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AITSE Newsletter about academic freedom, animal rights, and how its your mom's fault!
September 2010
Crocker in LA Press Club
Greetings!

Do you enjoy these updates? Are you concerned about cheating in schools and universities, health problems resulting from medical mistakes and pharmaceutical cover-ups, economic issues resulting from misspent funds, and more? Are you interested in seeing an increase in scientific integrity in our nation?

Since you subscribe to the American Institute for Technology and Science Education updates, I expect that you are. We want to make a difference. But the sad fact is that we simply can't make the impact we would like to achieve--in this world it is impossible to do much without adequate funding.

Therefore, I am writing to urgently ask you to partner with us. Please click on the link and commit to $50/month or $20/month. Even though our economy is not at an all-time high, most of us would not notice $5/week going out of our bank account. It is not much for one person, but can add up to a movement that will change this nation. Alone we can do very little, but together we can make a difference--let's make it happen!

Websites are Finished
AITSE and Free to Think

It has been a long time in coming, but our website is done! Here you can see what we are doing, sign the scientific integrity statement, see Dr. Crocker's interviews and presentations, book a talk, and access the AITSE newsletter archive. Check it out at www.aitse.org.

Dr. Crocker's new book Free to Think also has a new improved website. Since the purpose of this book is to promote AITSE and scientific integrity, here you can find much of the same information as at the AITSE site, but in a different format. Let us know what you think.

Where Dr. Crocker Will Be in October
Come and see me!
USA

10/12/10 American Freedom Alliance Literary Cafe, Hollywood, CA.

10/25/10 Presentation at Probe Ministries, Dallas, TX.

10/26/10-10/28/10 Attending Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science, Austin, TX.

The Liberal Arts
Indoctrination or education?
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The observant among us will notice that this article is from September, but two years ago. Nonetheless, it is relevant, and perhaps becoming more so every day. According to Robert George writing in the American Spectator, the original purpose of a liberal arts education was to "convey the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that carry with them a certain profound form of freedom." But now, at many American universities, liberal arts has morphed into liberationism--the view that "traditional norms and structures are irrational" and it is important to "free" students to be "authentic." Translated this means that students are taught their highest aspiration can only be to be slaves to their own passions, provided of course that these desires are within the "norm of political correctness."

In comparison, the classical liberal arts concept views people as "capable of self-transcendence and self-mastery" and seeks to help them in "considering arguments and counterarguments, and examining competing points of view." This is what AITSE advocates--presenting students and the public with a balanced view of the science, not influenced by political-correctness, financial considerations or ideological preconceptions. This is a real liberal arts education.

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Its All Your Mom's Fault
Because women are genetically selfish!
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According to Oxford University's Andy Gardner and University of Tennessee's Francisco Ubeda, it is evolutionarily advantageous for men to be helpful and for women to be selfish. So, looking out for number one comes from your mom and altruism comes from your dad.

The authors support this claim with some observations about the behavior of ancient peoples, some knowledge about a genetic process known as imprinting, and a heaping helping of speculation. "The genes you receive from your mother, like a demon sat on your shoulder, try to make you act selfishly."

Publication of this kind of claim makes it vital that students are taught the difference between data, interpretation of data, extrapolation from data, and of course wild speculation. Some of these qualify as good science and others should be restricted to where they belong--table discussion in the famous pubs of Oxford University.

Ubeda and Gardner, A model for genomic imprinting in the social brain: adults. Evolution 2010.
Tax-payer Money Used to Promote Evolution
Why???
Neanderthal

In a great article posted on the Discovery Institute website Casey Luskin reports that the National Science Foundation will be launching a project to teach young children about evolution. To be more precise, nearly two million dollars of tax-payer money will be used to teach third, fourth and fifth graders about one scientific theory.

At the same time two thirds of middle school students are below proficient in reading ability, only 34% of high school graduates are able to cope with the reading required at a four-year college, and a quarter of American high school students do not even reach baseline proficiency in science. The story does not improve with adulthood; only 28% of American adults have even rudimentary scientific understanding. Is this because they are insufficiently educated about a one-sided view of the scientific facts regarding evolution? I don't think so.

Young children just need to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and the basic facts about science and social studies--there is plenty of material to keep them busy. Then, when they are older, one of the best ways to help students learn is to teach them both sides of controversial subjects. Students need to be stimulated to want to learn and controversy helps them to apply critical thinking skills to new knowledge. A study at Ohio State University showed that test scores increased fourfold when students were allowed to be free to think in lab class; the professor had a goal of helping his students to become "independent and objective thinkers."

Yale University has also recognized the importance of this practice, releasing recommendations from a 2008 workshop on teaching controversial subjects and avoiding bias. They quote Dr. David Horowitz of Students for Academic Freedom, "You can't get a good education if they're only telling you half the story." The critical need for allowing argument and encouraging students to examine all sides of an issue to help them learn science is well recognized. Perhaps the National Science Foundation should consult with the people at Yale!

