PZ Myers. 2005 Sep 26. A Brief History of the Minnesota Academic Standards. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/a_brief_history_of_the_minnesota_academic_standards/>. Accessed 2008 Nov 20.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Monday, September 26, 2005

A Brief History of the Minnesota Academic Standards

Florida Citizens for Science has an excellent History of the Minnesota Academic Standards in Science, written by Minnesota's own Melanie Reap and Jamie Crannell. It's short and clear and puts all the details in order. You'll see why we found Cheri Yecke infuriating; she was a sneak who worked to bias the standards at several steps along the way, like this:

The Commissioner of Education chose members from the larger committee to form the final writing committee. Of the twelve members selected, four were intelligent design proponents. The criteria for selection were never made public.

Be warned, Floridians. Yecke isn't going to be blatant and openly declare her fondness for medieval anti-science. She's going to be devious and pack her assistants and committees with creationists to do her dirty work for her, and I suspect that her experience here in Minnesota will have taught her to be even more snake-like.

Posted by PZ Myers on 09/26 at 06:33 AM
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  1. I'm a lurker that has enjoyed your posts for quite a while. Today, however, you refered to an ID proponent's behavior as snake-like, and to that I feel I must respond. Please don't add to the negative press on snakes as they have it rough enough already. I would suggest instead that IDiots are more like fungal infections, lingering, spore-like, undetected or unnoticed for a time, only to quietly spread their hyphae through society's flesh, causing an infuriating, durable irritation that is difficult to relieve. As with fungal infections, IDiot infections are preventable through careful (cultural) hygiene - that is, education.

    In keeping with that analogy, I hope the federal court in Harrisburg manages to act as a potent anti-fungal agent.
    #: Posted by  on  09/26  at  07:21 AM
  2. But fungi are cool. Those viruses however...
    #: Posted by  on  09/26  at  07:35 AM
  3. Rather than denigrate some organism by comparison to fundy morons, how about "a plume of toxic chemicals leaching through the groundwater?"

    That way, only diehard republicans will stand up for the insult to toxic chemicals.
    #: Posted by  on  09/26  at  07:58 AM
  4. PZ Myers: ...I suspect that her experience here in Minnesota will have taught her to be even more snake-like.

    Starting from that syllabus, she's still a rank beginner. After a few lessons from Jeb!*, however, she'll be ready for world-class guile and sabotage.

    Jeb! has already fractured Fla public K-12 education through a harsh system of mandatory testing and "incentives" which cut at already-underfunded schools, while eliminating aid for the neediest and raiding budgets by voucher schemes for his fundamentalist political allies. He'll face a real dilemma if Yecke succeeds in turning public schools into political indoctrination centers, as he already owes political favors to those who want to replace them with their own zombie factories. His dilemma is reduced by the fact of term limits, meaning that in early '07 he will be unleashed upon the rest of the country... tongue laugh

    How apropos that my posting password is "reptilia"...

    * Anyone who's endured the last two Florida gubernatorial campaigns knows that our beloved First Brother (the other two aren't supposed to be mentioned in public) spells his alias with an exclamation point.
    #: Posted by  on  09/26  at  09:07 AM
  5. Interesting... Jamie Crannell actually teaches at my school. That's cool.
    #: Posted by  on  09/26  at  09:36 AM