Bill Nye the Science Guy is usually right.
In my reading of various news sources,this article popped up. Bill Nye is usually right when it comes to science issues, and he is spot on when it comes to the fact that if we do not build a solid science education base in our students today, we will be vastly outstripped in emerging technologies, especially bioengineering and green technologies involving bacteria and algae. Bill Nye has taken on Ken Ham, and many other leading creationists, facing down opposition with wit and facts. He is one of my personal heroes.
Now, I was a science teacher in Oklahoma briefly. One of the biggest hurdles I experienced was that many parents were vehemently against the teaching of evolution. However, most of them had no idea what it even was. When you have a farmer or rancher, who has a career that relies heavily on controlling inherited traits and genetics telling you that science does not know what it is talking about, it can be a bit of a head scratcher. But I tried to soldier on. I did not sidestep the issue as many of my colleagues did. As a matter of fact, the National Center for Science Education has found that in some rural areas, teachers blatantly teach creationism in defiance of the law. In 2014, how is this even still a problem? I thought we had mostly gotten it sorted out with Scopes.
I thought this would have been over with Dover V. Kitzmiller but once again, I have been proven wrong. Even in my home parish of Livingston in Louisiana, some schools were flirting with risking lawsuits just so they could teach that the world is ten thousand years old, dinosaurs and humans coexisted, and the flood of the Bible was a real thing. This has unfortunately become a liberals versus conservatives issue. The education of our children, particularly in STEM (sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics) should not be a point of religious indoctrination nor a political football. We need to strengthen science, or we are going to become a third world theocracy.
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.
