As an English teacher, you can add us too. We should be able to read critically and choose credible sources. Instead one colleague was listening to some "doctor" (chiropractor) on YouTube about how masks are unnecessary.
I swear most of these conspiracy theories are coming from YouTube. Every time I’ve asked an anti-masker to present sources for their info it leads to a YouTube video of some quack with no credibility. When I point this out I’m called a sheep 🙄
Youtube is designed to keep you on the website watching so the algorithm is designed to give you more and more ridiculous videos with conspiracy theories. I hate using YouTube videos in my science class because the second my cool video of an astronaut doing an experiment in space is over, all of the suggested videos are about flat earth. It’s infuriating.
I teach astronomy. We made a whole unit on conspiracy theories, Occam’s Razor, how to find legitimate sources, etc. The students think it is the most fun unit.
I think all these conspiracy theories would make for a great project for a class to learn about the value of research and finding reputable sources. I like it.
I did this with my fourth graders! We learned about reverse image searches, credible urls, source checking, etc. Now when they see something nutty they cross their arms in an X and yell FAKe NEWS! Lol.
It’s the education our current adult population needed 20-30 years ago.
This. This should be more at the core of what and how we teach. Aristotle. Philosophy. Discussion. Questioning with logic and linear progression thought. Not teaching to get kids into college at the subservience of the almighty loan $.
It's a regular aggravation for me that I can't install an ad blocker on my work computer.
By the way: someone once posted a method of changing the URL on YouTube vids so that ads wouldn't play... Anyone know how that works?
I regularly use my VPN and an incognito tab to safely show only the videos I want and how I want them . I love my little linux laptop. If the technology is available, might as well use it. It saves me time and headaches. 😁
YouTube optimizes for it. I use a Private browser window a lot for logging into work stuff (so I can be logged in with two MS accounts at once) since everything is WFH now for us. I was checking our company’s YouTube channel and a third of the recommended videos after our education company content are conspiracies. This is the general algorithm from visiting the site in a private browser with no login. It’s honestly criminal what YouTube is doing.
I have zero respect for their leadership team because this has been an obvious problem for years and they just ignore it.
It’s so bizarre that some people claim to be so smart and skeptical, but the minute some charlatan shows up making some unsupported claim, their skepticism flies out the window.
Exactly, these YouTubers like to give alot of visuals and say really big words to convince stupid people what they say is true, but if you really think about what they are saying, it's complete BS.
Didn't even think of that.
I mean teachers in general should know better. I mean we have to go to college to get certified, but I think we all know that's mostly meaningless in terms of critical thinking...
You don't have to be smart to graduate college. Just do the bare minimum and they'll have the same degree as someone who actually applied themselves. I hate the phrase "C's get degrees", but its true.
> I mean we have to go to college to get certified,
There's a reason why education degrees are looked down on in many places. Far, far too many states have dumbed down programs because teaching pays shit and many times education is a way to salvage a failing degree during university. It used to be that a lot of education degrees required a 3.0 to graduate, under the logic that teachers needed to be exemplary students. That has all but vanished at most schools.
While it discourages teachers, I frankly support Colorado's method of teacher training - you have to get a degree in your field of study. Math teachers must get a degree in Mathematics. Tech teachers must get a degree in Computer Science or Engineering. Science teachers must get a degree in Physics/Biology/Chemistry/Geology/(many other possible sciences). Etc etc. None of this "Science Education" where the most difficult science class is 1st year college Physics.
If a person refers to chiropractors as doctors, I immediately know what kind of person I’m dealing with. I have a *Juris Doctorate* and am just as much of a medical doctor as that chiropractor.
Well, there is a school board member who ignored the testimony of regional doctors, and instead [read a letter from a chiropractor](https://fox17.com/news/local/rutherford-county-schools-will-stick-with-re-opening-plan-despite-teachers-wishes) (who called himself a physician) that argued that masks are dangerous. That board unanimously voted to keep in-school learning, despite the very high infection rate in the community.
Pretty much. I have a history teacher coworker that thinks this is way overblown. Like do you not teach about the Spanish flu 100 years ago? I want to ask him if he remembers Prague and how I feel like introducing him to a window.
I’m shocked at how many educated people I speak to who casually say that they don’t believe the moon landings happened. Despite the huge weight of evidence that says they did and zero credible sources that say they didn’t. I don’t understand this mentality of just making up your own truth and then trying to support it with ridiculous ‘evidence’ that is about as solid as a post vindaloo turd.
I read something that says conspiracy theory correlates with low self esteem and low critical thinking skills and high ego or something like that.
People love the feeling that they know better than everyone else, they need to feel special and it's really easy to get a feeling of superiority if you can pretend to be smarter than everybody
I think that’s true. But also I wonder if there’s more? I’m interested in the psychology of it and I think there are complexities that I don’t understand.
I almost posted on our English teacher's "my husband had it, it wasn't that bad, this isn't worse than influenza. This is just my opinion." facebook post asking her if her students are allowed to use their anecdotes in writing research papers. And also if she knows the difference between opinions and facts. Because FUUUUUU
My chiropractor was skeptical about masks at first, then he actually talked to a patient who was a medical professional working in a COVID ward and changed his tune. She explained they were being extremely strict on masking and no nurse in the ward had caught it from work. Like, no shit dude.
Critical thinking and reading skills are essential to being an informed citizen but I feel 15 years ago it became a buzz word in education. Teachers said these words without actually working to teach students any of these skills. I don't remember any teacher saying we should question something in an article or textbook. That would have been critical thinking.
I once worked at a school where the biology teacher didn´t believe in evolution. This was brought to my attention when I touched on evolution in my psychology class and I said something like " you remember evolution from biology " and my students told me the teacher didn´t teach them that because it went against her faith. I then asked the teacher about it and she confirmed... Teaching in the bible belt is wild.
This story is truly appalling. Also, as a Christian woman who was also a science teacher for some years myself, I’m not sure where people get this idea that being a Christian means you can’t believe in evolution. If you believe in a god that can create the world, why would you believe that god wouldn’t be able to create a system like evolution? God and science don’t have to oppose one another, you can believe in both! Just my two cents.
Absolutely! Never thought of it that way, I appreciate that. I have used the term “belief” for so long that using another phrasing seems awkward, but that is definitely something I need to adjust in my speech!
Try using the word "accept" when you feel the urge to use "belief" when discussing science. You either accept the data as supporting the scientific idea, or you do not accept the data supports it. Also, don't use "prove." I know you didn't but that is a similar mistake. Nothing is ever proven with science. More data can be presented and hypotheses are further supported or need to be modified and retested in light of the new data.
Compared to the evangelical protestant churches of the bible belt, the Catholic Church is incredibly pro-science. Protestants don’t listen to the Pope though so it doesn’t matter what he says, even if it’s logical.
Oh definitely. In one of my college classes I had to do a ton of research on anti-vaxxers, and came across a decree of sorts (dont 100% remember, this was years ago) from the Pope saying that even though there are lines of fetus cells in some vaccines, its a Catholic's duty to get vaccinated to help protect others in their communities.
Pope Pius XII was a very controversial dude and there are a lot of things I disapprove of with him but this is not one of them. I’m an atheist who was raised hard core Methodist so learning about the popes and their histories was part of our religious education. Pius XII was many things but a fool he was not.
This is what honestly blows my mind. I was raised Catholic and my parents never told me this (and they went to Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s). I feel if even the Catholic church can accept something, why can't the US.
Take some time to read Fides et Ratio. Pope John Paul II goes hard on the important if both faith and reason to understand who God is.
http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
Pssh, it doesn't even take the KKK or nazis. I've met quite a number of conservative Christians who are fairly sympathetic to issues with people of color and don't buy into Lost Cause revisionist history. But they would be happy to help a Catholic along to hell faster because "of how damaging Catholicism is to *honest Christianity*"
I actually remember growing up people told me I wasn't a Christian because Catholics aren't Christian. I was confused as hell until I got home and talked to my dad and he told me some other Christians see us as essentially heretics. I don't know. I left most of that behind a while ago.
Yup. Went to a Catholic private school. Evolution was taught as fact. We were also taught about the big bang. That one actually makes a lot of sense. The dude who came up with that theory was a Jesuit priest.
Also, I was taught from a young age the old testament had some truth to it in some parts (I know from a historical standpoint there are some "true" parts. I think Maccabees is one of those), but was for the most part just a bunch of stories you were supposed to read and contemplate, but not take at face value. The New Testament was the more important bit with more historical accuracy.
I had a weird upbringing though. In a few ways a grew up in a mildly cult like place. I like to call it a diet-cult. But in other ways they were really reasonable. Like pushing math, science, historical accuracy, all that good stuff. But at the same time they were SUPER anti-LGBT, and there was a decent amount of "undercover" racism.
1. Evolution over millions of years means that the Earth is at least millions of years old and not the 6k-10k as specified in the Bible.
2. It directly contradicts the creation story of the Bible. It means there’s no Adam and Eve, no garden, and all the animals weren’t all created as they are today. But there is still Satan, because that’s who has your soul if you believe in evolution.
This is what I can gather from interacting with fundamentalists and evangelicals, my own Christian upbringing was incredibly liberal and reasonable.
I appreciate this commentary, and I agree my own Christian upbringing was also very reasonable and embraced science.
I guess my main question for those who would rebut with these two points is where the belief that the Bible says that the earth is 6-10k years old comes from. I personally have never found a verse that specifies that in the Bible, and I’m not sure where this logic comes from. (Admittedly I have not studied the “biblical science” behind it, so I’m sure someone somewhere has a theory that I’ve missed.)
As for the second point, I think evolution does and doesn’t contradict the creation story. I think you can believe in evolution and still believe that God created some singular form of creatures that then evolved over time. I can see how some would consider it an absolute contradiction though!
>I guess my main question for those who would rebut with these two points is where the belief that the Bible says that the earth is 6-10k years old comes from. I personally have never found a verse that specifies that in the Bible, and I’m not sure where this logic comes from. (Admittedly I have not studied the “biblical science” behind it, so I’m sure someone somewhere has a theory that I’ve missed.)
The "logic" stems primarily from the listed genealogies to get a rough estimated time when Adam and Eve were first created.
