03:14 PM, Saturday, March 14 2023
by Kathryn Varn
Bill passed at Gov. Ron Desantis' request to fight 'woke liberal agenda' in the standard curriculum for Florida public schools.
Florida’s state legislature is changing the value of pi taught in their classrooms to combat what Desantis refers to as "woke numerology". Instead of the accepted value of 3.14159..., lawmakers have opted to change it to an even 3, in an effort to better adhere to the Biblical precepts found in 1 Kings 7:23. The author of the new bill, State Rep Dale Barton (R), argues that it has the "added benefit of solidifying students' mental math skills" by avoiding irrational numbers which make calculations "much more complicated than need be". This comes on the heels of an education bill passed in 2020 which mandated that Biblical Creationism, commonly referred to by proponents as Intelligent Design, be taught as an alternative theory to evolution in science classes. That bill also included a provision that sex education classes be 'abstinence only' in regards to contraceptives. Ricky Dobson (R), the author of the 2020 bill, has stated that evolution is an "unproven hypothesis" and that students should be exposed to the "theory of special creation [which] is the only reasonable explanation for the origin of life on earth, and avoids needless complexity and abstraction." The co-sponsor Betty Meyer (R) commented: "When I was a child, I was instructed that the best form of birth control was an aspirin tablet, placed between the knees. I think we need to get back to these values as a country and stop the liberal assault on the minds of our children." These bills have received a considerable amount of push-back from some citizens, particularly in the area of Cape Canaveral, which employs many engineers and scientists due to the presence of NASA and aerospace contractors. When reached for comment, Janet Petro, director of the Kennedy Space Center stated, "It started with the scientific evidence for global warming being removed from science curriculum, then the evolution and sex ed bill, and now this travesty. I will be moving my family to Kingsland where they still teach geometry properly. I'll tolerate the rest of the asinine education laws in Florida and endure the 4 hours of daily commute for the benefit of my children". Florida has also recently passed legislation removing or altering certain scientific curriculum. Read more »
