Objectivity trumps facts in the classroom?

[This diary was cross-posted last night at SquareState - Ed.]

Not too long ago, a group of sixth graders decided that global warming was a hoax. And it seemed sort of cute because sixth graders are young and of course they'll grow up someday.

But yesterday a Longmont paper revealed that the sixth graders' teacher has decided to quit to pursue a career writing books supporting creationism. Some snips from the story:

A science teacher who's spent 10 years with the St. Vrain Valley School District is retiring this spring to write more books on creationism and the dangers of Darwinism. Ken Poppe, 58, made national news last week after his sixth-grade paleontology class debated global warming and decided humans aren't causing it...

Though his students were free to choose as they pleased, Poppe said he too disagrees with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which declared Feb. 2 that it's 90 percent certain human-generated greenhouse gases are to blame for global warming...

"I'd talk about the alternatives to evolution if kids brought it up. But I'd never set out to challenge evolution," Poppe said of his classroom focus.

It appears that Poppe attempted to separate his personal faith from the scientific facts he taught in class. Now that he has reached a point where he feels that his faith is more important than the curriculum, he is honorably retiring. Kudos to him.

But a closer look at the earlier story reveals this worrisome quote:

Ken Poppe said he let students choose which side of the debate to argue. Poppe personally believes global warming is cyclical and not affected by humans, while his Colorado State University student aide David Richards believes the opposite. Both, however, said they presented both sides equally to the students leading up to Thursday's debate.

Presenting "both sides equally" is not the same thing as presenting the facts. And if a teacher decides that opposing views deserve to be heard, they should be given the respect due to them and no more. The IPCC is 90% certain that global warming is manmade, not 50%.

An obession with objectivity has damaged mainstream journalism, which often seems more concerned with presenting both sides to a story than it is with uncovering the truth. This same tendency should not be allowed in the classroom. I can see it now:

"Most mathematicians believe that two and two equal four. But others believe that numbers are an artificial construct designed by their creator to help them grasp the concept on infinity."

And then the teacher will allow the students to debate the subject and dare parents to question their kids' ability to make up their own minds.

A is A, people. It always will be.

Assorted snark, where have I been and congratulations edition

I've been blogging about objectivity in the classroom and Diana DeGette today at SquareState.

Congrats to Drinking Liberally for being bipartisan and popular. And congrats to CoCo, Wash Park Prophet, Progress Now Action, Colorado Media Matters, ColoradoPols and Coyote Gulch for also being very popular.

Fundamental differences

James Dobson thinks that global warming is a distraction from "'the great moral issues of our time,' such as abortion and same-sex marriage." I think global warming is the great moral issue of our time. Consider:

• Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.
• More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050

There is a point at which rational argument becomes impossible. Perhaps we have reached it.

Janet Rowland won't go away

CoCo reports Rowland & Co. may require the next Mesa County human services director "to list his or her religious and political beliefs in their application."

Social conservative attacks Edwards bloggers

CNN reports that a prominent social conservative, Bill Donohue, is attacking the John Edwards campaign for employing bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan who, prior to working with the campaign, had been critical of the religious right.

There is a campaign to save Marcotte and McEwan's jobs launching here.

Donohue has a history of hysterical rhetoric. He has opined that child abuse in the Catholic church was "a homosexual scandal, not a pedophilia scandal" and that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity." [Source] Donohue has also stated that, "'If you asked' some Hollywood actors 'to sodomize their own mother in a movie, they would do so, and they would do it with a smile on their face.'" [Source]

How John Edwards responds to Donohue will tell us a lot about how serious the candidate is about freedom of speech. I have been enormously supportive of Edwards. I hope his sense of right and wrong outweighs his political instincts.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Colorado GOP sees cliff, accelerates

Will the Colorado GOP try to regain some of its lost relevance? Or will it continue skipping towards permanent minority status? The Rocky has the answer:

Gun bills. Abortion bills. A "Religious Bill of Rights" for students and school staffers. Those proposals, sponsored by some of the most conservative lawmakers at the state Capitol, have Democrats shaking their heads.

"This is mainstream Republicans' worst nightmare," said Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora.

Healthcare, education, the economy, transportation, immigration reform, the environment and energy are crucial to Colorado. The Republican Party either doesn't get it or doesn't care.

HPV vaccine faces campaigns against profits, sex

Every year about 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. Yesterday Colorado's Democratic legislature took action. A Senate committee approved a bill requiring girls to be vaccinated against HPV, an STD that causes the disease.

The Rocky's story on the situation at the Capitol reported that some oppose the bill on the grounds that the company that makes the vaccine will profit from its sale:

Opponents accused Merck & Co., manufacturer of Gardasil vaccine, of pushing similar legislation across the nation to boost its bottom line.

People are absolutely right to be suspicious of the ties between the doctors that dispense new medicines, the legislatures that mandate their use, and the companies that profit from their sale. But the Rocky's article doesn't give enough emphasis to the fact that social conservatives have been been campaigning against the vaccine for years as part of the movement's ongoing war on sex.

Time Magazine's article "Defusing the War Over the Promiscuity Vaccine" states:

The New Scientist in Britain quoted the Family Research Council's Bridget Maher warning that "giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex."

Similarly, About.com states one reason the vaccine is controversial is that "[m]any groups feel that the HPV vaccine will encourage promiscuity among young people."

Last year The New Republic reported that the social conservative movement had begun to couch its opposition to the vaccine in the language of choice:

Instead of campaigning aggressively against the vaccine, Christian groups have adopted a subtler rhetorical strategy: saying simply that they favor "choice"--that is, allowing parents to decide whether the vaccine or abstinence is right for their children. This strategy is no less pernicious for being polite. And it could go a long way towards undermining the vaccine's potential benefits.

The point is that the war against the vaccine stems not just from the reported concerns about choice and profits, but from a deep-seated opposition to premarital sex.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

UPDATE: A telling quote from The Denver Post:

[O]pponents said it crosses a new line of government mandates and could encourage sexual promiscuity in teenagers. "This will create the perception of immunity, and sex outside of marriage will actually increase," said Ed Hanks of Colorado Right to Life.