Galileo and Science

Galileo was born in the later 16th century. His advances changed the world and the science world most certainly. The prevailing belief, of overwhelming numbers of scientists and other noted experts, was that the Sun and for that matter all life, revolved around us on this small planet, Earth (geocentric). He argued something much more radical for the time - that we revolved around the sun. For which, the science of the time, the overwhelming majority, dismissed and riducled him, evnetually landing him under house arrest for the remaning years of his life.

Comes Mercury News, 2/15/08. Bill Would Require California's science curriculum to cover climate change.

A Silicon Valley lawmaker wants to require all texts used in California and all classrooms to teach global warming. Not to teach it as is most likely done in most classrooms from lecture and discussion, but to put into a text and then indoctrinate the students with the prevailing belief.

Now - set aside the silliness of texts that will be out dated in ten years, but ... consider the more complicated issue of SLOs. Student Learning Objectives. These are requirements by the federal government applied via the funding to the state, to hold teachers to standards, and measure that standard. Administration and or objective outsiders would (in the most optimistic approach) be in charge of determining whether teachers have achieved that standard or not and they would be graded accordingly. This is most certainly in effect for K-12, but it has crossed over to the college level and will infect the universities (much later). If faculty are held to prevailing standards to teach certain material - who is to say the content of the new texts will not be part of that requirement, including global warming. And if that becomes part of it, has administration intervened in the classroom. Some say NO - because the various departments make up their objectives. Yes, but in light of texts dealing with global warming, it would be difficult to avoid including it in the curriculum and then grading the teacher on whether they had or not.