I had this email forwarded to me today. I fear the school system is failing these days. We came across a similar issue in an evolution class that I took in college - about the teaching of evolution in public schools and how an "opposing view" must be presented. Here is the email:The school board in Federal Way, Wash., adopted a three-point policy on the showing of former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" this week after the parent of a child whose teacher wanted to show the film complained. The policy requires teachers who want to show the movie to ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented" and that the principal and the superintendent must approve the viewing before it occurs. Also, any teachers who have shown the film must present an "opposing view," the Federal Way School Board said. The school board imposed the restrictions on viewing the film after Frosty Hardison, a parent who said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old, sent an e-mail to the school board complaining about the film.
It is amazing to me that somebody like Frosty here can control what is taught to other kids in a public school system, much less his own. It is fine with me if Frosty doesn't want to accept scientific thought - even though science is not absolute truth and has never pretended to be absolute truth, but rather scientific thought is what is accepted beyond a resonable doubt after intense strutiny and experimentation. I think that it is amusing that they need a "credible alternative source..." In my opinion, Frosty has missed the point - the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is about what we are doing to the Earth in the present day, to help make people aware that what we are doing to our environment has some major implications in the near future. The science behind it, is truly that, science. It comes from experimentation to the best of the scientific communities abilites. However, scientific facts are often used by politicians out of context and can be mis-used. Despite Gore's obvious short-comings (although without Al Gore this Blog would not be possible), I think he is truly trying to get the word out on global warming.
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We are safely back from Jamaica- everything was beautiful. The highlight of our week was learning how to scuba dive and going on our first dive in the ocean. We saw an octupus and lots of fish and coral. We'll try to post pictures of the dive later, they are on the water camera. The resort was great and had lots of activities, great food and an amazing selection of drinks. We took wind surfing lessions, played a little tennis, got massages, went cliff diving, shopped, but mostly sat in the sun with our fruity drinks and Red Stripes. Our room was a "hut" that was made up of all shutters and a big porch/deck with a hammock and a couch. We're looking forward to our next tropical vacation!