Article by Casey Luskin
New Presentations Offered by AITSE
For audiences of all ages
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Science and Medicine in a Crisis of Integrity Are the medications you are taking beneficial or harmful to your health? Can you trust the expertise of your physician? What about your pharmacist? Where can one go to obtain accurate information about this important subject? The fact is that Americans are losing their trust in science and medicine-with reason. In this serious talk, Dr. Crocker shows how lack of scientific integrity jeopardizes our health as a nation and outlines how AITSE is working to bring positive change to science--so we will once again be able to trust the "experts".

Cheating and Censorship in Science-Where is the Integrity in Academia? First presented at a legislative briefing in Washington DC, this lecture gives unequivocal evidence that academia is being corrupted by a crisis of integrity where student cheating is tolerated all the way through school and even beyond. The restriction of educators to only teaching politically correct, financially beneficial, or ideologically attractive "facts" then exacerbates the problem. In this enlightening talk, Dr. Crocker asserts that the solution is surprisingly simple: cheating is decreased when students are encouraged to learn, understand and evaluate what they are taught. We need to allow students to learn, educators to teach, and the public to be free to think!

Removing the Nonsense from Education: How Lack of Integrity in Science Affects Students Going to college? Or even public high school? Have you had your shots? Right now academia is suffering from a deadly infection: secular humanism (atheism) disguised as science. Educators often try to indoctrinate students into politically correct views, including the idea that all "educated and intelligent" people accept the "fact" of evolution, with all its naturalistic implications. Dr. Caroline Crocker is a biologist who can tell you differently and she is on a mission--to help you be free to think! This is an ideal talk for high school and college students. The young people are invited to listen, ask questions, and be vaccinated against the nonsense.

Book a Talk
Quotes of the Month
On Academic Freedom and Scientific Integrity
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More and more people are recognizing the importance of scientific integrity and academic freedom for the future of our nation.The United States of America has a history of freedom that encourages its citizens to objectively weigh the evidence and indeed Dr. Randall Isaac, President of the American Scientific Affiliation, said "We must not compromise our integrity in science, twisting or modifying our notions in and of science in order to fit some convenient scheme of integration that we may prefer."

Unfortunately, in many of our top universities, this principle is no longer practiced. "Too many top schools are also pervaded by powerful currents of politics, in which teachers...use the podium as a soapbox for civic activism...I hope more of the best and brightest students will decide to take the risk and seek out schools that focus more tightly on rigorously educating undergraduates..., that promote teachers based on teaching..., that insist on keeping the classroom as a place for the open and fearless exploration of truth." John Zmirak, PhD, 8.31.10 AOL News

We desperately need to see a return to integrity in our educational system. We need to encourage students to critically assess the information they receive, educators to teach the whole story, and administrators not to deprive them of their jobs when they do!

Animal Rights
Making it possible for cows to sue people
a rat is a boy

A couple weeks ago I went to the American Freedom Alliance's Literary Cafe, where Wesley Smith author of a fascinating book about animal rights was featured. Not animal welfare (caring for animals in a humane fashion), as he was at pains to explain, but animal rights, based on the idea that animals have an intrinsic value equal to that of a human.

Smith pointed out the absurdities engendered by this position. In Spain, apes have been granted legal rights. In Switzerland, researchers have been charged to only conduct experiments that do not infringe on a plant's dignity. In the United States, Princeton University's Dr. Peter Singer proclaims that any person with limited cognitive ability (a baby or a person who has lost their capacities) is a "nonperson" and can presumably be used as a natural resource. "When the death of a disabled infant will lead to [a greater] total amount of happiness.. The loss of happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second." (Practical Ethics)

In the same way, Singer has popularized the view that, since humans are just another species, privileging a human over an animal is speciesism--the moral equivalent of racism. And since, as the radical environmentalists claim, the earth is overpopulated by people, to the detriment of other species, Eric Pianka (UT Austin) does not really see a problem with the death of 90% of the human race.

Obviously, this debate is centered in philosophy--what makes a human special--or indeed are they? But there is also an element of invalid extrapolation from science. After all, it is true that humans are genetically similar to other living organisms, even plants. But, does it necessarily follow that humans have no intrinsic dignity and value? Get the book --you decide.

Wes Smith's blog

In closing, as always, thank you for your past gifts and support. It is a fact that AITSE cannot function in its efforts to educate to increase scientific understanding and integrity without contributions. Please consider helping us with a special donation or a commitment to give on a monthly basis. Please make checks payable to AITSE and send them to PO Box 15938, Newport Beach, CA 92659. Alternatively, you can donate on line through PayPal or credit card at www.AITSE.org.

Sincerely,

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Caroline Crocker, MSc, PhD
American Institute for Technology and Science Education
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