Stupid Florida!
Florida is my good ol’ home state, but I’m from the south. Not as in “The South” because that’s the Northern half. Confused yet? Miami is like another country than, say for example, Jacksonville. Orlando is the point where things begin to turn, right after Disney World.
Apparently, a bill has been quietly filed by State Sen. Steve Wise [R-Jacksonville] can potentially change the way school teachers in Florida introduce Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
You may remember this hot-button issue from 2008, when Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, pushed similar legislation after the state Board of Education explicitly mandated the teaching of the scientific theories of biological and chemical evolution.
This language in this year’s bill from Wise is pretty similar to the version pushed last year by Hays – not banning the teaching of evolution, but allowing teachers to question it in science class. Storms had focused her version more on job protections for teachers who criticized the theory.
Here’s what Wise’s bill would require: “A thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution.”
Way to go home state. Give me less and less reasons to move back. Ever. As of right now, I have no plans for kids, so I guess it doesn’t affect me personally. Yet the very notion that I don’t want kids leads me to feel concerned about all future generations.
I feel sorry for all teachers out there truly invested in educating kids and young adults. It sort of makes me happy I never became a science teacher (and it was a passing thought once). A friend of mine from Florida is a teacher. She doesn’t teach any of the sciences, but she loves evolution as much as I do.
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