We Don't Need No Stinkin' Science

Yesterday, Jake recognized two Kentucky teachers being recognized by the White House for their achievements in teaching science and math and mentoring students in those subjects.

I join Jake in congratulating Keri Dowdy of Mayfield and Kristen Jarboe of Frankfort. Good teachers are worth their weight in gold (and bad ones should be flayed alive).

But I wonder how science teacher Dowdy manages to teach actual science in the face of state core curriculum requirements like these:

2.5 Students understand that under certain conditions nature tends to remain the same or move toward a balance.

2.6 Students understand how living and nonliving things change over time and the factors that influence the changes.

Translation: No such thing as Evil-ution!

I have heard from more than one Kentucky science teacher - in the supposedly enlightened Golden Triangle, mind you - that any mention of evolution is cause for dismissal. Not officially, of course. But anyone who has ever worked knows, your boss can always find plausible cause to fire you, regardless of how baseless or illegal the real reason is.

You wonder why Kentucky can't recruit modern industries? Because modern industries need employees educated beyond Sunday School. Because high-tech managers don't want to send their kids to schools that teach Bronze Age myths instead of facts and science. Because 21st-century entrepreneurs don't want to live in a state that thinks an invisible sky wizard runs the Department of Homeland Security.

The abomination that passes for education in this state is a fucking crime. Read it for yourself here.