Under DeVos, what’s to stop our tax dollars from being spent teaching children that dinosaurs coexisted with people?

Remember a few years ago when this seemingly fake forth grade quiz about human beings coexisting with dinosaurs was making the rounds? Well, it just landed on my desk again, and this time, because I desperately needed a break from watching Trump handshaking videos, I decided to do a little investigating. Well, it turns out that it wasn’t fake at all. Apparently this was really a test administered by the Blue Ridge Christian Academy in Landrum, South Carolina back in 2013. There were even news stories about it, in which the school administrator, Diana Baker, verified its authenticity, saying that she didn’t see anything wrong with it. Thankfully, the school folded soon afterward (possibly due to the fact that the son of the school’s founders apparently threatened to murder his fellow Blue Ridge Christian Academy students), but the entity that accredited the school, the Association of Christian Schools International, still exists. In fact, they were actively engaged in getting pyramid scheme billionaire turned anti-public education activist Betsy DeVos named our new Secretary of Education.

While I’m sure their effort to get DeVos into the Department of Education was largely motivated by the fact that DeVos and her husband have said that they’ve dedicated their lives to defunding secular public schools in order to “advance God’s kingdom” here on earth, I suspect that some of their enthusiasm might be a little more self-serving. DeVos has, after all, indicated that, as Secretary of Education, she would institute programs that would increasingly shift public education dollars to religious schools, which, unlike public schools, would be able to operate with little to no oversight.

So, in the not too distant future, it’s conceivable that our tax dollars could be spent on the dissemination of quizzes just like this.

It’s not quite so funny now as it was four years ago, is it?

For what it’s worth, the authenticity of the above was not only verified by the school administrator, but our old friend Ken Ham, the charlatan behind Kentucky’s Creation Museum, who said that the quiz was based on an “educational” DVD that he’d helped to create.

Speaking of Ham, do you remember that time a few years ago, when I shared a passage with you from a book that he authored which was being given away at a Kentucky Kroger? The passage in question was written by Ham in response to an imaginary kid who asked him if, like on the Flintstones, humans once used dinosaurs for transportation. Here’s Ham’s response… “It seems to me we should at least allow the possibility that some could have been tamed to help with transportation, maybe even farming, hauling heavy loads (the strong ones!), and other things. After all, some dragon legends from China tell us that dragons (dinosaurs?) were used to pull the emperor’s chariots.”

Ham, by the way, says Trump’s victory is proof that “God, Not the Media, is in Control”… So it’s best not to complain about any of this. It’s all part of God’s plan. And it’s unfolding right now in America… In fact, Ham was at Bob Jones University today, “teaching” thousands of high school students. Because, really, who needs another generation of doctors and scientists when we can have people who believe that the earth was just recently created, and that, not too long ago, people saddled up velociraptors to get from place to place?

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24 Comments

  1. Jcp2
    Posted February 14, 2017 at 6:36 am | Permalink

    I’d just like to point out that our neighbors to the north, a place that is seen by many as a refuge from the current political situation here, currently has an educational system where tax dollars are spent on religious schools. It’s one of the most important points in the document that founded Canada as a separate entity in 1867.

  2. Eel
    Posted February 14, 2017 at 7:22 am | Permalink

    And the head of their government is a handshake bully who humiliated our president.

  3. John Galt
    Posted February 14, 2017 at 10:40 am | Permalink

    How do you know that human beings and dinosaurs didn’t co-exist? WERE YOU THERE?!!!

  4. Posted February 14, 2017 at 11:06 am | Permalink

    This is how Dark Ages start.

  5. Posted February 14, 2017 at 12:46 pm | Permalink

    That quiz is unbelievable :(

  6. M
    Posted February 14, 2017 at 2:34 pm | Permalink

    And here’s how it begins.

    “H.R.610 – To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools.”

    https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/610

  7. Kira
    Posted February 15, 2017 at 3:53 pm | Permalink

    This has been going on for a long time. There are of course, a variety of creationist views, not all this extreme. One of the most insidious things that has happened slowly is the removal of actual fossil evidence from the curriculum, often replaced with other Earth Science topics, such as the rock cycle.

