Quotable Quotes from the Texas SBOE March Meeting

Here are some of the quotes I tweeted while at last week's Texas SBOE meeting:

"Somebody has got to stand up to these experts," McLeroy said. "Why does evolution have this lofty status? It's all about ideology." (McLeroy is the chair, and a creationist) “Science has regained its luster.” (again, McLeroy. Apparently, science is like a metal and is shiny.) "Evolution is not vital to understanding the biological sciences." (Yes, McLeroy again, showing off his creationism bonafides) "Some of you are not listening and I am not going over this again." (One of my two favorite quotes from the meeting - from Pat Hardy, a rock star, in my opinion. She was trying to introduce an amendment on allowing a conceptual Chemistry class. Motion failed, which was a real shame. Guarantee: more dropouts due to the new Chem class having too much advanced math required.) "I disagree with the experts." and "I want to stand up to the experts." (Our fabulous chair, dentist McLeroy beating his chest.) "Is there any more amendments to grade 4?" (McLeroy is not science literate or even just plain literate. Subject verb disagreement - what would the experts say?) "We should have seen these changes yesterday." (I don't remember who freaked out and said this on Friday, but several creationists were peeved that a board member dared to try and suggest changes to the science TEKS that dealt with something besides creationism. I mean, darn, we spent all day Wed. and Thurs. trying to get the Bible inserted into the science TEKS, but we couldn't spend an hour making sure the non-evolution TEKS were scientifically accurate?) "examine all sides of science" (This is the new "strengths and weaknesses." If someone can give me an example of how science has sides, please jump in here. And, I'm not asking this of creationists; it's clear what you mean. I'm asking the science community.) "We want to send a clear message to textbook publishers that we expect them to present BOTH sides." (This is my SBOE member, Cynthia Dunbar, revealing what "all sides of science" really means. It means "science" as one side, "creationism" as the other side. She totally slipped up here and corrected herself, "I mean 'all sides'". Yeah, right.) "unguided natural processes" (Sigh. This was McLeroy's suggested substitution for the scientific term "natural selection". How blatant can you be that your whole intention is to insert creationism into the science TEKS?) "scientific theories of cosmetology." (This was from Terri Leo. Honestly, making science a course about make up would be more scientific than making all of them Bible courses.) "just to add that humility." (Barbara Cargill must have used the word "humilty" 20 times over the course of two days. What in the heck humility has to do with science, I have no idea, but she was insistent - over and over again - that we needed to add "humility" to the science standards. This was embarrassing and silly.) "beefin' up on my Bloom's taxonomy." (Agan, Cargill. Not only did she drop her "g's", but she continually used Bloom's as well as legitimate language in the science TEKS to somehow make a persuasive argument to insert creationist language into the standards. It was something to watch - how she got reasonable people on board with her nonsense.) "I want to broaden theories students will have to learn. This is the humility I am talkin' about." (yes, the dropped g and the use of "humilty" lets you know this was Cargill. Here is where she defines "humility." Humility = inserting creationism into the science standards.) "I got lost in your explanation." (This was Pat Hardy to McLeroy. If I could have advised the 8 friendly SBOE members on one thing, it would have been "if it doesn't make sense, it's a creationist argument and vote against it.") "I vote that we reinsert balls. Kids have been playing with balls their whole lives." (Geraldine Miller - another rock star! - delivers my favorite line of the whole meeting. She unintenionally made a funny and provided the audience much needed relief from the craziness in that room. This had to do with something in the elementary science TEKS. Tincy Miller, you are one awesome fighter for public education in Texas!) "We ask the questions." (This was McLeroy being extremely disrespecful of Eugenie Scott, Director of the National Center for Science Education. Dunbar was asking idiotic questions of Scott during the invited testimoy on Wednesday, so Scott asked one back to clarify what in the world Dunbar was talking about. McLeroy had to act like the big man on board - BMOB - and let Scott know who was boss.) I don't have the exact quote, but Mrs. Texas, Austen Williams, tells the Board she learned about intelligent design in a college archeology class. Turns out that was at Southwestern Seminary, a Baptist college. Of course, she didn't say that; we had to dig that up afterwards.) "Who will rid us of these meddlesome state board of education members?" (one of the speakers at the Texas Freedom Network's press conference on Wed., just prior to the start of the SBOE meeting. TFN has my undying thanks for all they did in thier efforts to stand up for science.)

I'll end with that. You can find my blow-by-blow, tweet-by-tweet, live tweeting at twitter.com. Do a search for #txsboe and you'll find all my live reports, plus responses from all over the world. I was the lone tweeter in the room, except for TEA who had a staffer at a computer tweeting procedural things. The whole #txsboe thread is worth reading. If you've heard that the SBOE is a travesty, just know it is worse than that. If you are a glutton for punishment, the archived audio of the 3-day meeting is here.