Science & Social Studies

Tomorrow our Board will continue plodding along to update our overdue policies.  Most of them are run-of-the-mill, but two of interest will be BP 6142.93: Science Instruction and BP 6142.94: Social Studies Instruction because both proposed policies have added liberal language in the updates.  BP 6142.93 adds a blurb right in the first sentence about climate change, but removes the portion from the previously adopted policy differentiating between fact, hypothesis, and theory.  While the truth is that this policy has little effect on instruction (which is based on the CA-NGSS standards), it does make a statement about where we stand as a community.  Likewise, BP 6142.94, while it has valuable additions on topics such as primary sources and workplace laws, removes a section from our previous policy about civics and community service.  I found it especially interesting that the old policy references BP 6142.3, which Cajon Valley has not adopted, but would addresses civics, citizenship, government, democracy, foundational American documents, as well as voting.  Based on some public comments I have heard, I could see why it would be important to retain some elements of our currently adopted BP 6142.94, as well as even adopt BP 6142.3 in the future.