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| Ol' Ricky D. |
By now those who visit the site regularly should be well aware that the home base of our site is located in the heart of our nation's fifteenth state. As a scientist in the Bluegrass, you must deal with a high level of ignorance and anti-intellectualism on a near daily basis. Look no further than Ken Ham and the Creation 'Museum' for fine examples of how science in Kentucky should be viewed. Enter the next great scholarly champion to throw his hat into the ignorance ring, Ricky D. Line. Mr. Line is the Superintendent -yes, you read that correctly- of the Hart County, KY school system.
It seems that Line looked into what his high school kids would need to learn for state testing, and low and behold it seems they need to know the principles of
genetics and evolution. GASP!
"I have a very difficult time believing that we have come to a point ... that we are teaching evolution ... as a factual occurrence, while totally omitting the creation story by a God who is bigger than all of us," he wrote. "My feeling is if the Commonwealth's site-based councils, school board members, superintendents and parents were questioned ... one would find this teaching contradictory to the majority's belief systems."
And those silly scientists, they have been
wrong before...
"it's interesting that the great majority of scientists felt Pluto was a planet until a short time ago, and now they have totally changed that. There are scientists who don't believe that evolution happened."
NOT THE PLUTO ARGUMENT!! That's a scientist's kryptonite! How are we to defend ourselves when we called a large hunk of mass orbiting the sun a planet for so long!?! Ricky's ignorance continues:
"My argument is, do we want our children to be taught these things as facts? Personally, I don't," Line said. "I don't think life on earth began as a one-celled organism. I don't think that all of us came from a common ancestor ... I don't think the Big Bang theory describes the explanation of the origin of the universe."
Fail. Truck loads of fail. Hart County should have much to brag about on matters of science. It is home to some portion of Mammoth Cave National Park including parts of Mammoth Cave itself. Great natural tools to get local kids interested in science could be utilized, but instead someone at the very top has an anti-science agenda.
I often write about the silliness of people like Ham, but with Line I'm afraid I may be tackling a different beast. Ham is at his core, a businessman. If people want to pay their hard-earned money to Ham so they can live a closed minded life, that is their right. The students of Hart County do not have a choice on how they are educated in matters of science. They deserve the best possible education that the state and county can provide for them, and Line is preventing them from learning a cornerstone of modern science. With about one quarter of Hart County residents living
at or below the poverty line the goals of their school system should be the betterment of their county through education. Calling for someone's job is something that I would hardly ever do, but in this case I feel it may be needed. Line is not looking out for the best interest of those he serves, and could be breaking the law by promoting his beliefs onto those high school kids. Line should be removed from his position as Superintendent, or at least quickly educated on the facts of evolution.
This is beyond infuriating. Mr. Line should be immediately fired and if he has any teaching credentials they should be revoked. The only place religious study has in any school is as a social science. Pandering to stupidity is not what education needs. 2+2 are not 5 no matter how much you’d like it to be. We need to teach our children about all the religious myths and the psychology behind them. Why should the Greek and Aztec gods be studied as mythological and Christian not? We need to make the study of religions and religious behavior a testable topic of social science. You can delude yourself into believing anything you want, but if you want to graduate, you need to be able to analyze religion scientifically.
ReplyDeleteI'm a retired teacher. The rule is you keep your private views to yourself & teach the best research you can & show students how to challenge ideas & develop their own. At any level. If Mr Line would simply restrain himself & let his qualified teachers do their jobs, you'd stimulate some smart inventive young people who may have the ideas & gumption to help their county & state. If Mr Line cannot do that, then he needs to consider another profession more suitable to his passions, like being a tour guide at the Creation Museum. The real question here, though, is who hired Mr Line? Maybe they need to go back to school instead of sitting on their complacent prejudices.
ReplyDeleteChrist, at what point does this become embarrassing for an academic living in KY? How did the teachers not walk out?
ReplyDeleteStill, great call out
Unfortunately Zach, it seems like some teachers and others in the community are standing behind Line. This is why education is so important, so they can call out crap when they see it.
ReplyDelete