Sued for teaching evolution- Florida secondary education bill

Hi Matt, University professors tend to last longer than governments. The democratic mandate of a government is frequently withdrawn, but professors go on. By their very nature, professors do not have a democratic credibility that is rooted in the electoral process. Nevertheless, professors (and graduate students, and undergraduate students, for that matter) have a responsbility to the public, but this doesn't equate to a responsibility to any particular government.The responsibility of academics to the public is that they should not waste public money, should not set out to harm the interests of the public, should carry out politically-independent research, and generally try as honestly as they can to seek out the truth. I think their responsbility is similar to that of medical professionals. Doctors have a responsibility to act honestly, and as much as is possible independently of their political beliefs, and for the benefit of the public. Furthermore they have taken the Hippocractic oath, which means that they are bound not to purposefully harm members of the public.In the same way that a doctor's Hippocratic oath overrides her responsibility to the government, I believe that a scientist's adherence to intellectual honesty and independence also overrides her responsbility to the government. But in both cases there persists a responsbility to the public that should go arm in arm with a commitment to intellectal honesty and a search for truth.I think it is perfectly reasonable that the interests of the public should direct scientific research. But part of this is that scientists should resist elitist minority pressure groups that try to control them.As for education being "one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom" - this is part of the pleasure of developing into a scientist in your own right, in that you are free to "persecute" and "ridicule" your old teachers, within the scientific literature, if their opinions deserve it. Unfortunately the views of our elected representatives are not so easily corrected, and consequenly far more dictatorial.mick[edited by mick to correct dbCode]
[edited by mick, again, to correct numerous grammar and spellling errors]This message has been edited by mick, 03-25-2005 07:45 PMThis message has been edited by mick, 03-25-2005 08:05 PM

It's very telling that these republicans are still going on about leftist totalitarianism. It's like they got stuck in the cold war (which was a war for American opinion as much as anything else) and they just can't quite stop worrying that American students might hold opinions which differ from those of the Cold Warriors... Biology profs tend to be fairly liberal, but I've never noticed one with a hammer and sickle poster on the wall.

Matt,If this process moves as far as you fear, you might choose the pragmatic option of teaching only in a state that permits you to teach properly. I don't see how you could ethically teach within such legal limits.This would result in a brain drain of teachers and students from the worst states, which is not a nice scenario to imagine. Perhaps the brain drain would reverse when it reaches the point that regressive states are suffering economically, and are forced to liberalise their laws for pragmatic purposes?mick