fingers in ears!
From: Answers.com
Origin
or·i·gin (ôr'ə-jĭn, ŏr'-) pronunciation n.
1. The point at which something comes into existence or from which it derives or is derived.
Species
spe·cies (spē'shēz, -sēz) pronunciation n., pl. species.
1. Biology.
1. A fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus or subgenus and consisting of related organisms capable of interbreeding.
2. An organism belonging to such a category, represented in binomial nomenclature by an uncapitalized Latin adjective or noun following a capitalized genus name, as in Ananas comosus, the pineapple, and Equus caballus, the horse.
Organism
or·gan·ism (ôr'gə-nĭz'əm) pronunciation n.
1. An individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, protist, or fungus; a body made up of organs, organelles, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life.
2. A system regarded as analogous in its structure or functions to a living body: the social organism
They go bonkers at the thought that the Theory of Evolution explains the origin of life. LRM #50
No, actually some of go "bonkers' when we read such suppositions spoken as proven truth. Show me the proof, not some "foot bones connected to da' ankle bones, dem bones, dem bones, dem bones..."
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Do you ask the same of other sciences--do you demand that the scientists studying gravity explain where mass came from? Or that astronomers explain where hydrogen came from before you accept their silly theories about how the sun works?
I do not accept TOE as a valid science. I look at it solely as a philosophy, which devotes itself to worship of man, and attempts to disprove God (which is denied, of course).
It is no different than a religion, as it stands. It requires blind faith in nothing, because that is the assumption at it's base, ie: Something came from nothing, started life from an accident, and advanced from a single cell through untold myriads of "transition phases" (which can't seem to be found, quite yet, but we're looking hard!) to become a man, and/or every other specie or single-celled organism still on earth.
TOE requires quite a leap of faith, since science is demonstrable (even in theory), and explains to us how mass and hydrogen can be measured. Science fiction tells us that life came from nothing, or that aliens (where did the aliens come from?) plopped some life onto earth, or whatever else the EVOs say they don't need to explain. Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlin, etal were quite interesting in my youthful studies, but I figured out that not everything they posited was a truth.
You can't demonstrate your theory of evolution. You could admit you are auditing God's kingdom, and speculating natural causes (but, that would be so wrong, to one looking in God's face and spitting), since every smart person knows "there is no god, there is no god, there is no god...lalalalalalala..." and everybody else is just a dumb superstitious yokel.
The problem with your scenario, is that most of us aren't that dumb! Science is repeatable... or didn't you get the memo?
Imagine where the United States might be if all the brains, money, and talent which has been wasted in pursuit of “evolutionary biology” had been put to rational and decent purposes?
That's why it's important for evolutionists to insist on the indoctrination of students. Indoctrination leaves no room for debate, discussion, or objectivity. Socialists love this type of educational agenda.
Ha ha! Yeah, maybe we wouldn't have sequenced the human genome in the U.S.A., maybe we wouldn't be the center of research in biotechnology, maybe we wouldn’t be saving lives with groundbreaking treatments, maybe we wouldn't be breaking new ground with gene-mod crops feeding the world. Sure. Evolutionary biology is both rational and decent.
I guess I didn't. Make sure to copy me on the one when they repeat the ignition of the sun, okay? Wouldn't want to miss that.
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