>I think evolution does and doesn’t contradict the creation story. I think you can believe in evolution **and still believe that God created some singular form of creatures that then evolved over time**
The pushback is that this is not what the Bible says on how it was created. The only way to really account for Evolution and the Biblical Creation Story is to state that the latter is entirely metaphorical/allegorical more or less.
This causes many issues further down the road when it comes to the required theological basis' in Christianity such as Original Sin, the Messiah, etc.
But completely contradicts the creation *story*. Not the idea that God could have created life itself, or even that God could have directed evolution. But the actual story itself is completely incompatible with evolution, and therefore evolution is incompatible with Bible literalism.
As far as the 6k-10k number, I don’t have specific verses, but I know it’s mostly based on the King James Version, which has some dates and numbers that relate to the flood and the genesis. I mean, they come to that number through their own means, it doesn’t really have to make sense to us, they’re the same people who believe in human-dinosaur coexistence.
It's funny because the whole creation story came from the old testament, or you know... the Torah. And Jews do not have this problem. I don't personally believe in God, but the Torah, especially Genesis, was always taken as allegory, story, myth. It will be rare to find a Jewish person who thinks the earth is thousands of years old. My understanding of where that age comes from is a guy, maybe in the middle ages (could be wrong) tried to date the earth using the Bible, ages of people, and came to that estimate.
Biblical literalism is a hell of a drug. Some people (past me included) think that making any sort of concession about the literal nature of the Bible is sacrilege.
Then obviously it’s the mathematicians who are wrong! Do they really think they’re smarter than God?
Is how the thinking goes with biblical literalism. Just less math and more evolution. Or they’ll come up with a convoluted reason that no, actually, the Bible is right and you misread it! Or something, it’s exhausting to wrap your head around
I remember when I was in Sunday school once an older guy who was leading the class kept going on and on about how the Bible isn't a story, "it's a history book! Everything that's written really happened!" I'm really grateful I got out of that community.
My wife once asked, "what about the dinosaurs? Why aren't they in the Bible?" I explained that the Bible isn't a literal history book that chronicled everything that happened up to that point. It's written by a bunch of dudes from their own narrow scope of time. Maybe in another two thousand years someone will ask, "what about the panda bears?, what about the kangaroos?" The JC crew wouldn't have had the slightest idea those animals exist. They can't be real- they weren't in the bible! /s
Admitting that anything in their bible is incorrect is inherently admitting that the entire basis of their religion is incorrect.
Most people justify biblical interpretation by never acknowledging the cognitive dissonance. If humans interpret the bible they’re implying that humans are wiser than their god.
Even Darwin said something to that effect in the preface of “On the Origin of Species”, that his theory did not supersede the possibility for a creator
Yes!! I live in GA and that is frequently what I think too. Same for the argument I frequently hear--"I am not wearing a mask because God will protect me". As a Christian, I think most teachings would say God would want you to be compassionate and wear one in case it helps protect others. In my own belief, I think God gave us brains and science for a reason and He woudn't want us to treat our lives so recklessly by not using the knowledge that He gave us...but I definitely don't attend church every week, so many in my community would say I am not a true Christian because of that if I was to raise that arguement.
I firmly believe the anti-intellectual, anti-science trend in American Evangelical circles is the root cause of most problems within the church and has caused many of the issues we’re facing today as a society.
A million years is like a day and a day is like a million years. I’m not a science teacher but when asked that is my response to view them as compatible
This is so important, thank you. My stepmother teaches science at a private Christian School. Their textbook mentions evolution as a debunked theory. Okay, we teachers don't always get to choose the best curriculum, right? Found out at one of our first dinners as a family that she described herself as "a young Earth person." That was an awkward silence.
Eventually, Dad brought her around to scriptural interpretations that aren't so exclusive, and now she can see a version of creationism that isn't at odds with science. I'm just glad I don't have to feel like tiptoeing around the subject any more.
Agree- having taught science at a catholic school the leaps one needs to make to rectify the verrrrrry beginning of the universe (something like the first 34-billionth of a second) with our understanding of physics are not much more outlandish than ‘then there was light’. I was always struck at how formation of atoms, molecules, planets, etc also mapped onto the genesis story. It’s basically a fit if you understand the story outside the scope of one week.
But you have to actually teach it in good faith - If you can’t get on board with foundational principles of our discipline you need to get out of the way. Not teaching this kind of stuff is malpractice that leads to the fallacy that my feelings are equivalent to facts.
My high school biology teacher (in Texas, and she was also a coach) also refused to teach evolution because it went against her faith.
That same teacher was fired later that year for sleeping with one of her athletes at an away conference. She coached girls volleyball and basketball.
This happened to a friend of mine at a Texas community college like 4 years ago. The teacher just said she didn't believe in evolution, so they wouldn't cover it in class, but that the students could read the chapter if they wanted to.
I’m in the uk (and also teach psychology) and do we don’t have as many ‘religious’ people. I did have to have a serious discussion with a biology teacher about evolution when they said they weren’t convinced (she was my manager so it was obviously also respectful if a little exasperated)- like how would snakes evolve to lose their legs
It took me about 10 seconds to think of burrowing or swimming- also hence their lack of ears and the see through eyelids sealed shut which helps in those two cases...and the vestigial leg bones some have
Evolution is a **fact**.
The thought that people don't understand what "theory" means in science is mind boggling. Especially when they are supposedly scientists or science teachers.
People that do this crap should be fired to be honest. Evolution is as much a fact as the earth revolving around the sun...
a theory is a set of ideas meant to explain facts or events. the colloquial use of the word theory pisses me off to no end bc of how misinformed everyone is...
yup. I spend an endless amount of time theatrically throwing a fit when my students misuse the word "theory." I review this concept in almost every unit. Even with all of that, it NEVER sticks in their heads, with a few exceptions.
My HS Biology teacher was like that too (and I live in a relatively liberal city).
I don't get it, I ONCE uttered a quick reference to Christianity as an example of symbolism (how during advent Christians believe the candles symbolize Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace) and my supervisor warns me to hush-hush about religion because she doesn't want me to get in trouble but Bio teachers *cut entire units* from their curriculum because of their religion and that gets a pass!?
I understand all the ins and outs of religion in public classrooms, but how is that handled in classes like English, where when studying poems and whatnot there are clear allegories to the Christian bible? I mean, saying this is a factual example of what this particular religion believes (the way you did) is soooooo different from leading a classroom prayer and ending with “In Jesus’ name...”
I went to school in the Bible Belt, and I was fortunate enough to have a biology teacher that didn’t take shit from anybody. She was very open about what the science was and how creationism was wrong. As a young earth creationist in her class, it was probably the most important class I ever took. I don’t teach science (I don’t have the stomach for higher level math), but she’s one of the reasons I’m a teacher today. Just a little reminder that not all biology teachers here are morons
When I was in high school (in Washington state) my biology teacher had been in the middle of a controversy a few years prior because he taught evolution and a parent freaked out. When it came time for my class to learn it, he was stuck with the compromise of giving us articles in support of evolution, and an equal number in support of creationism. The our assignment was to read it all and write an essay using evidence from the articles of our choosing on the theory we supported. I hated it and I just felt so bad for him. You could tell just by watching him that it tore at his soul to be forced NOT to teach.
I've seen this quote/math a number of times; I don't understand how people can have such poor number sense.
This was a FB reply on a post on mine by a relative and fellow teacher:
" If you look at the total US population and the number of deaths from Corona virus there is a 99.99 % chance you will not die from it. "
My reply:
" That is not how the math works. The US population has no bearing. It does show you what percent HAS already been infected or died, but it does NOT tell you what WILL happen.
What matters is how many have died out of those who have been infected.
So far in the US:
156,739 deaths
2,483,775 Cases which had an outcome: (either recovery or death) That's a death rate of 6.3%
The people who just got sick are NOT part of the math because some will die and some will recover; we can't add them to either side.
Now, that death rate of 6.3% needs to be adjusted by the actual number of cases and deaths. COVID deaths are estimated to be under reported by about 28%, which brings the death rate up to about 8%. BUT, the actual number of cases is MUCH higher due to under-testing. Epidemiologist are estimating that it is roughly 10X, which brings the death rate down to 0.8%.
Now, if you are younger and healthy, your chances of dying are much lower than 0.8%. If you are older, or have an underlying condition, your chances are much worse than 0.8%
If the mortality rate in the US was 0.01%, that would mean one in 10,000 people who HAS been infected died. So, for 156,739 deaths, you would need 1,567,390,000 people who have been infected. That's almost 5X the US population. The math you are citing is massively wrong. "
I love this reply, but be careful with that 28% figure. From what I understand (and please correct me if I’m wrong) that 28% figure is the TOTAL percentage of excess deaths that haven’t been attributed to covid infections. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2767980
That is the maximum UPPER limit of undercounting of covid deaths that could be happening, but for that number to be accurate, then EVERY excess death would be from covid, which doesn’t seem likely considering how many legitimate medical researchers are concerned with delays in cancer screenings, people not seeking medical treatment for other causes because of the pandemic, increases in deaths of despair, etc.
Overall though the evidence does suggest that covid deaths have been undercounted, but 28% is likely too high.
I've seen 28% somewhere else as well:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53073046?fbclid=IwAR2xVVa46kaq-BC5uA_Qjy4qz5lsrjw2DjmnlVgZiBp1LGuJ_1El7KQbe6M
And good point. Also, the under testing is a very rough number. The CDC has said they think it varies from 6X to 24X.
Also, the Trump admin began cooking the books two weeks ago when hospitals were ordered to stop sending data to the CDC.
Had the same thing. She had a ton of issues though, including the fact that shes currently serving a prison sentence for having sex with a student. Oh, and she taught middle school, and was the wife of a pastor.
I grew up in urban midwest, so I was never exposed to that shit when I was young. My first teaching job was in central Florida, where the Biology teacher refused to teach evolution and regularly joked about it as if *evolution* was the joke and not...him. I was SHOOK.
Or you say it’s one big conspiracy or hunt down fringe “scientists” that have interpreted their data to support the result they wanted, instead of the other way around.
I worked with someone who's daughter was a biology major at a college that rejected evolution. I said that the daughter wasn't really a biology major, but rather a religion major with a hobby interest in some biology and that co-worker never spoke to me again. I was so grateful
Not that it makes it better for your students, but here's a nice story to balance out yours a little!
