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posted by n1 on Friday July 04 2014, @02:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the certified-misinformation dept.

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.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday July 04 2014, @04:57AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday July 04 2014, @04:57AM (#63982) Journal

    And you let your children believe whatever they want. And present for them the full spectrum of views?

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  • (Score: 2) by caseih on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:39AM

    by caseih (2744) on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:39AM (#64400)

    Regardless of religion or lack of religion in which one was raised, a person who hasn't had his own experiences with faith will surely leave it. I have no problem with people walking away from things which are untrue. So if a person stands up and says the Bible was written all by one person while all the analysis in the world by Bible scholars and others indicate it's most certainly not the case (as was mentioned by another poster), and if one's affiliation with a group has to stand on this untrue assertion, then yeah, people will walk.

    As for believing whatever they want, I can certainly explain to someone what I believe and why, and provide advice and instructions on how they might figure it out for themselves. And even provide a framework of living that could foster such a thing. But I cannot force another to believe something I hold special. There's a saying I've heard: teach true and correct principles (the hows and the whys) and others will govern themselves. That first part is the hard bit.

    As for letting your children believe whatever they want, yes I must ultimately do that. Children do want to learn and believe things as they grow, and if I feel my beliefs are good and honest, then I should share them with my children, particularly the why. If I don't, others surely will, whether their intentions are to honestly help a child or deliberately hurt them. So no I don't plan to leave my children without any guidance, but I cannot force them either. I can only share my experiences, and answer their questions as honestly as I can. And live honestly and show that my beliefs and lifestyle contribute positively to my and my family's lives.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 05 2014, @07:53AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Saturday July 05 2014, @07:53AM (#64465) Journal

      I think one as a parent has to explicitly show there's several point of views and the reasoning behind them. So perhaps even more important is to learn to reason, critical and complex thinking. Otherwise most children will just adopt their parents belief without thinking in many cases. Which may set them up for some hard lessons later in life.