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The young journalists at The Southerner, the student newspaper at Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia, recently broke the news that creationism and other Christian religious views are incorporated into the Biology curriculum used by the City of Atlanta Public Schools.
A PowerPoint shown to a freshman biology class featured a cartoon depicting dueling castles, one labeled "Creation (Christ)" and the other labeled "Evolution (Satan)." Balloons attached to the evolution castle were labeled euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, racism and abortion
The PowerPoint, which has more than 50 slides largely consisting of material about evolution, was downloaded from SharePoint, an APS file-sharing database for teachers. It was uploaded by Mary E. King, a project manager at APS who has also uploaded more than 2,000 other documents. Phone calls and emails to King have not been returned. Tommy Molden, science coordinator for APS, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Students were offended by the cartoon:
"[I] have gay parents, and [the cartoon] said that evolution caused homosexuality and it implied that to be negative, so I was pretty offended by it," [freshman Seraphina Cooley] said.
Cooley said that another student emailed the administration complaining about the PowerPoint.
Freshman Griffin Ricker, who is also in Jones' class, said [Biology class teacher Anquinette Jones] got angry with the class when she found out students had notified the administration.
"She had a 10-minute rant," Ricker said. "She yelled and said, 'This is on the APS website, and it was certified.'"
In case of soylentnewsing, the student reporting is also posted on a local Atlanta newspaper blog.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Friday July 04 2014, @02:28AM
I'm tired of replaying this shit every month or tthree. If those who need to believe that Man is better than all other creatures due to some divine right then let them do what they want. Let them corrupt the minds of their children to believe that this 6,000 year old ball at the center of all that is fucking holy is soooo special. When their kids grow up they'll either be stupid and uneducated or they'll find like-minded employers who will hire them because they think Darwin put the evil in evolution.
These people even have a flag of "Humanism" on the "Evolution (Satan)" castle. If critical thinking and evidence are the enemy of Christianity, well, I think that pretty much defines the group that makes that claim.
Let them ruin their children's lives and futures. Let them teach whatever the hell they want as long as other parents can put their kids in other schools if they don't want this bible biology taught to their spawn. We cannot eliminate stupidity, ignorance, intolerance and denial no matter how hard we try. Not in real life and not on the internet. As much as I hate to say it, they have every right to their beliefs even if it holds back their children and segments of society. Humanity has never moved forward as a whole so why should it start now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Friday July 04 2014, @02:52AM
except this is in a public school, not a private. the only way the parents could "choose" to put their kids into a different school is if they're rich enough either to put them in private school or to be able to uproot their entire lives in order to move somewhere else.
this kind of nonsense is exactly why we need something stronger than just "suggestions" (guidelines) about what can and cant be taught in schools.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 04 2014, @04:57AM
this kind of nonsense is why America needs to balkanize* and let the resulting entities keep the parts they doesn't like about everybody else at arms length. We can either wait another 1000 years for them to "get it," or we can split off with them and be cooperative yet proud of our differences in peace. The Westward states will get a lot of tourism dollars from Southerners staying in our brothels just like Bahrain gets tourism dollars from the Saudi Patriarchs because that is where Saudi royalty goes for their closeted gay buttsex.
* That would be the sensible thing to do, but it won't happen without a lot of blood and destruction because Muh E Pluribus Unum.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Friday July 04 2014, @04:19PM
i do like that even better. it fits closer to what our country was supposed to be anyway, a union of different states (countries) loosely united under a single flag, but each basically their own separate entity.
unfortunately, even under that ideal, we still couldnt allow obviously inhumane or unconstitutional things happen within the union, so stuff like the state endorsing a single religion or persecution of people just because they're different still wouldnt be tolerated. any states wishing to pull that shit would have to sucede, and then they'd probably just be taken over by force. :\
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday July 07 2014, @06:05PM
we still couldnt allow obviously inhumane or unconstitutional things happen within the union
But we already do all kinds of inhumane and unconstitutional things, and the federalists love it. The Drug War is a prime example of this; how many people have had their lives ruined by it? Illegal (anti-4A) searches, supporting the prison-industrial complex, making countless people unemployable with criminal records for nonviolent crimes, etc. It took a couple of renegade western states (CO, WA) to legalize MJ and show the positive effects. If we had listened to the federalists (who liberals tend to side with), that would never have happened.
I fail to see how endorsing a single religion is worse than the damage caused by the War on Drugs.
and then they'd probably just be taken over by force. :\
So we can continue to oppress them with Drug War policies?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Friday July 04 2014, @03:24AM
I disagree with you. by letting parents enhance the stupidity of their kids - their kids could, in the future, MAKE LAWS that we all have to live under.
we're seeing it right now. most of the lawmakers are religious nutbags and morans. and we have shitty laws and a near theocracy because of those fuckwads.
you want the world to make MORE fuckwads? I DON'T!
its not just them that they ruin; its us.
so, for our sake, we need to force parents to NOT brainwash their kids with skydaddy fables. we all suffer from the group stupidity.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Friday July 04 2014, @04:54AM
One can just have a look at the Middle East what happens. One the same turbulence and barbarism at home? let people brainwash their kids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @02:02PM
Absolutely not!.
They may be their offspring, but they are NOT their property to manipulate and brainwash any way they want. Kids are part of society and have their own rights, among them to get an education.
IMHO all this happens because people are too keen to merge cultural education with religious education. The place for the former is the school, the place for the latter is the church.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06 2014, @05:26PM
Teaching children this crap is child abuse and should be treated as such. We don't let parents physically abuse children, why should we let parents stunt their children's intellectual development by brainwashing their children into believing this crap?