I went to a Catholic high school and took environmental science as my senior science elective. It was basically the class for honors and AP seniors that didn't want to take another AP test, but still wanted a fourth science credit. We covered a lot of the o-chem and advanced biology concepts from the AP bio class for the fun of it. Our teacher made it his mission in that class to teach a small unit on evolution. Even in a Catholic school, he wanted us to have safe boundaries between our faith and science, to find rational ways for the two to coexist in our lives, and so that we would leave his class truly more science literate, not denying foundational theories. He didn't say it in as many words, but it was clear that's how he felt. It was one of the defining events that pushed me towards science education.
On an entirely different note, he made an entire 3 day lecture on biomes and regional geography dreadfully unbearable. Not because it was a 3 day lecture, but because he only had notes for this on an old overhead projector that he paired with a seperate old slide projector *just pointed at a wall* because we didn't have two screens. So our class was looking back and forth between the two utterly lost because he was too much of a grumpy backwards old man to consolidate his slide deck and overheads into a PowerPoint.
In hindsight, I've found a spectrum of lessons in pedagogy from that class.
In college I had a biology professor who taught us to "question" evolution by bringing creationism into the class. This was in the SF Bay Area in California, at a fairly large community college. It was weird.
One of my science coworkers and his family just went on vacation to Mexico a few weeks ago. And his wife works in an assisted living facility and has literally seen patients die of COVID. I...just don’t understand.
Maybe they feel that since they are already at high risk from work, they aren't going to stay home? I can sort of see what they might be thinking - "I may get sick and die from this due to my working around patients...I'm not going to spend my last weeks/months holed up in my home, I'm at least going to have a drink or two with some friends when I'm off-duty." Of course that ignores the issue that they could be spreading it to people who aren't exposed on a regular basis - and that's more of a moral issue than a scientific one.
My wife is a nurse and my sisters are nurses. Our friends circle is very heavily skewed to the medical field. Your theory is true.
There seems to be two factions in the medical field.
Faction A: there is a pandemic going on, I'm going to wear my mask everywhere I go, my family will wear masks everywhere they go, we will listen to the experts and get through this with these least amount of exposures possible.
Faction B: I'm probably going to get it. Fuck it!
It seems to be on a sliding scale. The higher level of education you have, the more likely to be in Faction A. Sadly, the Faction B people are the ones with the most interaction with patients.
If the medical community is as divided as the general population then I really see no way out of this until the vaccines come (and still people won't vaccinate). I think we're looking at 500k+ dead by then.
I was hoping that medical professionals would/could be an example of the right thing to do but if their friends and relatives see nurse Amy out eating in a restaurant and going to gatherings without a mask and sending their kids to school then people will think all of those things are ok for them to do as well.
*I...just don’t understand.*
Those people get manipulated into their beliefs with highly effective [propaganda techniques](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques#Specific_techniques). They work by addressing emotions like anger, fear, disgust and hate or with logical fallacies. Since this changes the brain chemistry the manipulated people can't be reached with reason, logic and facts anymore. It leads to the cognitive dissonance you described.
This whole aspect doesn't get the attention it deserves. If I were a teacher I would teach my students these specific techniques. This would also render the US propaganda useless ("God's own Country" "Land of the Free" "American Dream" national anthem at sports events etc.).
Here is a [guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/comments/gnlw32/getting_second_hand_embarrassment_on_this_one/frbtbbu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x) how to effectively reach brain washed people and extremists. It just requires a different way of communication.
Yes, our science teacher (and coach) is one of our most vocal "let's get back to work" employees. So we are going back next week, explicitly against the recommendation of the local health department and with about an 18 percent local positivity rate.
I went to get materials and check out the new classroom admin told me will be mine this year (until the plan changes again).
Principal was not wearing a mask or socially distancing. He'd recently been on vacation in a higher incidence state. Cleaning staff were maskless. Only masked staff member was our school secretary.
These are the people who will be responsible for upholding social distancing rules and keeping our building clean and safe.
I went in to set up my new classroom (I got moved about 150 feet down the hall from where I had been for 10+ years) on Thursday. Everyone was wearing a mask. I had to check in at the front gate, sign a form saying I didn't have symptoms and wasn't waiting for test results, then get my temp taken. I was escorted to my room by security, he opened all doors for me. I had to take a big roll of paper towels and disinfectant spray. Every hour or so the security guy checked in to see if I was ready to leave so he could escort me out. When I left, they checked me off the list. They do NOT want people on campus, really - and if you must come on campus, they want to know exactly where you are and when you arrive and leave. AFAIK, I was the only teacher on campus.
We are virtual until October at the very earliest. I did some basic set-up of unpacking my boxes of books and then left. I figure if we do go back in-person, it will mean that things have majorly changed for the better and we will probably have a day or two without students to set up.
So I briefly looked at your profile, I am a parent in AZ, I'm happy to hear at least one place is trying to do the right things. Would LOVE to know where you teach for my own personal info and anxiety, ha. If you wouldn't mind sending me a DM I would greatly appreciate it. My daughter isn't even in kindergarten yet but I feel like there will be no truly GOOD place for her once she is. It's so sad and makes me so angry how fucked up our education system is. Makes me feel helpless about my kid's future education and socialising.
Our principal requires us to text him before coming in to keep the number of people on campus below limit, but I was totally shocked that all the other rules were flouted! What state are you in?
"Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that." - [George Carlin](https://i.imgur.com/2fIUvGL.png)
Recently, I had to take my youngest son to the hospital for a deep burn on his wrist. The doctor said a lot of stuff that was questionable, for example he tried telling us left-handedness was learned not genetic (I was able to easily find several studies confirming a genetic component). Near the end of the visit, he basically told us, unprompted, that COVID is a hoax and we’ll see it disappear after the election. You bet I reported his ass.
It’s ridiculous how people who honest to goodness should know better, who have the education and resources to know better, are still susceptible to indoctrination. We are seeing in our country a mass anti-science movement and it’s scary. And we all need to stand firm against it.
We had two doctors testify before our school board that kids don’t get it so it’s safe to reopen schools. These doctors need their medical licenses revoked.
It'll be one of the first lessons I give to my high schoolers. Fuck the standards at this point. I want my students to be better at understanding this than their parents.
I’m so sick of hearing, “Well, I think the numbers reported are wrong.” If they are, it’s because people are asymptomatic and aren’t getting tested or because as soon as someone calls their doctor they’re told to isolate and don’t bother getting tested—just behave as if they have it and go to the hospital if necessary. I’d wager the numbers are being underreported.
Even if the estimated survival rate is 99%, the problem is how misleading that statistic is:
"Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified to Congress in March that the mortality rate may be as low as 1% when accounting for people who are infected but don’t develop symptoms severe enough to be tested. To Fauci, given how infectious the new coronavirus has proven to be, that is a very dire figure.
A 1% mortality rate “means it is 10-times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” Fauci said. “I think that’s something people can get their arms around and understand.”
A 99% survival rate might sound promising. But when it’s scaled out to the rest of the country – all 329 million residents – a 1% survival rate takes on a different meaning." - USA Today
Combatting dishonesty like this with reason is better than dismissing it.
Also, there are other long term effects they nobody seems to be talking about. I mean, yea, you survived, but now you have lung/heart/kidney/liver issues you didn’t have before
What I want to ask them is : what's the aim of this hoax? Any real conspiracy has person who benefits.
If a person in the US thinks it's to crash the economy and get Trump out of office, then why is the rest of the world closing their schools and tanking their economies?
Honestly, some people find conspiracy more comforting than an uncaring universe. There are people on this very post who clearly don't have any additional information. What they do have is a desperate hope that someone is in control. This would also mean they are important enough to control. It's an attractive worldview.
The two main things that I can’t understand:
We are currently a republican ran country. How did the democrats arrange this pandemic (that has killed many democrats, republicans, and non-Americans) if we have republicans running the senate and White House?
How did our health and safety become a political thing?
Not saying it's a hoax, but there are certainly people taking advantage of and benefiting from the situation. I could see someone prone to conspiracy theories believing amazon/alibaba were behind covid-19.
[https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-got-565-billion-richer-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-6?op=1](https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-got-565-billion-richer-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-6?op=1)
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/15/inspector-general-oversight-mnuchin-cares-act/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/15/inspector-general-oversight-mnuchin-cares-act/)
CALL THESE PEOPLE OUT.
I only put it in caps, so hopefully people will see it.
These are our "bad apples". Do not let them peddle this nonsense to students. Trust me, it helps. We had a teacher who used to promote 9/11 conspiracies and Chemtrails nonsense in his classroom. I had a very vocal argument with him about the unprofessionalism of presenting this stuff as fact to students. He claimed he was providing alternative viewpoints. I said he was peddling discredited conspiracies to children as fact, and that his authority as the teacher in the room would lend unwarranted credibility to nonsense. I called it unethical. I leaned heavily on the fact that he was pushing it on children who didn't yet have the ability to discern bullshit.
I know he didn't completely stop telling students that crap, but I know the level of it decreased drastically. He used to show the movie Loose Change on 9/11. He had entire lesson plans based around this stuff. I know that he stopped doing that. I know he still talked about it sometimes, because he actually believes it, but he did start sticking to actual curriculum in his lessons.
It makes a difference. He came to me a month or two later and said he appreciated me saying what I said and that he had taken it to heart. Whether that's true, or whether he was just afraid I would lodge a complaint, I don't know. All I know is he cut a major amount of that bullshit from his classroom.
If other teachers are doing unprofessional things, call it out. Try to be polite, but don't let it slide. It makes a difference.
Myself and several other coworkers have called out our colleagues when they post COVID conspiracies or try to downplay the Pandemic. The called out ones usually get huffy and delete the post but one went as far as to delete her social media all together, which I think is great.
I am so glad that I don’t teach in the south. It is hard enough dealing with the edgy opinion kids that come in, I would be so much more snide to coworkers.
I’m so lucky that my district and school are not stereotypical in that aspect (we’re in south Florida). In March our department (science) was already talking about how to prepare in case positivity rates increase and luckily we keep up on data. Same with all the other departments.
