Disclaimer stickers in school textbooks

Most of you know my scientific turn of mind, so I'm sure you can imagine just how negatively I feel about the "disclaimer" stickers that some school boards are forcing educators to put in their textbooks. Some educators have fought back:

www.swarthmore.edu...

Be sure you read the material at the bottom, particularly if you're a parent and rather disgusted over the whole thing.

This is political correctness gone haywire......do you know who or which uthority came up with the bright idea to try and use these stickers in US skools??

I really cant belive that any free thinking people in education would actually condone stickers such as the one about the shape of the earth being a contraversial subject!!!!! we have satellites that show us the earth is round, all be it with a bump around the centre. Also u gotta love the sticker reffering to gravity as a yet unsubstanciated and unseen force which may or may not be real........how the hell are we all still here if not for the gravitational pull of our eraths magnetic core and the gravitational force of the sun acting upon us.

Is it just me or does the world around us seem to be falling back into the dark ages with suppresion of information everywhere and basic human rights such as free speech and voicing ones own opinion now looked upon as a crime under the Patriot acts I & II? It seems like so muc of the world is just slipping into darkness, im glad people like you and my fellow posters on sites like this fight for freedom and the truth still.
great post, keep em coming my friend

radiant_obsidian, relax, I believe this stickers were a joke.

If you see a sticker on a car saying "blind man driving" or "mother-in-law in the trunk" would you also take it seriosly?

Originally posted by bratok

radiant_obsidian, relax, I believe this stickers were a joke.

If you see a sticker on a car saying "blind man driving" or "mother-in-law in the trunk" would you also take it seriosly?

Sadly the one on the upper most left is real and has been put into textbooks.
The others are just trying to show how foolish the first one is.

[edit on 24-11-2004 by I_AM_that_I_AM]

Originally posted by radiant_obsidian
This is political correctness gone haywire......do you know who or which uthority came up with the bright idea to try and use these stickers in US skools??

Well, the Radical Christian Right was the one who put the first sticker into textbooks in several places in the country. I'm not sure about the second one, though i know that the same group tends to believe that the Earth is just 6,000 (six thousand) years old (heck, we've got material on arachaeological digs that is older than that!)

However, rest assured that the others are parodies. It's tempting to place them in textbooks, though, isn't it?

On a related (and disturbing) note, a friend in one of my chatrooms mentioned that this same group is ALSO affecting how math is taught. Their insistance on bringing their religion into everything is rather creepy. The example she gave (from something she actually ran into) was that they were teaching irrational numbers in a textbook and rather than do a good explaination of them and why they're useful and how they're used, the numbers were explained and then there was a mini-sermon on why it's not irrational to believe in God.

Oh yeah... the math test for THAT math book was mainly about christian philosophy and not actual math problem.

We were all aghast.

Thanks for clarifying things, this is still not a very health state of affairs. I know alot about the theories for and against evolution as a key part of live and evolvement of species through the years. This is quite a worry to me becuase if they are putting stickers of this sort in text books and it has been accepted by the wider teaching community, then it leaves the door open for stickers like the others to be used under the same arguments.

I always believed the earth to be triangle shaped, haha I least im not the only idiot on the planet..

joke above.

interesting, so if these disclaimers on books are real, wtf are we teaching kids in school???

Ok, so, when does one get to start requiring bibles to have disclaimers?

"This is the bible, and it concerns primarily jesus. The existence of jesus is a theory, not a fact, and people should approach this book with an open mind. For further information, consult to koran, torah, vedic epics, sumerian tablets, and the odyssey"

And when will Churches be required to give 'equal time' to other religions?

And please notice
'Wording for the first disclaimer is taken verbatim from the sticker designed by the Cobb County School District in Georgia "

People are pushing for stickers just like these in more textbooks.


[edit on 24-11-2004 by Nygdan]

Why are evolutionism and creationism mutually exclusive anyway? Not even the most ardent bible-thumper tries to claim that the bible contains a detailed, step-by-step description of exactly HOW god created the world. Maybe evolution is just creation is slow motion ("god time").

I don't believe that myself, but it's no more unlikely than any other religious belief.

"I thought about becoming Agnostic but couldn't make my mind up..."

Originally posted by Nygdan
Ok, so, when does one get to start requiring bibles to have disclaimers?

"This is the bible, and it concerns primarily jesus. The existence of jesus is a theory, not a fact, and people should approach this book with an open mind. For further information, consult to koran, torah, vedic epics, sumerian tablets, and the odyssey"

And when will Churches be required to give 'equal time' to other religions?

Well at least not for 4 more years cause 59 million americans don't seem to mind creating a fundamentalist christian state.

Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
Why are evolutionism and creationism mutually exclusive anyway?

Because they are exclusive. Creationism, and certainly modern creationism, is a reaction against evolution and science. These people are uncomfortable with being evolved frmo apes, and want to be part of aspecial plan.

