When I was in college it was a given that the function of a teacher, particularly a science teacher, was to teach the facts. For instance, the earth is an orb, flattened at the poles a bit, but basically round. It was pretty much understood that if a student insisted on maintaining that the earth was flat, or that the sun orbited the earth despite what Galileo may have said or Copernicus may have proven, he or she would get a failing grade. But, at least in Ohio, that is no longer the case. Apparently a student may reach whatever conclusion he or she might like, without fear that that conclusion may be judged to be contrary to established science.
Ohio college and university instructors could be barred from teaching climate science without also including false or misleading counterpoints under a sprawling higher education bill that received its first hearing Wednesday.
Senate Bill 83, or the Higher Education Enhancement Act, seeks to police classroom speech on a wide range of topics, including climate change, abortion, immigration, and diversity, equity and inclusion — all of which would be labeled “controversial.”
On these and other subjects, public colleges and universities would need to guarantee that faculty and staff will “encourage and allow students to reach their own conclusions” and “not seek to inculcate any social, political, or religious point of view.”
Full story here.
Now, you can almost see the argument on some of those subjects, but at this point there is no scientific basis for denying the reality of climate change. Why would you encourage a student to feel free to draw a conclusion that flies in the face of established science? Isn’t the point of science education to teach people about objective reality?
This, by the way, is coming to us from the same people who are mandating that we not consider points of view that may “hurt the feelings” of a single student, like, for instance, exposing them to the possible conclusion that this country is infected with systemic racism.
End of rant.
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