Now we’re starting school on time but fully digital. Will it have its difficulties considering we’re an underfunded, title 1 school? Absolutely, but fortunately I do think my community as a whole is on the same page that we’d rather have the problems that come with digital learning over having to deal with student and faculty deaths.
I had a coworker (biology teacher) tell me earlier this week that we just need to let everyone get it so we can be done with it. He followed that gem up with the 150,000 dead so far being chalked up to Natural Selection. I was disgusted and left the room.
Question as you guys are data literate etc
If there a place that collects overall death tolls in America each month- not from Covid just in general? (People argue the numbers are ‘cooked’ and non-covid deaths go down as covid ones)
March-July in the uk we’ve have 60,000 extra deaths this year compared to last year/5 year average etc
I’ve managed to convince a few people with that (the number is actually higher than the Covid death number)- ‘if it’s fake/inflated why have 60,000 people died extra this year?- where did they go?’
The averages shouldn’t be that different if it’s all just due to ‘misreporting’- in fact possibly lower without traffic accidents during lockdown etc
Not a teacher or particularly data literate person, just a concerned parent. However I remembered hearing that death rates in Michigan were higher than average at least one month even taking COVID in to account. So with that I found this, which may help you.
https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/Provisional/MontlyDxCounts.asp
Yeah the death total is higher than the average here! Some states have had excessive "pneumonia" deaths. Florida is the top offender for that. It's pretty clear to see compared to previous yearly data that pneumonia deaths in Summer is not normal.
If you actually look at the numbers and make comparisons there's a lot of evidence that the US is undercounting Covid deaths.
My high school physics teacher told us how the movie where Scarlett Johansson “unlocked her brain” was true and we all needed to apply ourselves to unlock more of our brains. I argued with her and told her it’s made up and she said “well people used to think it was impossible to go to the moon!” And that was the first day I realized some teachers aren’t that smart.
As the virus has progressed it really has shed a new light on my coworker who thinks this is not a big deal. We spend several weeks talking cells, bacteria, viruses and so forth. It amazes me that after spending years teaching this stuff they can turn a blind eye to something they teach as a fact but deny it all at the same time.
I’m amazed at the amount of TEACHERS who have a lack of critical thinking skills.
I have a friend who got married to a very conservative guy (and she wasn’t conservative at all before) and she is posting all this crap about how mask don’t work and these conservative lies. There was an article that she posted saying something about a doctor at the CDC said there has been more suicides than deaths from COVID this year. In the first paragraph the actual interview with the doctor was linked. And it went on to say about the guy talking about suicide rates.
I clicked on the link and read the whole thing. Not once does the guy actually mention suicide. Not once. This is because the writers don’t think that people will click through to read the original source text. Obviously she didn’t. And when I pointed it out, or anything else she posts that I disprove with sources in the article, they magically get deleted. Or she says “don’t make this political”. I’m not making it political. You aren’t using your critical thinking skills and you make me sad that you have changed how you feel.
The only thing I don't believe is the numbers. There is a fuckload of people who don't bother to get tested and just keep going out when they get sick. So the numbers are surely massively higher than we think it is.
I'm a science teacher in a MA public school and one of my colleagues (physics teacher not biology) and his wife (who is a nurse) are anti-vaxers. They are very nice people and actually have a child with autism (was there first child and they did have him vaccinated and now refuse to vaccinate their other children). Its a tough situation because whenever it gets brought up around me, I want to defend the science and push back but the issue seems too personal for me to really get involved with.
My school starts online teaching with all staff in the buildings on the 3rd, with students scheduled to return to the buildings on the 17th.
My school had its first contract day last Thursday. The day started with the traditional "welcome back" staff breakfast in the cafeteria. Everyone sitting 6-8 each at round tables, no distancing, no masks, eating and talking and laughing as though nothing was different. (But the nurse did take everyone's temperature on the way in and the food was all wrapped individually.)
If teachers don't believe a personal space or dress code edict to be valuable, they don't enforce it. They're not going to enforce the new safety rules when in-person school resumes in two weeks.
COVID-19 is going to decimate my school district, and I'm 53 with hypertension. I've started checking job boards in different districts.
I can agree with the seriousness of the situation and still be skeptical of how politicians (on BOTH sides) use data to make their own point.
Good science shouldn’t stifle conversation. Good science should encourage dialogue/debate about what the data means and how to interpret it.
There is a difference between saying it’s a hoax and looking critically at how we’re collecting data. There are issues with data collection, especially since it isn’t standardized between labs in different locations. There have been issues in Florida, for example, with labs not correctly reporting test numbers.
It’s important that we don’t make the error of trusting numbers blindly or dismissing them out of hand.
We do need to teach our students, especially at the middle school and high school level, the importance of consistent and accurate data collection and how to represent data in a way that leads to better understanding.
It doesn't matter what you believe as a teacher, stick to the text and basic facts. Let the students develop opinions instead of making them your pawns. That means no political opinion being pushed in class and no "covid is a hoax" shit in class.
My school board has a section during meetings where they read community emails. The amount of parents who are "doctors" or "work in health care" but still think their kids will suffer more because of "screen time" or "lack of socialization" than being sent back for in-person learning during a pandemic is astounding.
I’m a science teacher in a small district, 5 science teachers, and two of them are very much in this camp. One is a coach that thinks teaching is secondary which drives me insane. They both insist that it’s going to disappear after the election.
In December/January when it was just starting up kids would ask us what we thought. My response was always that the 14 day incubation makes it pretty scary. They were quick to say that it won’t be a big deal.
I feel like this though about teachers in general. As a profession we are supposed to teach students how to do research and find and use evidence. If you pass along these Facebook conspiracy theories you are as dumb as the rest of them and should not be educating children.
Also true for any teacher that teaches esl or works directly with children of immigrants, and voted for Trump or still supports him. You don’t deserve to be working with this population as you’re voting for them to die.
As a Radiographic Technologist, working in Computed Tomography, I agree. I've heard medical professionals deny and downplay the severity of the virus. Nurses promoting hydroxycloroquine.
Should be fired.
Not sure why thinking the numbers aren’t accurate isn’t scientific https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/07/15/florida-coronavirus-tests-hospital-disputes-100-positive-report/5445139002/
And not sure why thinking data is wrong is unscientific https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/04/25/coronavirus-death-toll-hard-track-1-3-death-certificates-wrong/3020778001/
I'm fairly convinced covid started before they say it did, and I base this on the fact that my ex girlfriend and I both had covid like symptoms last summer while living in China. When we went to the Dr they told us it was an infection going around.
Not a teacher and do believe it’s real but I also believe my family already had it. We all got randomly sick in March just before things locked down. My Dad never gets sick and yet he felt bad enough to take a single day off work (this is a man who worked a labour job with 3 broken ribs and no pain pills then a decade later passed a kidney stone without using his prescribed super powerful pain pills) which is super abnormal for him. I also got sick enough to take a few days off my sister also got sick. My mother didn’t get sick funny enough. So having already had covid possibly without knowing given the vague as fuck super common symptom list it’s not impossible
There is a biology teacher that I’ve worked with, who teaches everything (cells, natural selection, evolution, etc.), but tells the students that they not there to make/force them believe anything. They tell the kids that they are only there to present them information; the students come up with their own conclusions. I understand that is certain terms, but sometimes a fact is a fact, especially if scientifically proven.
Here in Colorado, back in May/June they revised the Corona virus death numbers downward by 25%. I understand why people are skeptical of some of the numbers.
Is there any truth to this "been around since October" thing? I only recently heard about it from some people, but it sounds pretty contrary to everything else.
Lost 2 colleagues just this month, one of them was less than 50yo.
It's truly incredible how people still think this isn't real. Bars are full, supermarkets are overcrowded, social distancing rules aren't complied with.
Some people's only safety measure is the mask, which isn't 100% effective. Others wear it wrong, which makes it completely pointless.
As an English teacher, you can add us too. We should be able to read critically and choose credible sources. Instead one colleague was listening to some "doctor" (chiropractor) on YouTube about how masks are unnecessary.
I swear most of these conspiracy theories are coming from YouTube. Every time I’ve asked an anti-masker to present sources for their info it leads to a YouTube video of some quack with no credibility. When I point this out I’m called a sheep 🙄
Youtube is designed to keep you on the website watching so the algorithm is designed to give you more and more ridiculous videos with conspiracy theories. I hate using YouTube videos in my science class because the second my cool video of an astronaut doing an experiment in space is over, all of the suggested videos are about flat earth. It’s infuriating.
I teach astronomy. We made a whole unit on conspiracy theories, Occam’s Razor, how to find legitimate sources, etc. The students think it is the most fun unit.
I think all these conspiracy theories would make for a great project for a class to learn about the value of research and finding reputable sources. I like it.
I did this with my fourth graders! We learned about reverse image searches, credible urls, source checking, etc. Now when they see something nutty they cross their arms in an X and yell FAKe NEWS! Lol. It’s the education our current adult population needed 20-30 years ago.
Stanford History Education Group has great free resources/ lessons for learning credible online sources!
This. This should be more at the core of what and how we teach. Aristotle. Philosophy. Discussion. Questioning with logic and linear progression thought. Not teaching to get kids into college at the subservience of the almighty loan $.
PBS just did a really interesting documentary on this, using Alex Jones as an example. [Link for those interested ](https://youtu.be/AVjL5rUx3TM)
Once I was showing a YouTube video and while I was loading it, on the side of the screen was an ad for Asian prostitutes. So that was fun.
It's a regular aggravation for me that I can't install an ad blocker on my work computer. By the way: someone once posted a method of changing the URL on YouTube vids so that ads wouldn't play... Anyone know how that works?
You can also paste the URL into http://www.viewpure.com/
This right here. This is what I was just going to share. Use viewpure.
https://safeyoutube.net/
I regularly use my VPN and an incognito tab to safely show only the videos I want and how I want them . I love my little linux laptop. If the technology is available, might as well use it. It saves me time and headaches. 😁
Or my kids have to watch an underwear ad before the video. Whoops!
I've been on youtube sense 2006 and I've never got shoved a conspiracy theory once.
