Last week we reported that publishers are resisting pressure to dumb down instruction on evolution in the new science textbooks they are proposing for Texas public schools. And we asked you to send publishers an email thanking them for standing up for science despite the efforts of anti-evolution activists on and off the State Board of Education to undermine the education of a generation of Texas students.
The response has been spectacular — thousands of emails have flooded into publishers offices. As of this afternoon, in fact, 6,276 people have sent a “thank you” email to the 14 publishers who submitted textbooks and online instructional materials for high school biology classes this year.
Publishers are hearing the collective voices of parents and other Texans who are tired of anti-science fanatics who want public schools to lie to students and teach discredited arguments against evolution. It’s not too late to add your name to a “thank you” to publishers for refusing to bow to those demands. Just click here.
This battle isn’t over yet. The State Board of Education still must vote on whether to adopt these new textbooks and other instructional materials, which could be classrooms for up to a decade. In past years, ideologues on the state board have refused to adopt textbooks simply because they have political objections to factual content. So in the weeks leading up to the state board’s final vote on November 22, it’s important that we keep fighting to prevent right-wing politicians from putting their personal agendas ahead of the education of millions of Texas kids.
Keep standing up for science!
The old customer service maxim used by American business always said that one person taking the time to express a complaint or commendation represented at least 1,000 customers who were just as unhappy or happy but could not or did not want to take the time out from their busy life to file a complaint or a commendation. If that same traditional business maxim still holds true today, those 6,000 messages of support represent the beliefs of 6,000,000 Texans—and still counting.
Thanks, Charles. Encouraging way to look at it. Needless to say, w/ electronic media (mediums?) such as they are it doesn’t take much effort on our part to click the mouse a couple of times. We’ll be standing by to see what the SBOE does next. Cheers.