Hard at Work: Will It Pay Off?

We spent the afternoon working on strategies to remove the bad amendments this afternoon with Genie Scott and Josh Rosenau (from NCSE) and the good folks over at Texas Freedom Network. We are hoping to make an impact on the full board tomorrow.

We picked out the most egregious amendments and focuses on how to get them out of the TEKS. As one TFN spokesperson said, "They closed the door on strengths and weaknesses but threw open the windows."

Occasionally, I have been in situations where a team of people works very rapidly to achieve an incredible amount of work in a short time. When you have a clear aim and you all work together, amazing things can happen. Experiences like this truly test your notions of what is possible, and why organization is so critically important.

The pro-science coalition of the Texas State Board of Education has been woefully disorganized. Trying to communicate to these people what is at stake is difficult. It is truly a study in contrasts when I compare the last several months of SBOE meetings to one afternoon in the TFN office. I would dare say we accomplished writing better amendments in a mere fraction of the time. But will they have any traction?

On a related tangent, I have encountered the same sort of resistance within the geoscience community as well. I think there is some genuine arrogance on the part of scientists who are unfamiliar with the fight over science education and how the public perceives what is going on. In my own field, I have seen geoscientists react very slowly (if at all) because they don't understand that we might actually lose these battles. There is a belief that simply because we have science on our side, it will all come up roses for us in the end. The anti-science crowd is terribly motivated, well-organized, well-funded, and very savvy when it comes to PR and use of the media.

Well, now we see exactly what can happen if we are not vigilant and we do not take threats to science seriously. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I hope this scares the geoscientists in Texas into getting off their rear ends and doing something about it.