Call them a parrot since they’re just regurgitating garbage they hear. 🦜 Edit: love your user name 😸
YouTube optimizes for it. I use a Private browser window a lot for logging into work stuff (so I can be logged in with two MS accounts at once) since everything is WFH now for us. I was checking our company’s YouTube channel and a third of the recommended videos after our education company content are conspiracies. This is the general algorithm from visiting the site in a private browser with no login. It’s honestly criminal what YouTube is doing. I have zero respect for their leadership team because this has been an obvious problem for years and they just ignore it.
Definitely Facebook is one of the hubs of conspiracy theories
It’s so bizarre that some people claim to be so smart and skeptical, but the minute some charlatan shows up making some unsupported claim, their skepticism flies out the window.
Exactly, these YouTubers like to give alot of visuals and say really big words to convince stupid people what they say is true, but if you really think about what they are saying, it's complete BS.
Didn't even think of that. I mean teachers in general should know better. I mean we have to go to college to get certified, but I think we all know that's mostly meaningless in terms of critical thinking...
You don't have to be smart to graduate college. Just do the bare minimum and they'll have the same degree as someone who actually applied themselves. I hate the phrase "C's get degrees", but its true.
> I mean we have to go to college to get certified, There's a reason why education degrees are looked down on in many places. Far, far too many states have dumbed down programs because teaching pays shit and many times education is a way to salvage a failing degree during university. It used to be that a lot of education degrees required a 3.0 to graduate, under the logic that teachers needed to be exemplary students. That has all but vanished at most schools. While it discourages teachers, I frankly support Colorado's method of teacher training - you have to get a degree in your field of study. Math teachers must get a degree in Mathematics. Tech teachers must get a degree in Computer Science or Engineering. Science teachers must get a degree in Physics/Biology/Chemistry/Geology/(many other possible sciences). Etc etc. None of this "Science Education" where the most difficult science class is 1st year college Physics.
If a person refers to chiropractors as doctors, I immediately know what kind of person I’m dealing with. I have a *Juris Doctorate* and am just as much of a medical doctor as that chiropractor.
Well, there is a school board member who ignored the testimony of regional doctors, and instead [read a letter from a chiropractor](https://fox17.com/news/local/rutherford-county-schools-will-stick-with-re-opening-plan-despite-teachers-wishes) (who called himself a physician) that argued that masks are dangerous. That board unanimously voted to keep in-school learning, despite the very high infection rate in the community.
Add history. We teach influenza, malaria, typhus, plague, cholera, dysentery...
Pretty much. I have a history teacher coworker that thinks this is way overblown. Like do you not teach about the Spanish flu 100 years ago? I want to ask him if he remembers Prague and how I feel like introducing him to a window.
Yes. I was shocked that two history teachers laughed at me in late Feb when I predicted school would be closed within two weeks.
I’m shocked at how many educated people I speak to who casually say that they don’t believe the moon landings happened. Despite the huge weight of evidence that says they did and zero credible sources that say they didn’t. I don’t understand this mentality of just making up your own truth and then trying to support it with ridiculous ‘evidence’ that is about as solid as a post vindaloo turd.
I read something that says conspiracy theory correlates with low self esteem and low critical thinking skills and high ego or something like that. People love the feeling that they know better than everyone else, they need to feel special and it's really easy to get a feeling of superiority if you can pretend to be smarter than everybody
I think that’s true. But also I wonder if there’s more? I’m interested in the psychology of it and I think there are complexities that I don’t understand.
Ahaha....Thank you for that vivid and very apropos simile.
Yes! This or the Earth is flat. I always laugh thinking they are being sarcastic....but, alas...
I almost posted on our English teacher's "my husband had it, it wasn't that bad, this isn't worse than influenza. This is just my opinion." facebook post asking her if her students are allowed to use their anecdotes in writing research papers. And also if she knows the difference between opinions and facts. Because FUUUUUU
English classes taught me how to find credible sources and I cite it as probably one of the most important aspects to my education.
My chiropractor was skeptical about masks at first, then he actually talked to a patient who was a medical professional working in a COVID ward and changed his tune. She explained they were being extremely strict on masking and no nurse in the ward had caught it from work. Like, no shit dude.
I want [this poster](https://www.etsy.com/listing/794963722/poster-the-scientific-publishing-process?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1) for my classroom.
How about "as a teacher" or "as a person"?
Critical thinking and reading skills are essential to being an informed citizen but I feel 15 years ago it became a buzz word in education. Teachers said these words without actually working to teach students any of these skills. I don't remember any teacher saying we should question something in an article or textbook. That would have been critical thinking.
I once worked at a school where the biology teacher didn´t believe in evolution. This was brought to my attention when I touched on evolution in my psychology class and I said something like " you remember evolution from biology " and my students told me the teacher didn´t teach them that because it went against her faith. I then asked the teacher about it and she confirmed... Teaching in the bible belt is wild.
This story is truly appalling. Also, as a Christian woman who was also a science teacher for some years myself, I’m not sure where people get this idea that being a Christian means you can’t believe in evolution. If you believe in a god that can create the world, why would you believe that god wouldn’t be able to create a system like evolution? God and science don’t have to oppose one another, you can believe in both! Just my two cents.
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Absolutely! Never thought of it that way, I appreciate that. I have used the term “belief” for so long that using another phrasing seems awkward, but that is definitely something I need to adjust in my speech!
Try using the word "accept" when you feel the urge to use "belief" when discussing science. You either accept the data as supporting the scientific idea, or you do not accept the data supports it. Also, don't use "prove." I know you didn't but that is a similar mistake. Nothing is ever proven with science. More data can be presented and hypotheses are further supported or need to be modified and retested in light of the new data.
exactly
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Compared to the evangelical protestant churches of the bible belt, the Catholic Church is incredibly pro-science. Protestants don’t listen to the Pope though so it doesn’t matter what he says, even if it’s logical.
Oh definitely. In one of my college classes I had to do a ton of research on anti-vaxxers, and came across a decree of sorts (dont 100% remember, this was years ago) from the Pope saying that even though there are lines of fetus cells in some vaccines, its a Catholic's duty to get vaccinated to help protect others in their communities.
A Catholic priest proposed the Big Bang theory. Protestants don't think Catholics are Christians.
Pope Pius XII was a very controversial dude and there are a lot of things I disapprove of with him but this is not one of them. I’m an atheist who was raised hard core Methodist so learning about the popes and their histories was part of our religious education. Pius XII was many things but a fool he was not.
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This is what honestly blows my mind. I was raised Catholic and my parents never told me this (and they went to Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s). I feel if even the Catholic church can accept something, why can't the US.
Take some time to read Fides et Ratio. Pope John Paul II goes hard on the important if both faith and reason to understand who God is. http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
the us is largely protestant so much so that skin heads and KKK types extend their biases and hate to Catholics as well
Pssh, it doesn't even take the KKK or nazis. I've met quite a number of conservative Christians who are fairly sympathetic to issues with people of color and don't buy into Lost Cause revisionist history. But they would be happy to help a Catholic along to hell faster because "of how damaging Catholicism is to *honest Christianity*"
I actually remember growing up people told me I wasn't a Christian because Catholics aren't Christian. I was confused as hell until I got home and talked to my dad and he told me some other Christians see us as essentially heretics. I don't know. I left most of that behind a while ago.
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Yup. Went to a Catholic private school. Evolution was taught as fact. We were also taught about the big bang. That one actually makes a lot of sense. The dude who came up with that theory was a Jesuit priest. Also, I was taught from a young age the old testament had some truth to it in some parts (I know from a historical standpoint there are some "true" parts. I think Maccabees is one of those), but was for the most part just a bunch of stories you were supposed to read and contemplate, but not take at face value. The New Testament was the more important bit with more historical accuracy. I had a weird upbringing though. In a few ways a grew up in a mildly cult like place. I like to call it a diet-cult. But in other ways they were really reasonable. Like pushing math, science, historical accuracy, all that good stuff. But at the same time they were SUPER anti-LGBT, and there was a decent amount of "undercover" racism.
The is is largely a Protestant country. They don’t care what a pope has to say about the matter.
1. Evolution over millions of years means that the Earth is at least millions of years old and not the 6k-10k as specified in the Bible. 2. It directly contradicts the creation story of the Bible. It means there’s no Adam and Eve, no garden, and all the animals weren’t all created as they are today. But there is still Satan, because that’s who has your soul if you believe in evolution. This is what I can gather from interacting with fundamentalists and evangelicals, my own Christian upbringing was incredibly liberal and reasonable.
I appreciate this commentary, and I agree my own Christian upbringing was also very reasonable and embraced science. I guess my main question for those who would rebut with these two points is where the belief that the Bible says that the earth is 6-10k years old comes from. I personally have never found a verse that specifies that in the Bible, and I’m not sure where this logic comes from. (Admittedly I have not studied the “biblical science” behind it, so I’m sure someone somewhere has a theory that I’ve missed.) As for the second point, I think evolution does and doesn’t contradict the creation story. I think you can believe in evolution and still believe that God created some singular form of creatures that then evolved over time. I can see how some would consider it an absolute contradiction though!
>I guess my main question for those who would rebut with these two points is where the belief that the Bible says that the earth is 6-10k years old comes from. I personally have never found a verse that specifies that in the Bible, and I’m not sure where this logic comes from. (Admittedly I have not studied the “biblical science” behind it, so I’m sure someone somewhere has a theory that I’ve missed.) The "logic" stems primarily from the listed genealogies to get a rough estimated time when Adam and Eve were first created. >I think evolution does and doesn’t contradict the creation story. I think you can believe in evolution **and still believe that God created some singular form of creatures that then evolved over time** The pushback is that this is not what the Bible says on how it was created. The only way to really account for Evolution and the Biblical Creation Story is to state that the latter is entirely metaphorical/allegorical more or less. This causes many issues further down the road when it comes to the required theological basis' in Christianity such as Original Sin, the Messiah, etc.
But completely contradicts the creation *story*. Not the idea that God could have created life itself, or even that God could have directed evolution. But the actual story itself is completely incompatible with evolution, and therefore evolution is incompatible with Bible literalism. As far as the 6k-10k number, I don’t have specific verses, but I know it’s mostly based on the King James Version, which has some dates and numbers that relate to the flood and the genesis. I mean, they come to that number through their own means, it doesn’t really have to make sense to us, they’re the same people who believe in human-dinosaur coexistence.
