http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2007/11/dont_mess_with_texas_education.html
"Don’t mess with Texas education - November 30, 2007 Attitudes to education differ round the world, but things are looking pretty odd in Texas right now. The director of the state’s science curriculum is claiming she was forced out for forwarding an email. Its content was not a risqué joke or a sleazy photo: it was a note about a forthcoming lecture by a philosopher who has been heavily involved in debates over creationism. The Statesman reports that the Texas Education Agency had recommended firing Chris Comer for repeated misconduct and insubordination (the details of which are unclear) before she resigned. But Comer and others are saying she was forced out for seeming to endorse criticism of intelligent design. An agency memo, according to the Statesman, said: “Ms Comer’s e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.” In other news, a new international ranking of the science ability of 15 year olds has been conducted by the OECD. The US is below average, a little under Latvia. Finland tops the chart. Those with spare time might find it interesting to compare this chart of the new OECD ranking, with this chart of belief in evolution." [About the OECD study] http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/40/0,3343,en_32252351_32235731_39701864_1_1_1_1,00.html [The OECD data chart] http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/8/39700724.pdf [Evolution acceptance chart] http://tinyurl.com/rh4mt The USA is at the bottom of the evolution chart between Latvia and Turkey - two countries that also rank statistically significantly below the OECD average for science education. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ "Two years from now, spam will be solved." - Bill Gates, 2004 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
