While mentioned in Good Morning, News, this story is just too amazingly weird not to delve into a bit more deeply. SO: According to the Guardian, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has decided to accuse Portland of censoring books. Why? As you may have heard, the Portland public schools board decided last month to stop supplying student text books that “express doubt about the severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities.” The board said, “there is overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that the climate crisis is created by human beings” and “it is time for school districts to redefine what it means to educate students for a future of certain climate change.”
Sounds good, right? Well, it’s not so great according to NCAC! From the Guardian:
The move has now raised “serious concerns” at free-speech organisation NCAC, which released a statement condemning the decision “for all its good intentions”.
“Social studies texts accurately describing the political debate around fossil fuels and climate change, for instance, would presumably contain comments from individuals who ‘express doubt about the severity of the climate crisis’. If such material is excised from the curriculum, will students be prepared to face – and argue with – climate-change denial when they encounter it in the world outside school?” asked the NCAC.
“Purging the curriculum of this kind of material will undermine public education, which should equip students for critical and informed consideration of important matters of public policy and controversy,” the statement continues. “Even if some scientists questioning the human causes of climate change do so apparently at the behest of the fossil fuel industry, it is still a fact that environmental policy is a subject of ongoing debate. Students should be conversant with, and equipped to address, the various questions and issues that are the subject of public discussion.”
They go on to say that the decision on how to present information on this controversial topic “should be left to those who teach about it.”
READ THE WHOLE THING HERE, but if this doesn’t deserve a Blogtown poll, nothing does! (Am I censoring you by saying that?)
WSH, I am going to trust that you are being sweetly ironic about a poll involving climate change.
Not sure if the concerns raised are valid, but if so… then yes, I think that pretending that there isn’t a controversy about climate change (in “Social studies texts”, for example) is foolish. It’s a topic that involves huge political and economic forces and deserved recognition.
That doesn’t mean presenting human-caused climate change as factually questionable — still being studied and revised like pretty much every other area of scientific inquiry, sure, but not truly in doubt.
Presuming the school board’s decision wouldn’t affect texts related to Political Science or Modern History or whatnot, though, then yeah, it’s a bogus complaint.
I voted Yes to, “Do You Think That Schools Taking Away Books That Enable Climate Change Deniers is a Good or Bad Idea?” Even though it was not a yes or no question, and I want to vote No for the other question, “Should Portland Public Schools Enable Climate Change Deniers?”
So…Yes, I guess? Basically, science is pretty clear on this topic. We should be pushing science, not conspiracy theories or whatever space Truthers, Flat-Earthers, anti-vaxers, and creationists occupy.
This seems similar to Gov. Cuomo’s new law that boycotts groups that support the BDS movement.
Do we allow history textbooks from Wikipedia? Do we accept textbooks from religious sources re: creationism in our biology classes? It seems to me that kids get plenty of exposure outside of their classrooms. This is most certainly not censorship as defined by the constitution.
Are you f****** kidding me? Who the hell is issuing this material and who is accepting it into school curriculums? It is well known that oil companies have spent billions on climate change denial rhetoric. How is this even a question?