It becomes bigotry each and every time you take a pet peeve about religion, or in this case, the manipulation of the science curriculum by the religious in power.
		
		
	 
Bigotry is 
not "pet peeves." 
Demanding open-mindedness over authoritarianism in education is quite the 
opposite of bigotry.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			Because some have abused their power to bastardize science, clearly contaminating it, you take the opportunity to rant about Texas and make statements that are both false and equally offensive.
		
		
	 
You agree that Texas authorities have abused their power and have damaged the quality of science education in America, but you believe that acknowledging this 
fact constitutes a "false" statement. I appreciate that you find the truth about this offensive. So do I. 
	
		
	
	
		
		
			Your argument relies on basically nothing to make its assertion.  Because SOME teachers in Texas will attempt to use these textbook guidelines as excuses to inject their religious belief, it does not follow that it is required teaching nor that even most will do so.
		
		
	 
It's in the 
textbooks of every science class in Texas. If the teachers ask the students to read their textbooks, they are teaching them intelligent design. Period.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			Painting Texas as some monolithic culture, with a Baptist in front of every classroom is as bigoted as it gets. You might as well be Telly and simply watch a YouTube clip and surmise reality from it.
		
		
	 
The monolith is confined only to the schoolbooks, which are uniformly standardized across the state. No one has made any claims about Texas being a monolithic culture. That would be absurd.
And the only person who has mentioned "Baptists" is you. You don't seem to have a very high opinion of them.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			Discussing the offense of the potential harm in Texas is one thing.  Asserting that it will or is the basis for classroom instruction in a state of 26 million people goes beyond skewed.  It's just cranky.  You want to rant about a legitimate problem but by using hyperbole to make it conform to your impression of Texas.  It is frankly cartoonish.
		
		
	 
I'm not clear on your point here. Are you saying that textbooks are 
not the basis for classroom instruction in Texas?
And it is not hyperbole. This problem is so important that it has its own name, 
The Texas Schoolbook Massacre. 
Somehow, we don't hear about the "New York Schoolbook Massacre" or the "California Schoolbook Massacre." This is a problem mostly with Texas. You seem to be embarrassed by your state's behavior. I regard that as a good sign.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			And there are textbooks that accommodate that President Roosevelt may have intentionally ignored the warnings of the attack on Pearl Harbor in order to precipitate America's declaration of war.  Because a curriculum accommodates a fringe concept, or in the case of ID, an obnoxious religious injection, it doesn't follow that teachers are teaching it.
		
		
	 
You keep insisting that the textbooks are not important to the curriculum.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			I was a high school teacher.  No force on Earth could compel teachers to teach the same, nor to suspend their own judgment and discretion at the front door.  Your assertion is the contrary.  You assert that they are being required to teach religion and that the students are somehow some hapless sponges that won't be able to resist indoctrination.  Your thinking about education and how it works is as bad as the thinking of the ID proponents.
		
		
	 
You keep insisting that the textbooks are not important to the curriculum.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			The strong university system in Texas exists primarily to educate Texans, be they native born or not.  Your depiction of Texas and the effects of the curriculum manipulation ignores that.  Those science degrees and teachers don't evaporate when they matriculate.  Texas is full of educated and intelligent people, by design or otherwise.
		
		
	 
No one is disputing that. 
I did not realize that Texas teachers generally write their own textbooks and ignore the state versions.
	
		
	
	
		
		
			Just because a cabal of religionists abused their majority status to corrupt public school curricula does not mean that the actions will not be challenged with legal actions.  My former home of Arkansas often made the news for just such events, and they were followed with arrogant and dismissive assessments by people just like the one you make here about what is actually happening in Texas.
		
		
	 
You admit that "a cabal of religionists abused their majority status to corrupt public school curricula" but you are offended when people complain about that. You claim that I am "arrogant and dismissive" because I disagree with your "cabal." And yet, you seem to disagree with them yourself! 
	
		
	
	
		
		
			It is because you use events like this to air exaggerated statements that are untrue, unsupported, and apparently enjoy making caricatures out of people.  Because I taught, I resent your smear of the profession.
		
		
	 
You have several times admitted to problems in Texas science education, while then complaining a few sentences later that these claims are "exaggerated," "untrue" and "unsupported." Which do you believe?
And why do you regard standing up for education as "smearing the profession?"
	
		
	
	
		
		
			And, because you post rebuttal to argument not made.  Your posts continue to imply ID is propagated here in this thread, and there is no such post to be found.  It would seem that all of JUB is aware that it isn't science, yet you seem to step up to imply we aren't getting it.
		
		
	 
The ID is being propagated in Texas science classrooms, 
not this thread!
	
		
	
	
		
		
			And how tragic is that?  Your standards are such that 85% of humanity is beneath your contempt. They are all vanilla, and fatally flawed to you.  That sounds far more narrow minded than any religious people I have ever met.
		
		
	 
85%??? Where are you getting these numbers? 
Advocating on behalf of open thought in education is 
not contempt of humanity. 
I sense that you hold precisely the same view that I do on this issue - that there is no place for this stuff in a science textbook. So sorry that caring about the quality of education makes us such terrible bigots, and so contemptuous of humanity.