  8. Kira
    Posted February 15, 2017 at 3:54 pm | Permalink

    We deal with this issue at the Museum occasionally, both with groups wanting “evolution-free” tours of the dinosaurs, or with visitors advocating that we exhibit an alternative to evolution (flying spaghetti monster anyone?). My standard reply is NO, followed by an explanation that we are a scientific institution, that science is the search for natural explanations for natural phenomena using material evidence, that other forms of inquiry may be valuable but do not align with our mission, and that we are not “highly qualified” to teach religion (nor would I likely teach the religion they have in mind). I know several science teachers who have had to use similar arguments. If you are looking for some great primers on what to say, look here: https://ncse.com/

  9. EOS
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 3:53 am | Permalink

    Kira,

    The de-emphasis of the “fossil evidence” for evolution has been brought about by evolutionists themselves. The fossil record does not support a gradual, stepwise transition but rather abrupt appearances of highly diverse species. Slight modifications that confer reproductive advantage as the driving force down the evolutionary path necessitates far greater transitionary organisms than are found in the fossil record. If the diversity of species was accomplished through a completely naturalistic/materialistic mechanism, as required by the philosophical underpinnings of science, that mechanism has yet to be elucidated by science. The fossil record does not support the theory of evolution and is therefore no longer being emphasized in the curriculum.

  10. Morbid Larson
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 4:52 am | Permalink

    lol

  11. wobblie
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    EOS, wrong again. The only thing that adequately explains the fossil record we currently have, is the theory of evolution. Those people who actually teach evolution to our college age students rely heavily upon the fossil record as teaching aides.

    The destruction of public education is part and parcel of dumbing down the citizenry.

  12. EOS
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 6:06 pm | Permalink

    Wobblie,
    The main premise of the theory of evolution is that all organisms share a common ancestry. Can you explain how fossils prove ancestry?

  13. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 6:25 pm | Permalink

    EOS..iknow you wont be nice to me..but that is why people go read up about this in textbooks and do not take info from the comments section of a blog.

  14. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 7:07 pm | Permalink

    The problems in public schools drive so much of this change. look at AAPS..the most important thing is to stay solvent and make more money..that is the most important thing for the board..and they only one way to do it..get more students and spend less on them then they collect.. and kids become monetized, which is demoralzing and frightening to see happen. Teachers want their raises. Maybe you people think this the way to manage schools, but I have found it horrifying. I dont think direct vouchers will work.

  15. Demetrius
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 8:21 pm | Permalink

    I have a niece in college, and a niece and a nephew who are about to finish high school. Their dad (my brother) mentioned the other day how grateful he was that his kids had a chance to attend public schools … while we still have them.

    (All three are very smart, responsible, hard-working … and curious … and contrary to all the public school horror stories … all three have thrived academically.)

    “I guess we’ll have to home-school the grand-kids,” my brother said.

  16. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    maybe…

  17. Jean Henry
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 8:48 pm | Permalink

    for EOS: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/319913-poll-trumps-approval-rating-drops-to-39-percent

  18. Jean Henry
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 8:54 pm | Permalink

    More fun facts for EOS.: http://www.livescience.com/23861-fossil-dna-half-life.html

  19. Jean Henry
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 8:56 pm | Permalink

    And some confusing bits of information. Is the Eve or her second cousin one species removed? is she really 40,000 years old or did she just age REALLY poorly? http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/100501_xwoman

  20. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 9:06 pm | Permalink

    well.. there is a new millage proposed. Of course there is.
    AAPS is not living within their means..and after this one they will find another reason for another one. and I bet it will be this year too.
    There is no getting off the merrygoround of that. You can’t tell the teachers they cannot have good raises. It is hard for them too, they have houses and kids, and all that too. so apparently the master plan is to increase density in town and just add population to cover costs. That might work, I have no idea..but there are people who just dont want go down this ride.

  21. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 16, 2017 at 9:19 pm | Permalink

    Will l charters and vouchers be the end of education? idk. We will not be able to progress with any positive meaningful education reform until we get new administration, especially at the state level. Who ever gets elected will be the person to start to help clean up this mess. We have two more years of Snyder…So I have been looking at the Gubernatorial candidates and am following a gentleman called Bill Cobbs. I think the man has common sense.

  22. EOS
    Posted February 17, 2017 at 8:40 am | Permalink

    @ Jean,

    Why don’t you want to reference the poll that actually correctly predicted the outcome of the election?

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/prez_track_feb16

    38% strongly approve. Myself? He scares the shit out of me. I hold my breathe at every press conference. But I do like many of his policies. Will they come to pass? We’ll see.

  23. Eel
    Posted February 21, 2017 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    I hope this is real.

    http://imgur.com/a/eEXbI

  24. Eel
    Posted February 21, 2017 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    It should be noted that Ken Ham, seen to the right, has very long arms, and hands with thumbs, demonstrating that God wanted him to jerk it all the time.

One Trackback

  1. […] Speaking of religious schools, did you happen to see this footage shot back in October of Trump visiting a religious school in Nevada where children “pledge allegiance” not to the United States of America, but to “the Bible”? Should this bill pass, schools like this would be federally funded with our tax dollars, as would schools, like we discussed a few weeks ago, that teach the earth is only 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs coexisted with human beings. […]

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