Straight from the You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me Files comes this story: Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” cannot be shown in Federal Way, Washington schools unless accompanied by an opposing view. That’s the ruling of the school board.
Why? Because of an email from this rocket scientist:
“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher,” said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. “The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD.”
The school board immediately knuckled under and slapped a moratorium on the movie. Rather than bothering to dissect the madness, I’ll simply point you to the remarkably straight-laced reporting in the P-I. The findings in the documentary are supported by, you know, the entire scientific community, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and:
The basics of that position are backed by the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences.
At the risk of sounding didactic, the thing about science is this: it’s not a matter of opinion or personal belief (or free speech or freedom of religion, for that matter). Science is based on empirical evidence and on theories that are carefully constructed from that evidence. And the theories are vetted extensively by other scientists.
The scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change is so overwhelming that there is not a credible alternative position. So it doesn’t matter—at all—whether you really, really, really don’t believe it. And it doesn’t matter why you don’t believe it. You’re still wrong.
Over at Gristmill, Dave Roberts goes ape in a rather hilarious fashion.
Oh, by the way, if you feel like sending an email the Federal Way school board, here’s their contact info.
K
FW is now the laughing stock of Washington if not the country, thanks to the Hardisons and their three fellow Mormons on the school board.
Dan
UnderNews has a column entitled ‘Stupid School Administrator Tricks’.It’s simply bad leadership when you cave to one or a few loud voices – the principal is afraid for whatever reason to say no, and everyone suffers.
Arie v.
It was in a Federal Way school (go Raiders) that I was intorduced to John Milton. One of his arguments was that even censorship of lies are wrong as they help bring truth into relief. As for the school board’s case here, ‘nough said. 🙂 “It was from out the rind of one apple tasted that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, that is to say of knowing good by evil.”–THE AREOPAGITICAJohn Milton
kcharm
Sightline usually does a great job doing their homework…not this time. The movie was not banned, a moratorium was placed on its showing because a teacher broke the rules and did not allow opposing views. Other teachers who had shown the movie in their classrooms in the past assigned their students assignments such as reasearching opposing views on their own and writing a report on that view.The school board stated that they had no problems with the film, just in how it adheres to current policies with the district and how 1 teacher did not follow those policies.
Eric de Place
kcharm,Read more closely. I never said the movie was “banned.” What I said was: “”An Inconvenient Truth” cannot be shown in Federal Way, Washington schools unless accompanied by an opposing view.” And later, I elaborated that the school board had placed a moratorium on the movie.Having to present an opposing view is ridiculous—because there is no credible opposing view—and counter to basic principles of educational integrity. The essential tenets of the movie—that climate change is real and humans are a principal cause—is the only scientifically accepted view of climate change. Federal Way might as well require teachers to present “opposing views” of other scientifically accepted theories such as relativity, the germ theory of disease, quantum mechanics, plate tectonics, and so on. The FW school board’s policy evinces a frightening lack of scientific literacy. It is also a disturbing reminder of how politics can undermine education.
kcharm
I stand corrected; I was more focused on your criticizing others to see that you did in fact state that there was a moratorium and not a full blown ban. I think you should reexamine describing the school board as “knuckling under” and describing Frosty Hardison as a “rocket scientist.” The guy may not have much of a scientific background, he may (well, he does) take bible stories as literal truth, but sarcastic name calling is hardly constructive. As a scientist I think that where the scientific community is going with global warming is good. I also think that the current theory is young and will likely change. It took several decades and mountains of research for plate tectonics to be accepted, similar for relativity and the others you mentioned. We don’t have the same mountain of research or the same amount of time yet to lump global warming in with those other theories. Where would you have stood on the global cooling theory prevalent in the 60’s and 70’s? I think that forcing teachers to present younger theories, like global warming, with similar and opposing views, as long as they’re scientifically based, should be policy…the FW school district agrees. Because somebody who carries an opposing view, that is not scientifically based, wrote a letter pointing out that a teacher broke this policy, a flaw in the system of the district was discovered and the school board is taking the time to fix that flaw and several people throughout the country are tearing them apart for that.
Eric de Place
kcharm, as you probably know well, the “global cooling” theory was short-lived. It never had anywhere near the level of evidence, data, or broad scientific support that anthropogenic climate change does. Not even close. To make a comparison is flat out disingenuous.The crux of the matter of this. There is NO scientifically credible opposing view of climate change to what is presented in Gore’s movie. You write, “…forcing teachers to present younger theories, like global warming, with similar and opposing views, as long as they’re scientifically based, should be policy.” But that’s exactly the problem. There is no opposing view that’s scientifically based. The school board’s ruling forces a choice between two bad options. Teachers can either 1) not show the movie; or 2) show it and then provide an opposing view that is not grounded in science. The former is tantamount to omitting a key piece of science from students’ education on an issue that is arguably the most important of their lifetime. The later is nothing short of an erosion of the basic principles of science and education.