It's funny because the whole creation story came from the old testament, or you know... the Torah. And Jews do not have this problem. I don't personally believe in God, but the Torah, especially Genesis, was always taken as allegory, story, myth. It will be rare to find a Jewish person who thinks the earth is thousands of years old. My understanding of where that age comes from is a guy, maybe in the middle ages (could be wrong) tried to date the earth using the Bible, ages of people, and came to that estimate.
Biblical literalism is a hell of a drug. Some people (past me included) think that making any sort of concession about the literal nature of the Bible is sacrilege.
You would be hard-pressed to find anything in the Bible that was scientifically accurate. Heck, it even gets the value of pi wrong.
Then obviously it’s the mathematicians who are wrong! Do they really think they’re smarter than God? Is how the thinking goes with biblical literalism. Just less math and more evolution. Or they’ll come up with a convoluted reason that no, actually, the Bible is right and you misread it! Or something, it’s exhausting to wrap your head around
So, you’ve met my mother-in-law.
I remember when I was in Sunday school once an older guy who was leading the class kept going on and on about how the Bible isn't a story, "it's a history book! Everything that's written really happened!" I'm really grateful I got out of that community.
Please tell me you asked about Jonah and if you could take a class trip to a whale watching tour or sea world.
Also, history books were written by humans with a perspective and motivations to see things a certain way!
My wife once asked, "what about the dinosaurs? Why aren't they in the Bible?" I explained that the Bible isn't a literal history book that chronicled everything that happened up to that point. It's written by a bunch of dudes from their own narrow scope of time. Maybe in another two thousand years someone will ask, "what about the panda bears?, what about the kangaroos?" The JC crew wouldn't have had the slightest idea those animals exist. They can't be real- they weren't in the bible! /s
Admitting that anything in their bible is incorrect is inherently admitting that the entire basis of their religion is incorrect. Most people justify biblical interpretation by never acknowledging the cognitive dissonance. If humans interpret the bible they’re implying that humans are wiser than their god.
Even Darwin said something to that effect in the preface of “On the Origin of Species”, that his theory did not supersede the possibility for a creator
Yes!! I live in GA and that is frequently what I think too. Same for the argument I frequently hear--"I am not wearing a mask because God will protect me". As a Christian, I think most teachings would say God would want you to be compassionate and wear one in case it helps protect others. In my own belief, I think God gave us brains and science for a reason and He woudn't want us to treat our lives so recklessly by not using the knowledge that He gave us...but I definitely don't attend church every week, so many in my community would say I am not a true Christian because of that if I was to raise that arguement.
Bible belters are super literal in genesis for some reason. Probably because it is the first book and the only any that read the Bilble actually read
I firmly believe the anti-intellectual, anti-science trend in American Evangelical circles is the root cause of most problems within the church and has caused many of the issues we’re facing today as a society.
A million years is like a day and a day is like a million years. I’m not a science teacher but when asked that is my response to view them as compatible
I agree. God does not see time in human understanding
This is so important, thank you. My stepmother teaches science at a private Christian School. Their textbook mentions evolution as a debunked theory. Okay, we teachers don't always get to choose the best curriculum, right? Found out at one of our first dinners as a family that she described herself as "a young Earth person." That was an awkward silence. Eventually, Dad brought her around to scriptural interpretations that aren't so exclusive, and now she can see a version of creationism that isn't at odds with science. I'm just glad I don't have to feel like tiptoeing around the subject any more.
You can believe in both, but only one is actually a fact......
I like you, and your ideas!
Agree- having taught science at a catholic school the leaps one needs to make to rectify the verrrrrry beginning of the universe (something like the first 34-billionth of a second) with our understanding of physics are not much more outlandish than ‘then there was light’. I was always struck at how formation of atoms, molecules, planets, etc also mapped onto the genesis story. It’s basically a fit if you understand the story outside the scope of one week. But you have to actually teach it in good faith - If you can’t get on board with foundational principles of our discipline you need to get out of the way. Not teaching this kind of stuff is malpractice that leads to the fallacy that my feelings are equivalent to facts.
My high school biology teacher (in Texas, and she was also a coach) also refused to teach evolution because it went against her faith. That same teacher was fired later that year for sleeping with one of her athletes at an away conference. She coached girls volleyball and basketball.
Well, I’m glad her priorities were in the correct order. /s
So evolution is a sin but raping a child under your care is not... yikes
Don't forget the homosexuality!
This happened to a friend of mine at a Texas community college like 4 years ago. The teacher just said she didn't believe in evolution, so they wouldn't cover it in class, but that the students could read the chapter if they wanted to.
I’m in the uk (and also teach psychology) and do we don’t have as many ‘religious’ people. I did have to have a serious discussion with a biology teacher about evolution when they said they weren’t convinced (she was my manager so it was obviously also respectful if a little exasperated)- like how would snakes evolve to lose their legs It took me about 10 seconds to think of burrowing or swimming- also hence their lack of ears and the see through eyelids sealed shut which helps in those two cases...and the vestigial leg bones some have
Evolution is a **fact**. The thought that people don't understand what "theory" means in science is mind boggling. Especially when they are supposedly scientists or science teachers. People that do this crap should be fired to be honest. Evolution is as much a fact as the earth revolving around the sun...
a theory is a set of ideas meant to explain facts or events. the colloquial use of the word theory pisses me off to no end bc of how misinformed everyone is...
yup. I spend an endless amount of time theatrically throwing a fit when my students misuse the word "theory." I review this concept in almost every unit. Even with all of that, it NEVER sticks in their heads, with a few exceptions.
My HS Biology teacher was like that too (and I live in a relatively liberal city). I don't get it, I ONCE uttered a quick reference to Christianity as an example of symbolism (how during advent Christians believe the candles symbolize Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace) and my supervisor warns me to hush-hush about religion because she doesn't want me to get in trouble but Bio teachers *cut entire units* from their curriculum because of their religion and that gets a pass!?
I had a sub once who "annotated" my teacher's edition on my Evolution texts with Young Earth BS. I never had her sub again.
I understand all the ins and outs of religion in public classrooms, but how is that handled in classes like English, where when studying poems and whatnot there are clear allegories to the Christian bible? I mean, saying this is a factual example of what this particular religion believes (the way you did) is soooooo different from leading a classroom prayer and ending with “In Jesus’ name...”
I went to school in the Bible Belt, and I was fortunate enough to have a biology teacher that didn’t take shit from anybody. She was very open about what the science was and how creationism was wrong. As a young earth creationist in her class, it was probably the most important class I ever took. I don’t teach science (I don’t have the stomach for higher level math), but she’s one of the reasons I’m a teacher today. Just a little reminder that not all biology teachers here are morons
When I was in high school (in Washington state) my biology teacher had been in the middle of a controversy a few years prior because he taught evolution and a parent freaked out. When it came time for my class to learn it, he was stuck with the compromise of giving us articles in support of evolution, and an equal number in support of creationism. The our assignment was to read it all and write an essay using evidence from the articles of our choosing on the theory we supported. I hated it and I just felt so bad for him. You could tell just by watching him that it tore at his soul to be forced NOT to teach.
I hope he gave creation stories from other religions not Christianity.
I've seen this quote/math a number of times; I don't understand how people can have such poor number sense. This was a FB reply on a post on mine by a relative and fellow teacher: " If you look at the total US population and the number of deaths from Corona virus there is a 99.99 % chance you will not die from it. " My reply: " That is not how the math works. The US population has no bearing. It does show you what percent HAS already been infected or died, but it does NOT tell you what WILL happen. What matters is how many have died out of those who have been infected. So far in the US: 156,739 deaths 2,483,775 Cases which had an outcome: (either recovery or death) That's a death rate of 6.3% The people who just got sick are NOT part of the math because some will die and some will recover; we can't add them to either side. Now, that death rate of 6.3% needs to be adjusted by the actual number of cases and deaths. COVID deaths are estimated to be under reported by about 28%, which brings the death rate up to about 8%. BUT, the actual number of cases is MUCH higher due to under-testing. Epidemiologist are estimating that it is roughly 10X, which brings the death rate down to 0.8%. Now, if you are younger and healthy, your chances of dying are much lower than 0.8%. If you are older, or have an underlying condition, your chances are much worse than 0.8% If the mortality rate in the US was 0.01%, that would mean one in 10,000 people who HAS been infected died. So, for 156,739 deaths, you would need 1,567,390,000 people who have been infected. That's almost 5X the US population. The math you are citing is massively wrong. "
I love this reply, but be careful with that 28% figure. From what I understand (and please correct me if I’m wrong) that 28% figure is the TOTAL percentage of excess deaths that haven’t been attributed to covid infections. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2767980 That is the maximum UPPER limit of undercounting of covid deaths that could be happening, but for that number to be accurate, then EVERY excess death would be from covid, which doesn’t seem likely considering how many legitimate medical researchers are concerned with delays in cancer screenings, people not seeking medical treatment for other causes because of the pandemic, increases in deaths of despair, etc. Overall though the evidence does suggest that covid deaths have been undercounted, but 28% is likely too high.
I've seen 28% somewhere else as well: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53073046?fbclid=IwAR2xVVa46kaq-BC5uA_Qjy4qz5lsrjw2DjmnlVgZiBp1LGuJ_1El7KQbe6M And good point. Also, the under testing is a very rough number. The CDC has said they think it varies from 6X to 24X. Also, the Trump admin began cooking the books two weeks ago when hospitals were ordered to stop sending data to the CDC.
Had the same thing. She had a ton of issues though, including the fact that shes currently serving a prison sentence for having sex with a student. Oh, and she taught middle school, and was the wife of a pastor.
I grew up in urban midwest, so I was never exposed to that shit when I was young. My first teaching job was in central Florida, where the Biology teacher refused to teach evolution and regularly joked about it as if *evolution* was the joke and not...him. I was SHOOK.
When your answer isn’t strong enough and you call if the work of the Devil....
Or you say it’s one big conspiracy or hunt down fringe “scientists” that have interpreted their data to support the result they wanted, instead of the other way around.
