Pro-Science Moderates Regain Control of Kansas School Board

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the recent primary elections in Kansas, focusing on the outcomes related to the school board's stance on science education. Participants express their views on the implications of these results for the future of science teaching in schools, as well as tangential topics related to agricultural practices in Kansas.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants celebrate the pro-science majority on the Kansas Board of Education, suggesting it reflects a positive shift in educational governance.
  • Others express skepticism about the effectiveness of this majority, describing the situation as a "travesty" and questioning the competence of certain board members.
  • There are mixed feelings about the political victories, with some acknowledging that while the numbers look better, the underlying issues remain troubling.
  • Several participants discuss agricultural practices in Kansas, specifically the circular irrigation systems, with some providing explanations and links to further information.
  • Humorous references to the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" and other memes are made, indicating a light-hearted approach to the serious topic of science education.
  • Some participants express concern about the potential for misinformation and the impact of non-scientific ideas on educational content.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express a mix of agreement and disagreement regarding the implications of the election results, with no clear consensus on the effectiveness of the pro-science majority or the overall state of science education in Kansas.

Contextual Notes

Some statements reflect personal opinions and experiences rather than established facts, and there are unresolved questions about the implications of the election outcomes and the nature of the board's decisions.

silkworm
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The anti-science school board took some pretty nasty hits from last night's primaries. Pro-science incumbent Janet Waugh kept her seat, while Connie Morris and Iris Van Meter's replacement (son-in-law Brad Patzer) were both eliminated. 2 anti-science board members did make it to the November election, but I'm not sure they'll make it through the real election.

Long story short, Pro-Science has a 6-4 majority on the Kansas Board of Education, and could possibly have an 8-2 majority after November. This round of madness is over!
 
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Yay!

it looked like a hard fight there.

how's the chemistry major going?
 
silkworm said:
Long story short, Pro-Science has a 6-4 majority on the Kansas Board of Education, and could possibly have an 8-2 majority after November. This round of madness is over!

Four out of ten are total incompetent idiots! And in a powerful position of science education! That's not a success story, that's a travesty, and it's simply awful that our expectations have gotten low enough to think it was anything else.
 
Rach3 said:
...That's not a success story, that's a travesty, ...

maybe that's what political victory looks like

I'll buy it. 6-to-4 sure looks better than 4-to-6

but I think I understand where you are coming from
 
marcus said:
Yay!

it looked like a hard fight there.

how's the chemistry major going?

Ha. I wish this could mean I could focus on real science, but I have to bury this movement before it starts to smell and we find ourselves in this situation again.
 
I have seen these in other places. The ones I saw were alfalfa fields. They were circular because the irrigation set up had a pivot in the center and was a pipe that rotated around the field.
 
  • #11
Oops! I fixed it, the elevator link got its own thread.
 
  • #12
gosh i'll kind of miss those zealots on the kansas school board. i sent some of them some emails on the topic a while back and got some entertainment out of it.

perhaps you have seen the flying spaghetti monster link that argued the school board was discriminating against adherents of the FSM by not teaching their version of the creation too?

http://www.venganza.org/

they offer nice t shirts, but they will be passe now.
 
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  • #13
i particularly liked the graph showing the inverse relationship between global warming and number of active pirates in the world.
 
  • #14
on second thought i was reminded by rereading the website that some decent people are offended even by obviously harmless humor. so maybe it is a poor idea to publicize it too much.

i dislike offending people for their ideas, well except maybe when they are trying to force their uninformed ideas into what is taught in science class and make it primitive religion class.
 
  • #17
Pengwuino said:
I can't believe you searched for a place called "liberal, KS".

In the NYT article it mentioned "a teacher from Liberal". It looked like a typo, then I thought to myself, is there actually a city called "Liberal, Kansas"? So I searched for it in google maps. Turns out there is in fact a Liberal, Kansas, and it's presumably quite conservative at that. Then I noticed the crop circles surrounding it.
 
  • #18
Be nice --- they'll cut off your helium.
 
  • #19
Bystander said:
Be nice --- they'll cut off your helium.

And your beef, wheat, corn, and airplanes.