Kentucky science standards derided as fascist, socialist
It’s bad enough that Kentucky has the Ark Park, but also subsidizes it - now its residents are complaining about the Next Generation Science Standards. The headline of the Courier-Journal article is “Critics: Kentucky science academic standards are ‘fascist,’ ‘atheistic,’” but that does not do justice to the sheer lunacy of some of the comments quoted in the article.
Here are two excerpts:
One parent, Valerie O’Rear, said the standards promote an “atheistic worldview” and a political agenda that pushes government control.
Matt Singleton, a Baptist minister in Louisville who runs an Internet talk-radio program, called teachings on evolution a lie that has led to drug abuse, suicide and other social afflictions.
“Outsiders are telling public school families that we must follow the rich man’s elitist religion of evolution, that we no longer have what the Kentucky constitution says is the right to worship almighty God,” Singleton said. “Instead, this fascist method teaches that our children are the property of the state.” …
At one point, opponent Dena Stewart-Gore of Louisville also suggested that the standards will marginalize students with religious beliefs, leading to ridicule and physiological [sic - surely she said psychological] harm in the classroom, and create difficulties for students with learning disabilities.
“The way socialism works is it takes anybody that doesn’t fit the mold and discards them,” she said. [sic] adding that “we are even talking genocide and murder here, folks.”
Other people predictably said that the new science standards would not encourage critical thinking (!).
Several people supported the new standards, and Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, expressed indignation at “comments suggesting that evolution leads to immorality and ‘death camps.’” Phelps added,
“I’ve actually read this [document], unlike many of the people who have commented today,” he said. “Everything is actually based on evidence – arguments from evidence are actually given priority in the Next Generation Science Standards.”