State Capitol & Legislature Building, Nashville, Tennessee, 22 March 2009. rbglasson / flickr

[Looks like some parts of the U.S. have passed Peak Education.] By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
1 May 2012 Wishing doesn’t make it so, but don’t tell that to the Tennessee Legislature. It seems determined to lead the nation in yearning for an era when Genesis was the last word on science, when there were no gay people, and nobody engaged in non-marital sex, so there were no teenage pregnancies and no unwanted children. There was no such time, of course. But that doesn’t seem to deter the Republican majority, which has brought us such modern wonders as a bill to protect teachers who preach the “scientific weaknesses” of “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning,” and a bill that would prohibit elementary and middle school teachers from mentioning the existence of homosexuality. And now they have sent a bill to Gov. Bill Haslam that would bar sex-ed teachers in public schools from promoting “gateway” sexual activity. Teachers must “exclusively and emphatically” endorse abstinence or risk a $500 fine. They may mention contraceptives only in the context of pointing out their inferiority to simply not having sex. […]

Just Say No: No Science, No Sex, No Gay People