Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/882783
L A S T S P R I N G , when U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) came to visit Oroville High School, science teacher Rich Hogan asked him a question about climate change. e congressman's reaction — in front of students and staff — surprised the Oroville Secondary Teachers Association member. "He got pretty defensive and asked me how long I had been a teacher," recalls Hogan. "He wanted to know if I was teaching both sides of the issue. It created quite a stir. I didn't know he was a climate change denier." e heated exchange occurred very close to the Oroville Dam, where 200,000 people were evacuated last winter after the emergency spillway began to erode, threatening catastrophic flooding. Scientists assert that we can expect to see more flooding emer- gencies in a hotter world due to climate change. Politics should not determine what is taught in science, says Hogan, who recently received a book in the mail from the Heartland Institute (which is funded by the Koch brothers) challenging scientific evidence of human-caused climate crisis. According to the Associated Press (AP), thousands of teachers were m ai l e d W hy S ci en ti st s D i s - agree About Global Warming, a book that the National Science Tea ch ers A ss o ci ation cal l s "propaganda" and encourages educators to recycle. "We need to teach students to wade through information and become independent crit- ical thinkers and be socially aware of issues that will affect their generation more than mine," says Hogan, who has taught science for more than 20 years and is a member of the Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC), a partnership between Stanford University and CTA that promotes best practices for the new standards. "And we need to do it fast, before we get past the tipping point." Rich Hogan says politics should not determine what is taught in science. At left, Hogan's students work on a project involving geothermal energy. " We need to teach students to wade through information and become independent critical thinkers and be socially aware of issues that will affect their generation." — RICH HOGAN, OROVILLE SECONDARY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION Martin Machnowski 25 O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 017