First they came for biology, then for enviromental science....

It's a shame the way that science can't just conform to right wing ideology. If science would just cooperate and fudge evidence in order to help the wingnuts, things would just go more smoothly, don't you think?

Evolution has been under attack by the wingnuts on and off for a century now. And it's a shame for wingnuttery that enviromental scientists won't ignore evidence for the enviromental consequences of pollution. And now it seems that another branch of science--psychology--is fixing to get the attention of the hoardes of censoring wingnuts. The crime? Refusing to pretend that homosexuality is a disease to placate the sexphobes.

The topic of homosexuality is taboo in the Nebo School District.

So the school district in southern Utah County is having trouble finding a replacement for outmoded psychology textbooks at its three high schools....

State law bans teachers or texts from advocating homosexuality, but Nebo District's policy is more restrictive. "Our policy is that it will not be taught unless it is teaching the negative consequences thereof," said Nedra Call, Nebo's director of curriculum.

The schools are in a bind. Who knew it was going to be so hard to find a textbook publisher that was unwilling to lie to kids the psychology community's assessment of homosexuality, that it is not a disease but simply a sexual orientation like heterosexuality? Too bad Utah's not as powerful as Texas, where we can get textbook publishers to publish books stuffed full of lies for our schoolkids.

Things are not as bleak as they may seem to the wingnuts of Utah--they can at least count on many fine teachers who understand their job is not to educate, but to restrict student access to information so they grow up to be fine, close-minded reactionaries. Priscilla Leek is one such teacher who knows that a teacher's job is to keep knowledge from students, not impart it.

Leek said. "I don't teach homosexuality. But if it appears in a textbook, there's nothing I can do to keep students from reading it."

Keeping students from reading is a difficult part of the job of an educator, and yes, it is easier to do if the textbooks never fall into their hands.

Via The Republic of T.