美国国家公共电台 NPR New Florida Law Lets Residents Challenge School Textbooks

 

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Educators in Florida are working to comply with a new state law. It lets state residents challenge textbooks and instructional materials they object to. Science educators fear their demands for an independent hearing will open the way for attacks on evolution and climate change. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE¹: Keith Flaugh is a retired² IBM executive and a man with a mission.

KEITH FLAUGH: Getting the school boards to recognize - and I'm going to use an ugly term here - the garbage that's in our textbooks.

ALLEN: Flaugh helped found Florida Citizens' Alliance. It's a conservative group that fought unsuccessfully to stop Florida from signing onto Common Core educational standards. More recently, the group has turned its attention to the books being used in Florida's schools.

FLAUGH: And we found them to be full of political indoctrination, religious indoctrination, revisionist history and distorting our founding values and principles, even a significant quantity of pornography.

ALLEN: The pornography, Flaugh says, was in literature and novels in school libraries or on a summer reading list, including "Angela's Ashes," "A Clockwork Orange" and books by author Toni Morrison. Personally, Flaugh says, he's more concerned about how textbooks describe U.S. history and our form of government.

FLAUGH: I spent over 20 hours with a book called "United States Government," and you look at what's on the cover there...

ALLEN: Our democracy.

FLAUGH: We're not a democracy. We're a constitutional republic.

ALLEN: Flaugh says words do matter. He believes many textbooks downplay the importance of individual liberties and promote a reliance on federal authority. The new law, developed and pushed through by Flaugh's group, gives any taxpayer³ in Florida the right to object the textbooks or other instructional materials being adopted and to make their case before what the law calls an unbiased hearing officer. Members of Florida Citizens' Alliance have other concerns. David Bolduc says he's most concerned about protecting the U.S. Constitution. He concedes he's not a scientist but also believes there's a bias⁴ in how textbooks discuss climate change.

DAVID BOLDUC: It seems to me it's very slanted⁵ in one direction - that, you know, man is at fault, and it's definitely happening, and it's real.

ALLEN: Bolduc also believes parents should be able to challenge how textbooks deal with evolution. In Florida and nationally, it's those last two topics - climate change and evolution - that have sparked the greatest interest. Glenn Branch with the National Center for Science Education says the bill clearly was formed with those issues in mind.

GLENN BRANCH: In affidavits⁶ submitted to the legislature in support of the bill, they said, we complained that they were teaching evolution. We complained that they were teaching climate change. So that's why we need this new law.

ALLEN: Under the law, school districts will still have the final say. Even so, some worry it will have a chilling effect. Brandon Haught is a high school environmental science teacher and a member of Florida Citizens for Science.

BRANDON HAUGHT: You know, a science teacher might feel like, I got a lot of this heat coming down on all of us teachers. Maybe we should just not teach it as strongly - those kind of things.

ALLEN: The state school board association says one thing is clear - more challenges to the textbooks adopted by Florida schools are likely. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF MICHITA'S "NANDODEMO (INSTRUMENTAL)")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

4 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

5 slanted   

有偏见的； 倾斜的

参考例句：

• The sun slanted through the window. 太阳斜照进窗户。
• She had slanted brown eyes. 她有一双棕色的丹凤眼。

6 affidavits   

n.宣誓书，（经陈述者宣誓在法律上可采作证据的）书面陈述( affidavit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The woman offered written affidavits proving that she was the widow of Pancho Villa. 这女人提供书面证书，证明自己是庞科·比亚的遗孀。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The appeal was adjourned for affidavits to be obtained. 为获得宣誓证明书，上诉被推迟。 来自口语例句