Wednesday 5 July 2017

origin story

Not to be outdone by Turkey’s demagoguery in restricting instruction on evolution in public schools, the state of Florida, as Boing Boing reports, has passed legislation that grants any resident, regardless if they are a pupil or the parent of a student or not, the right to request an official hearing into the propriety of classroom teaching materials.
With proponents already advocating the merits of the statue as a means to countermand lessons in evolution, unflattering histories, sex education, the science of climate change and anything else deemed other than anodyne and orthodox, school distinct will be required to retain the services of an “unbiased” inquiry officer—a sort of devil’s advocate to judge the educational merits of text-books, documentaries, film and literature on a case by case basis. It is rather a challenge to strictly compartmentalise disciplines when it comes to the sciences and I can see archeology, geology and cosmology being struck down along the spectrum as well.  By its nature, teaching is not without controversy and has always been under the assault of cowards but never before in modern times was one allowed to lodge a grievance that’s to result in binding censorship without legal standing (locus standi)—that someone not directly affected or has a stake in the matter can indict a class curriculum for everyone.