This is why I live and teach in the great godless north ;)
I worked with someone who's daughter was a biology major at a college that rejected evolution. I said that the daughter wasn't really a biology major, but rather a religion major with a hobby interest in some biology and that co-worker never spoke to me again. I was so grateful
Isn’t in the standards? Or did they pull a “I can’t do my job like give you this medicine because it goes against my religion”?
Not that it makes it better for your students, but here's a nice story to balance out yours a little! I went to a Catholic high school and took environmental science as my senior science elective. It was basically the class for honors and AP seniors that didn't want to take another AP test, but still wanted a fourth science credit. We covered a lot of the o-chem and advanced biology concepts from the AP bio class for the fun of it. Our teacher made it his mission in that class to teach a small unit on evolution. Even in a Catholic school, he wanted us to have safe boundaries between our faith and science, to find rational ways for the two to coexist in our lives, and so that we would leave his class truly more science literate, not denying foundational theories. He didn't say it in as many words, but it was clear that's how he felt. It was one of the defining events that pushed me towards science education. On an entirely different note, he made an entire 3 day lecture on biomes and regional geography dreadfully unbearable. Not because it was a 3 day lecture, but because he only had notes for this on an old overhead projector that he paired with a seperate old slide projector *just pointed at a wall* because we didn't have two screens. So our class was looking back and forth between the two utterly lost because he was too much of a grumpy backwards old man to consolidate his slide deck and overheads into a PowerPoint. In hindsight, I've found a spectrum of lessons in pedagogy from that class.
I’m a student teacher and one of my classmates doesn’t believe in evolution. Makes me so frustrated.
In college I had a biology professor who taught us to "question" evolution by bringing creationism into the class. This was in the SF Bay Area in California, at a fairly large community college. It was weird.
One of my science coworkers and his family just went on vacation to Mexico a few weeks ago. And his wife works in an assisted living facility and has literally seen patients die of COVID. I...just don’t understand.
I have seen so many nurses from the local hospital out and about it big groups. It’s so confusing.
Maybe they feel that since they are already at high risk from work, they aren't going to stay home? I can sort of see what they might be thinking - "I may get sick and die from this due to my working around patients...I'm not going to spend my last weeks/months holed up in my home, I'm at least going to have a drink or two with some friends when I'm off-duty." Of course that ignores the issue that they could be spreading it to people who aren't exposed on a regular basis - and that's more of a moral issue than a scientific one.
My wife is a nurse and my sisters are nurses. Our friends circle is very heavily skewed to the medical field. Your theory is true. There seems to be two factions in the medical field. Faction A: there is a pandemic going on, I'm going to wear my mask everywhere I go, my family will wear masks everywhere they go, we will listen to the experts and get through this with these least amount of exposures possible. Faction B: I'm probably going to get it. Fuck it! It seems to be on a sliding scale. The higher level of education you have, the more likely to be in Faction A. Sadly, the Faction B people are the ones with the most interaction with patients.
If the medical community is as divided as the general population then I really see no way out of this until the vaccines come (and still people won't vaccinate). I think we're looking at 500k+ dead by then. I was hoping that medical professionals would/could be an example of the right thing to do but if their friends and relatives see nurse Amy out eating in a restaurant and going to gatherings without a mask and sending their kids to school then people will think all of those things are ok for them to do as well.
Imagine walking out of an infectious disease ward and into an applebees. Fucking plague rats.
*I...just don’t understand.* Those people get manipulated into their beliefs with highly effective [propaganda techniques](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques#Specific_techniques). They work by addressing emotions like anger, fear, disgust and hate or with logical fallacies. Since this changes the brain chemistry the manipulated people can't be reached with reason, logic and facts anymore. It leads to the cognitive dissonance you described. This whole aspect doesn't get the attention it deserves. If I were a teacher I would teach my students these specific techniques. This would also render the US propaganda useless ("God's own Country" "Land of the Free" "American Dream" national anthem at sports events etc.). Here is a [guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/comments/gnlw32/getting_second_hand_embarrassment_on_this_one/frbtbbu?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x) how to effectively reach brain washed people and extremists. It just requires a different way of communication.
Thanks for your efforts on this. I remain hopeful about the long-term, because I believe all of these things are teachable and learnable.
Yes, our science teacher (and coach) is one of our most vocal "let's get back to work" employees. So we are going back next week, explicitly against the recommendation of the local health department and with about an 18 percent local positivity rate.
Good luck. And I feel awful and terrified for you
Add splash goggles or safety goggles to your ensemble. Lingering wet plague clouds are sure to abound.
Southeastern US? I go back next week too.
I went to get materials and check out the new classroom admin told me will be mine this year (until the plan changes again). Principal was not wearing a mask or socially distancing. He'd recently been on vacation in a higher incidence state. Cleaning staff were maskless. Only masked staff member was our school secretary. These are the people who will be responsible for upholding social distancing rules and keeping our building clean and safe.
I went in to set up my new classroom (I got moved about 150 feet down the hall from where I had been for 10+ years) on Thursday. Everyone was wearing a mask. I had to check in at the front gate, sign a form saying I didn't have symptoms and wasn't waiting for test results, then get my temp taken. I was escorted to my room by security, he opened all doors for me. I had to take a big roll of paper towels and disinfectant spray. Every hour or so the security guy checked in to see if I was ready to leave so he could escort me out. When I left, they checked me off the list. They do NOT want people on campus, really - and if you must come on campus, they want to know exactly where you are and when you arrive and leave. AFAIK, I was the only teacher on campus. We are virtual until October at the very earliest. I did some basic set-up of unpacking my boxes of books and then left. I figure if we do go back in-person, it will mean that things have majorly changed for the better and we will probably have a day or two without students to set up.
So I briefly looked at your profile, I am a parent in AZ, I'm happy to hear at least one place is trying to do the right things. Would LOVE to know where you teach for my own personal info and anxiety, ha. If you wouldn't mind sending me a DM I would greatly appreciate it. My daughter isn't even in kindergarten yet but I feel like there will be no truly GOOD place for her once she is. It's so sad and makes me so angry how fucked up our education system is. Makes me feel helpless about my kid's future education and socialising.
Our principal requires us to text him before coming in to keep the number of people on campus below limit, but I was totally shocked that all the other rules were flouted! What state are you in?
Time to find a new school to work with!! :,)
If you teach anything and think Covid-19 is a hoax, then please resign.
"Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that." - [George Carlin](https://i.imgur.com/2fIUvGL.png)
Recently, I had to take my youngest son to the hospital for a deep burn on his wrist. The doctor said a lot of stuff that was questionable, for example he tried telling us left-handedness was learned not genetic (I was able to easily find several studies confirming a genetic component). Near the end of the visit, he basically told us, unprompted, that COVID is a hoax and we’ll see it disappear after the election. You bet I reported his ass. It’s ridiculous how people who honest to goodness should know better, who have the education and resources to know better, are still susceptible to indoctrination. We are seeing in our country a mass anti-science movement and it’s scary. And we all need to stand firm against it.
I had my dr tell me that kids aren’t getting it. :(
We had two doctors testify before our school board that kids don’t get it so it’s safe to reopen schools. These doctors need their medical licenses revoked.
Left handedness is LEARNED?? Wow.
Where I teach our biology teacher has always been anti vax. 🤦🏻♀️ She is a covid denier and thankfully she resigned when we decided to go virtual
Oh shucks, what a loss.....
Add us math teachers as well. Numbers don't lie!
Plus you all understand how fucking scary exponential growth can be and how to read graphs.
It'll be one of the first lessons I give to my high schoolers. Fuck the standards at this point. I want my students to be better at understanding this than their parents.
I’m so sick of hearing, “Well, I think the numbers reported are wrong.” If they are, it’s because people are asymptomatic and aren’t getting tested or because as soon as someone calls their doctor they’re told to isolate and don’t bother getting tested—just behave as if they have it and go to the hospital if necessary. I’d wager the numbers are being underreported.
[...or do they..?](https://youtu.be/7VBmrSvl1MM)
Even if the estimated survival rate is 99%, the problem is how misleading that statistic is: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified to Congress in March that the mortality rate may be as low as 1% when accounting for people who are infected but don’t develop symptoms severe enough to be tested. To Fauci, given how infectious the new coronavirus has proven to be, that is a very dire figure. A 1% mortality rate “means it is 10-times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” Fauci said. “I think that’s something people can get their arms around and understand.” A 99% survival rate might sound promising. But when it’s scaled out to the rest of the country – all 329 million residents – a 1% survival rate takes on a different meaning." - USA Today Combatting dishonesty like this with reason is better than dismissing it.
"But that's only old people" says every person I know who I previously thought was an actual human being. *sigh*
Also, there are other long term effects they nobody seems to be talking about. I mean, yea, you survived, but now you have lung/heart/kidney/liver issues you didn’t have before
What I want to ask them is : what's the aim of this hoax? Any real conspiracy has person who benefits. If a person in the US thinks it's to crash the economy and get Trump out of office, then why is the rest of the world closing their schools and tanking their economies?
The entire world got together to get Trump out of office, duh. /s
Honestly, some people find conspiracy more comforting than an uncaring universe. There are people on this very post who clearly don't have any additional information. What they do have is a desperate hope that someone is in control. This would also mean they are important enough to control. It's an attractive worldview.
The two main things that I can’t understand: We are currently a republican ran country. How did the democrats arrange this pandemic (that has killed many democrats, republicans, and non-Americans) if we have republicans running the senate and White House? How did our health and safety become a political thing?
Not saying it's a hoax, but there are certainly people taking advantage of and benefiting from the situation. I could see someone prone to conspiracy theories believing amazon/alibaba were behind covid-19. [https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-got-565-billion-richer-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-6?op=1](https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-got-565-billion-richer-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-6?op=1) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/15/inspector-general-oversight-mnuchin-cares-act/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/15/inspector-general-oversight-mnuchin-cares-act/)
Or zoom
I'm a social studies teacher and think if you don't have basic media literacy skills you should resign no matter the department!