I consider myself a devout chrstian, as such I believe that the bible is the word of God as understood and transcribed by men. However I am also a person who places a great deal of importance on logic, and critical thinking. The sticker being placed in the textbooks does not bother me. The truth is whlie there is a great deal of evdence to support it evolution is a theory and while unlikely could be overturned by another different theory. The fact that the sticker say to approach the theory of evolution with a critical mindset also does not bother me as all theories have been advanced, and either weakened or overturned by critical examination. If not for a criticl examination of the theories of physics of the time Einstein would not have devolped the theories of relativity and special relativity. If not for critical examinations of those theories the theory of quantum mechanics would not have been developed. What concerns me is the underlying assumption of those who who were able to make this happen and how much pressure they are putting on the teachers to either gloss over, or ignore the teaching of the theory of evolution. A sticker in the fnal analysis is just a sticker, and in truth telling children that evolution s a theory and must be critically examined in and of itself will do no harm. However should the political attitudes which led to this cause the teachers to give a substandard education ( more so than they already do) in an effort to avoid the ire of the political establishement then that will.

People we need to stop paying taxes to schools and start teaching our children at home so they can learn without a bias environment if religious zealous back up by the current administration, if they wants to influence children they can do it to their own no mine.

I tell you education in our country is going down the gutters, promoting religious mind is a way to keep the masses ignorant of real facts, now our administration and religious groups is dictating what our chidren should learn or not, that is and should always be a parents choice, if some wants they children to grow ignorant by all means do it, but not to my kids.

where I did my graduate work at George Mason University--these stickers POSE a structural conflict, currently labeled as a "dialectic."

Whichever textbook you buy, it's on ONE or THE OTHER side of the question, "What or Who started it all?" and each side uses subtle digs and arcane argumentation to make their points. All of this, of course, is right over the heads of students, and parents must be savvy enough to know how to defuse and diffuse a dialectic from home. That takes a great deal of time and effort on their part, to undo the [horrifying] subtle arguments and secondary agendas in textbooks--time that most parents don't have.

What these labels say to me is this: If you don't want schools mind-messing with your children on one side of a discussion or another, better home-school your kids and teach them how to reason BEFORE they start watching television. Otherwise, children expect life to conform to a series of random images [Sesame Street] which move much more quickly than life; ergo, life itself becomes slow and boring.

This is medieval thinking--non-reasonable--a mindset in which everybody is merely reckoning what to think and do from cues that certain newscasters and opinion polls provide; and one of Leadership's No-no's is to to bring up controversy with a minimum of real facts or way to access all the facts. Same strategy as these stickers.

Facts-lite, is what they teach us all. Facts-lite [no paper audit trail], the election system. Facts-lite, Congress [didn't read the Patriot Act before signing it]; facts-lite [suppressing important testimony as a matter of procedure] the Judiciary. Facts-lite, emergency medical care [If you have a chronic problem, forget it]. And on and on. Drones don't need facts. Only Leaders need facts so they can dish out Opinions and not receive back dissent or dissention.

Infuriating, that our Leadership wants us dumbed-down like this.

Originally posted by mwm1331
The fact that the sticker say to approach the theory of evolution with a critical mindset also does not bother me as all theories have been advanced, and either weakened or overturned by critical examination.

I have no problem with children being taught to critically examine everything, as this should be an intergral part of all studies.

Here in the UK, Religious Education is mandatory for all kids (well, parents can opt out if they wish). From what I can tell, though, not only do they critically examine Christian theories, they also study all other major religions. Mind you, they do "make them" pray & sing hymns (they can just sit quietly if they prefer), but I guess it's not doing any great harm. (I was raised Baptist & have just about managed to survive! )

Originally posted by I_AM_that_I_AM

Originally posted by bratok

radiant_obsidian, relax, I believe this stickers were a joke.

If you see a sticker on a car saying "blind man driving" or "mother-in-law in the trunk" would you also take it seriosly?

Sadly the one on the upper most left is real and has been put into textbooks.
The others are just trying to show how foolish the first one is.

[edit on 24-11-2004 by I_AM_that_I_AM]

Seems I am doing something wrong so please bear with me. This is my first post on TopSecret.

Here is what I wanted to insert

Evolution disclaimers challenged in court
Warning sticker on biology textbooks in Georgia says it's 'a theory, not a fact'

The Associated Press Nov 9, 2004


ATLANTA - A trial opened yesterday over whether a warning sticker in suburban Atlanta biology textbooks that says evolution is "a theory, not a fact" violates the separation of church and state by promoting religion.

The case is one of several battles that have been waged in recent years in the Bible Belt over what role evolution should play in science books.

Cobb County schools put the disclaimers in biology texts two years ago after more than 2,000 parents complained the books presented evolution as fact without mentioning rival ideas about the origin of life, namely creationism.



Looks like this is yet another issue that is more related to issues of church and state then the actual sticker itself.


www.timesdispatch.com.../MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779032355



[edit on 11/24/2004 by shots]



[edit on 11/24/2004 by shots]

[edit on 11/24/2004 by shots]

Here is a link to one story that covers and explains the recent chain of events on the issue.

www.firstamendmentcenter.org...

This should be on belowtopsecret's "jokes puns and pranks" section.



thats pretty sad.

no really.

(Pulls out a kleenex)

I don't think messing with kids' minds is particularly funny.

Kids are vulnerable to this kind of bs.

They're not prepared for the sarcasm coming from either side.

Give 'em a break, willya?

Let's just teach our kids what we KNOW is true; and let them take it from there.

Originally posted by bratok
"mother-in-law in the trunk" would you also take it seriosly?

If you see it on mine you'd better.

Notice all the incorrect spelling o the last one about GW?