Challenge the Gore Curriculum

Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ARTICLES

Does your state mandate a Gore science curriculum when it comes to climate change? Iowa does. Thus, the Public Interest Institute, in conjunction with the Heartland Institute, is challenging the mandate. Your think tank should investigate your state's science requirements and if it's Gore, not core, consider challenging it.

The Iowa Core Curriculum is designed to assure that "essential subject matter is taught and essential knowledge and skills are learned." The curriculum states that technological advances have reduced the need for students to memorize vocabulary and formulas. The 65 essential Science Concepts include "Personal and Social Perspectives," covering population growth, environmental quality, natural and human-induced hazards and science in society. The student is expected to make "appropriate" personal/life style/technology choices, describe environmental effects of public policy and choose appropriate actions.

Students are required to participate in a debate on whether or not nuclear reactors should be abandoned as an energy source. They are directed to develop energy sources that decrease CO2 emissions and to discuss the impact of fossil fuels on CO2 levels. Finally, they are to use An Inconvenient Truth to develop a presentation advocating a reduction in greenhouse gases.

Even before the core curriculum was passed in 2008, science students at City High School (Iowa City) were required to view An Inconvenient Truth, write letters to a government official telling them that global warming is a problem and urge them to act. Unfortunately, Iowa isn't the only state with this problem; other states using this movie include Wisconsin, Colorado and Illinois.

These assignments teach propaganda, based on an ideological special interest campaign, not science. If students are not required to memorize scientific principles, how are they to evaluate complex issues? Iowa schools are teaching a Gore curriculum, not a core curriculum. Further, students should not be required to publicly support specific policy positions, dictated by a teacher, for a grade.

An English High Court ruling states there are "so many demonstrable errors in An Inconvenient Truth that it can not be shown [in England] unless students are also taught its errors and the opposing views."Administrators in Federal Way, Washington, recognize the problem of teaching anthropogenic global warming and that teachers must present many points of view.They decided that An Inconvenient Truth could not be shown unless "credible, legitimate" opposing views were also presented.The Iowa Core Curriculum fails to address this problem or direct that teachers show any of the opposing documentaries.

Teachers need to recognize that An Inconvenient Truth is propaganda. We must demonstrate the difference between propaganda and fact. The Heartland Institute in Chicago is prepared to file lawsuits against schools that continue teaching this propaganda. The Public Policy Institute will work closely with Heartland on this initiative in Iowa.

Deborah D. Thornton is a policy analyst with the Public Interest Institute in Iowa.Write her at dthornton@limitedgovernment.org