John Rennie's Scientific American editorial, Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated" is spot on.
Somewhere right now in Kansas, there is a little child who may grow up to be a brilliant scientist. She may make fantastic contributions to science, and future generations may remember her as one of the brightest intellectual lights of her time. But if so, it will be despite the public education that she received in Kansas, because today six dimwits on the state's Board of Education voted to lower the standards for how science is taught.
And...
It wasn't enough for them to undermine the teaching of biology by falsifying a scientific controversy over evolution. No, the Board of Education went as far as to redefine what science is: it's no longer just a search for natural explanations for natural phenomena. Now it's a search for... well, that's a bit hard to say. Any sort of explanation, apparently. Pixies, ghosts, telekinesis, auras, ancient astronauts, excesses of choleric humor, they all seem to be fair game in the interest of "academic freedom."
References to Aldous Huxley and the last paragraph's excellent literary construction are added highlights, IMO.
Go read it.
And for those Kansas science teachers who will now have to present this faux skepticism over evolution and offer a sincere lecture on 'intelligent design,' I encourage you to do it using a Jesus hand puppet, just to give it the proper authority and gravitas.
