Teacher suspended for article on gay animals
High school teacher assigns scientific article on homosexuality in the animal kingdom and is suspended. People ... science might be inconvenient but it is true.
Wed, Nov 04 2009 at 9:20 PM EST
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Image: Toby Turner Science illiteracy, it seems, has worked its way up to the administrative level at one public high school in Illinois.
Dan Delong, a teacher at Southwestern High School, offered an optional reading assignment last week for his students — an article written by well-known science blogger Jonah Lehrer entitled the "The Gay Animal Kingdom" published in Seed Magazine.
The article discusses the challenges facing Darwin's theory of sexual selection, as more and more research is documenting the prevalence of homosexuality in over 450 vertebrate species. In some cases, like male big horn sheep, homosexuality is the norm.
The teacher was suspended without pay.
This is one more example of the growing epidemic of scientific illiteracy in U.S. public schools. The topics of evolution and climate change have also faced similar challenges. In some cases, especially in the rural South, teachers are literally afraid of teaching "science as truth" for fear of parental retribution.
Religion belongs in church, not in school, but somehow it has crept its way in, taking advantage of the giant fissures left in the cracking edifice of an underfunded public education system.
The only way to fix it is public outcry and fortunately for Dan Delong, that is exactly what happened. The school administrators were bombarded by e-mails from the scientific community and parents concerned that the school's otherwise great academic standing would be threatened by such medieval administrative policies.
Dan just got his job back. In this case, science won out. But be forewarned ... science illiteracy is on the rise in the U.S.
So in the event you are faced with someone who doesn't "believe" in science, just remind them that the big difference between science and religion is that one requires peer-reviewed empirical evidence. The other does not.
If they don't know what the word "empirical" means just point them to this YouTube video:
Also on MNN: We're Deer. We're Queer. Get Used to it.
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Comments
Professor Science
05/14/2010 01:34 AM
Why are all the religious folk so focused on homosexuality? What about working on the sabbath. It's a friggin' COMMANDMENT for Pete's sake. Or, why not take a stand against pork? Or better yet, remarriage after divorce? All of these things are explicitly condemned by the bible, and yet they choose to focus on homosexuality? Maybe the religious folk are simply using tiny slivers of their good book to justify their cultural bigotry.
pacific_waters
12/29/2009 16:44 PM
I couldn't care less if someone wants to have sex with another of their gender but let's be careful how we construe "facts". Animals engage in misplaced mating behaviour but that hardly can be construed as the sex act. Somehow I doubt you'll find many animals engaged in anal sex or oral sex.
Carl Caster
12/30/2009 15:19 PM
Sorry, pacific-waters, fruit bats do oral sex for the fun of it, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33587754/ns/technology_and_science-science/
T4C
12/29/2009 13:43 PM
Just to simplify the logic applied here:
-Some squirrels are homosexual.
-Squirrels are wild animals.
-Wild animals live in nature/natural conditions.
-It's natural for humans to be homosexual.
That's an awfully specious argument to make on the grounds of "science". Lions, baboons and kangaroos are among those animals that eat their young...does that mean it's perfectly fine for humans to do the same? Should we run our families the way wild hyenas run their.... More
Zacqary Adam Green
12/29/2009 17:26 PM
Yeah, it's true. We just happen to talk and not be fuzzy.
I know it's hard to accept. It was for me too. Just give it time.
Lee451
12/28/2009 21:51 PM
The Homo anti-Christian agenda is once again trying to make excuses for it's aberant behaviour. Some animals practice homosexuality; that does not make it right or natural. Most animals practice incest; there are groups begging for the "right" to sodomize their children. Will this be the next practice the more deviant members of society want to legitimize?
The author of the article failed to produce any proof that male big horn sheep are predominately homosexual. Could this "fact" be.... More
NWOwatch
12/28/2009 14:12 PM
Anyone who cannot see the Gay agenda promoted at every level by eugeniscist sterility feminist nazis loving Mainstream media are in cloud cuckoo land. Biological and social engineering is everywhere and affects the whole biosphere, including animals. Darwinian evolution is also easily disproven bunk and science will be proven the domain of the quacks. Religion has crept into schools... yes, but under the guise of scientific 'experts' who are in reality the new high priests, idiot teachers, an.... More
Happy
02/09/2010 12:41 PM
Who exactly is the liar here? Who are the deluded ones? The Stanford professor whose peer-reviewed fact-based research is the underlying subject of this article or the so-called "faithful" who expect the world to accept the Bible's collection of bronze-age fables as facts?
The enlightenment we are all gaining here is the societal realization that it is in fact Christianity that is morally deviant and unnatural. Homosexuality is not only natural, its promotion may be our best hope.... More
*******
12/28/2009 13:00 PM
Out in Nature: Homosexual Behaviour in the Animal Kingdom (2001)
Beginning with a critique of science, citations from the bible, and Darwinian Theory, this film debunks previously held ideas about homosexuals by examining homosexuality in the animal kingdom. From fruit flies to dolphins, amazing footage from around the globe captures homosexuality in its natural state.
CWO
11/18/2009 13:35 PM
It is terrible and completely unjustified what happened to the teacher but I must object to the classification of the article assigned. A blogger is not necessarily a peer-reviewed scientist, a blog is definitely not a peer reviewed article, and a scientific magazine is completely different from a peer-review journal. Please do not give credit where it is not due.
*******
12/28/2009 13:04 PM
really , what makes a "peer" review , you mean like those religio assholes paid by the system to keep their male homosexual little all boys world going !!!???
thats kind , or have you not yet fathomed out that the "peer" review are corrupted by the scientis to maintain the illiterate status quo and their mumbo jumbo little fairy tale man and women religionincs !!!
pathetic
Atheist
11/10/2009 19:57 PM
Nothing new here, just the hammer that religion is allowed to carry around.
To hell with equality, human rights, secular government, etc
This old book says I can act like a damn fool and no one can say anything about it! But don't you dare take any of this fabulous stuff science has give us away from me because I'm also selfish!
Now watch me hit this drive...