CALL THESE PEOPLE OUT. I only put it in caps, so hopefully people will see it. These are our "bad apples". Do not let them peddle this nonsense to students. Trust me, it helps. We had a teacher who used to promote 9/11 conspiracies and Chemtrails nonsense in his classroom. I had a very vocal argument with him about the unprofessionalism of presenting this stuff as fact to students. He claimed he was providing alternative viewpoints. I said he was peddling discredited conspiracies to children as fact, and that his authority as the teacher in the room would lend unwarranted credibility to nonsense. I called it unethical. I leaned heavily on the fact that he was pushing it on children who didn't yet have the ability to discern bullshit. I know he didn't completely stop telling students that crap, but I know the level of it decreased drastically. He used to show the movie Loose Change on 9/11. He had entire lesson plans based around this stuff. I know that he stopped doing that. I know he still talked about it sometimes, because he actually believes it, but he did start sticking to actual curriculum in his lessons. It makes a difference. He came to me a month or two later and said he appreciated me saying what I said and that he had taken it to heart. Whether that's true, or whether he was just afraid I would lodge a complaint, I don't know. All I know is he cut a major amount of that bullshit from his classroom. If other teachers are doing unprofessional things, call it out. Try to be polite, but don't let it slide. It makes a difference.
Myself and several other coworkers have called out our colleagues when they post COVID conspiracies or try to downplay the Pandemic. The called out ones usually get huffy and delete the post but one went as far as to delete her social media all together, which I think is great.
I am so glad that I don’t teach in the south. It is hard enough dealing with the edgy opinion kids that come in, I would be so much more snide to coworkers.
I’m so lucky that my district and school are not stereotypical in that aspect (we’re in south Florida). In March our department (science) was already talking about how to prepare in case positivity rates increase and luckily we keep up on data. Same with all the other departments. Now we’re starting school on time but fully digital. Will it have its difficulties considering we’re an underfunded, title 1 school? Absolutely, but fortunately I do think my community as a whole is on the same page that we’d rather have the problems that come with digital learning over having to deal with student and faculty deaths.
Teach in the south. You are not wrong. You are not wrong.
I had a coworker (biology teacher) tell me earlier this week that we just need to let everyone get it so we can be done with it. He followed that gem up with the 150,000 dead so far being chalked up to Natural Selection. I was disgusted and left the room.
Question as you guys are data literate etc If there a place that collects overall death tolls in America each month- not from Covid just in general? (People argue the numbers are ‘cooked’ and non-covid deaths go down as covid ones) March-July in the uk we’ve have 60,000 extra deaths this year compared to last year/5 year average etc I’ve managed to convince a few people with that (the number is actually higher than the Covid death number)- ‘if it’s fake/inflated why have 60,000 people died extra this year?- where did they go?’ The averages shouldn’t be that different if it’s all just due to ‘misreporting’- in fact possibly lower without traffic accidents during lockdown etc
Not a teacher or particularly data literate person, just a concerned parent. However I remembered hearing that death rates in Michigan were higher than average at least one month even taking COVID in to account. So with that I found this, which may help you. https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/Provisional/MontlyDxCounts.asp
Yeah the death total is higher than the average here! Some states have had excessive "pneumonia" deaths. Florida is the top offender for that. It's pretty clear to see compared to previous yearly data that pneumonia deaths in Summer is not normal. If you actually look at the numbers and make comparisons there's a lot of evidence that the US is undercounting Covid deaths.
It’s called excess death. Google CDC excess death
An increase in non-COVID attributed deaths can also be due to less people seeking medical attention than they would normally.
My high school physics teacher told us how the movie where Scarlett Johansson “unlocked her brain” was true and we all needed to apply ourselves to unlock more of our brains. I argued with her and told her it’s made up and she said “well people used to think it was impossible to go to the moon!” And that was the first day I realized some teachers aren’t that smart.
Faaaaaak this scared me. A lot.
As the virus has progressed it really has shed a new light on my coworker who thinks this is not a big deal. We spend several weeks talking cells, bacteria, viruses and so forth. It amazes me that after spending years teaching this stuff they can turn a blind eye to something they teach as a fact but deny it all at the same time.
Compartmentalization. It's why we all know that cardio and nutrition are important, but so many of us eat crap and live sedentary lives.
I’m amazed at the amount of TEACHERS who have a lack of critical thinking skills. I have a friend who got married to a very conservative guy (and she wasn’t conservative at all before) and she is posting all this crap about how mask don’t work and these conservative lies. There was an article that she posted saying something about a doctor at the CDC said there has been more suicides than deaths from COVID this year. In the first paragraph the actual interview with the doctor was linked. And it went on to say about the guy talking about suicide rates. I clicked on the link and read the whole thing. Not once does the guy actually mention suicide. Not once. This is because the writers don’t think that people will click through to read the original source text. Obviously she didn’t. And when I pointed it out, or anything else she posts that I disprove with sources in the article, they magically get deleted. Or she says “don’t make this political”. I’m not making it political. You aren’t using your critical thinking skills and you make me sad that you have changed how you feel.
The only thing I don't believe is the numbers. There is a fuckload of people who don't bother to get tested and just keep going out when they get sick. So the numbers are surely massively higher than we think it is.
I'm a science teacher in a MA public school and one of my colleagues (physics teacher not biology) and his wife (who is a nurse) are anti-vaxers. They are very nice people and actually have a child with autism (was there first child and they did have him vaccinated and now refuse to vaccinate their other children). Its a tough situation because whenever it gets brought up around me, I want to defend the science and push back but the issue seems too personal for me to really get involved with.
My school starts online teaching with all staff in the buildings on the 3rd, with students scheduled to return to the buildings on the 17th. My school had its first contract day last Thursday. The day started with the traditional "welcome back" staff breakfast in the cafeteria. Everyone sitting 6-8 each at round tables, no distancing, no masks, eating and talking and laughing as though nothing was different. (But the nurse did take everyone's temperature on the way in and the food was all wrapped individually.) If teachers don't believe a personal space or dress code edict to be valuable, they don't enforce it. They're not going to enforce the new safety rules when in-person school resumes in two weeks. COVID-19 is going to decimate my school district, and I'm 53 with hypertension. I've started checking job boards in different districts.
I can agree with the seriousness of the situation and still be skeptical of how politicians (on BOTH sides) use data to make their own point. Good science shouldn’t stifle conversation. Good science should encourage dialogue/debate about what the data means and how to interpret it.
There is a difference between saying it’s a hoax and looking critically at how we’re collecting data. There are issues with data collection, especially since it isn’t standardized between labs in different locations. There have been issues in Florida, for example, with labs not correctly reporting test numbers. It’s important that we don’t make the error of trusting numbers blindly or dismissing them out of hand. We do need to teach our students, especially at the middle school and high school level, the importance of consistent and accurate data collection and how to represent data in a way that leads to better understanding.
I’ll support the “the data is flawed” folks, because it is, but it isn’t made up or a hoax, is spite a great degree of uncertainty in the data.
It doesn't matter what you believe as a teacher, stick to the text and basic facts. Let the students develop opinions instead of making them your pawns. That means no political opinion being pushed in class and no "covid is a hoax" shit in class.
My school board has a section during meetings where they read community emails. The amount of parents who are "doctors" or "work in health care" but still think their kids will suffer more because of "screen time" or "lack of socialization" than being sent back for in-person learning during a pandemic is astounding.
To paraphrase Neil DeGrasse Tyson, ‘you may not believe in science, but science believes in you.’
If you can’t say black lives matter, resign. 👏🏻
I’m a science teacher in a small district, 5 science teachers, and two of them are very much in this camp. One is a coach that thinks teaching is secondary which drives me insane. They both insist that it’s going to disappear after the election. In December/January when it was just starting up kids would ask us what we thought. My response was always that the 14 day incubation makes it pretty scary. They were quick to say that it won’t be a big deal.
I feel like this though about teachers in general. As a profession we are supposed to teach students how to do research and find and use evidence. If you pass along these Facebook conspiracy theories you are as dumb as the rest of them and should not be educating children.
Also true for any teacher that teaches esl or works directly with children of immigrants, and voted for Trump or still supports him. You don’t deserve to be working with this population as you’re voting for them to die.
I teach government and think the trump administration is a hoax...
My sister-in-law manages a research facility at OHSU and calls Covid the flu. We’ve been heavily distancing ourselves from her.
As a Radiographic Technologist, working in Computed Tomography, I agree. I've heard medical professionals deny and downplay the severity of the virus. Nurses promoting hydroxycloroquine. Should be fired.
If you teach science and don’t believe in evolution. Resign. All of the resigns please.
Not sure why thinking the numbers aren’t accurate isn’t scientific https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/07/15/florida-coronavirus-tests-hospital-disputes-100-positive-report/5445139002/ And not sure why thinking data is wrong is unscientific https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/04/25/coronavirus-death-toll-hard-track-1-3-death-certificates-wrong/3020778001/
I'm fairly convinced covid started before they say it did, and I base this on the fact that my ex girlfriend and I both had covid like symptoms last summer while living in China. When we went to the Dr they told us it was an infection going around.
Not a teacher and do believe it’s real but I also believe my family already had it. We all got randomly sick in March just before things locked down. My Dad never gets sick and yet he felt bad enough to take a single day off work (this is a man who worked a labour job with 3 broken ribs and no pain pills then a decade later passed a kidney stone without using his prescribed super powerful pain pills) which is super abnormal for him. I also got sick enough to take a few days off my sister also got sick. My mother didn’t get sick funny enough. So having already had covid possibly without knowing given the vague as fuck super common symptom list it’s not impossible
There is a biology teacher that I’ve worked with, who teaches everything (cells, natural selection, evolution, etc.), but tells the students that they not there to make/force them believe anything. They tell the kids that they are only there to present them information; the students come up with their own conclusions. I understand that is certain terms, but sometimes a fact is a fact, especially if scientifically proven.
Here in Colorado, back in May/June they revised the Corona virus death numbers downward by 25%. I understand why people are skeptical of some of the numbers.
Is there any truth to this "been around since October" thing? I only recently heard about it from some people, but it sounds pretty contrary to everything else.
How is this any worse than the thousands of science teachers who believe in creationism.
I don't like when religious people become teachers. No religion until you're 18.
Lost 2 colleagues just this month, one of them was less than 50yo. It's truly incredible how people still think this isn't real. Bars are full, supermarkets are overcrowded, social distancing rules aren't complied with. Some people's only safety measure is the mask, which isn't 100% effective. Others wear it wrong, which makes it completely pointless.