Comments on: Biased Textbook? Obviously Not…

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:56:27 +0000

I disagree about the “enmeshed” statement. And I reiterate that this is why there are teachers in classrooms – to help students understand the bigger picture. And I read the “greenhouse effect” statement differently. In fact, I would read it as an admittance that there IS a global warming problem. Stating that such an effect exists and that science doesn’t know how bad it is yet tells me that the authors agree – to some degree (pardon the pun) – that global warming exists.

And it’s a damn shame about the Constitution. The funny thing is that our Founding Fathers would have revolted against what this country has become. Sad.

By: Metroplexual

Metroplexual — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:00:52 +0000

Yeah but stating “Science doesn’t know how bad the greenhouse effect is.” or “enmeshed in scientific uncertainty.” is disingenuous to say the least. There is a general consensus among most climatologists regarding the issue. Just an anectdote to relate, I was in Washington DC on the 28th of march for the cherry blossom festival. It turns out that that is the earliest the cherry blossoms have peaked and it turns out that according to Virginia Tech scientists every year the blooms come 8 hours earlier.

BTW, nobody reads the constitution anymore except Ron Paul (I saw him in person when he was on the Colbert Report), the bill of rights have been legislated out of applicability.

By: Metroplexual

Metroplexual — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:33:14 +0000

Joe,

I am sorry but the majority of scientists agree that global warming is human caused. The book took a swipe at that majority, I call that bias. Nonetheless, authors have the right to write what they believe, just as the student has the right to argue against it being used in his school. BTW, I doubt he has too much time on his hands if he is taking AP classes.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:46:34 +0000

The article states that the newest edition of the textbook says, “Science doesn’t know how bad the greenhouse effect is.” The new text goes on to say that global warming is “enmeshed in scientific uncertainty.”

Those statements – alone – are not false. However, if the question is whether an overwhelming number of scientists agree that global warming is here, then the answer is yes. The next question should then be whether a majority opinion on scientific results automatically mean that opinion is correct. The answer this time should be an obvious no. A logical alternative to 100% agreeing or 100% disagreeing with either of these statements is simply to put an “uncertain” line in a text book. HOWEVER…

This is the perfect example of where a competent teacher needs to takeover. A competent teacher should present both sets of scientific data (in a manner easily understood by the students) and then present statistics on which data is accepted by the majority and minority (and – most importantly – why).

Simply stating that global warming is real or global warming is fake is a biased statement either way. The former is biased against the minority and the latter is biased against the majority. Bias works both ways.

And as for AP classes – I just remember that my AP classes in high school were no harder than my regular classes. Of course, that may have changed (for better or worse) since I took these classes!