Alabama public schools get to have real science teaching!

The state Board of Education voted unanimously today to replace old standards that some teachers say were behind the times the moment they were approved.

As evidence, they point to their students’ biology textbooks, many of which currently come with warning stickers that call evolution “a controversial theory.” The state’s old science standards say students should “wrestle with the unresolved problems still faced” by evolution.

“You might not accept it, but that doesn’t change the fact,” says science teacher Ryan Reardon, who isn’t a fan of the old standards. “Talking about evolution in a classroom is controversial, but there is no controversy about how all the organisms on the planet are

Originally a comment by James Garnett on The “Men’s & motor” area.

David Evans@1:

I think some men as well as women are likely to be put off by the idea that intellectual brilliance is what is needed in science.

THIS.

Ophelian@2:

In Japan they teach that science and math take lots of hard work.

AND THIS.

The notion of the “brilliant scientist” infuriates me. I have long maintained that anyone of reasonable intelligence and drive can make useful and important advances in the sciences if they make the effort of learning the background well, and putting in the (large amount of) effort that is required. It takes years to pick up the background and years of toil to … Read the rest