Houston Chronicle blogger Eric Berger wrote about a proposal in front of the Texas State Board of Education to remove Neil Armstrong from the 5th grade science textbooks.
Their reasoning for it isn't all that surprising.
The team said they made this proposal because he was not a scientist.
Please let me know if this was already diaried, because I assume I'm not the only space geek here.
The proposal before the Texas BoE is from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills review team, which is a group made up of teachers and parents, looks to remove Neil Armstrong from 5th grade science textbooks because he "was not a scientist" Berger writes that if the board votes in favor of this proposal it will:
Effectively this would remove the mention of Armstrong has a figure of historical significance from 5th grade textbooks.
When asked by Berger about the idea to remove Neil Armstrong's name from science textbooks. The BoE's spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe explained that:
The team said they made this proposal because he was not a scientist. The State Board of Education has not voted for or against that proposal yet. It won't vote on the social studies proposal until January.
Just from a educational standard, the removal of Neil Armstrong from science textbooks marks not just an attack on science, but on American and world history itself. This proposal is an insult to every man and woman who has ever worked at NASA. As well as to the memories of those lost on Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia.
Oh and just so everyone is clear. Neil Armstrong is a scientist.
He received an aeronautical engineering from Purdue University, and a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. He later was a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
Oh and he was the first person to walk on the moon.