Subject: Kansas action
Date: Aug 12 10:12:47 1999
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com
At 04:14 PM 8/11/99 -0700, Robert Cleland wrote:
> As I understand their action, they have decided that evolution is
>not a subject that will be included on their state-wide tests.
It's not included in the statewide curriculum, and this is one
consequence.
They also have voted to not to include the big-bang or other
cosmological theories of the origins or youth of the universe,
and apparently nothing to contradict the young-earth interpretations
of the bible.
> They have
>not said that evolution cannot be taught.
They've also included one "counterexample" to evolution in the
required curriculum, though the article I saw sadly didn't mention
which of these mythical counterexamples must be taught.
> Any knowledgable biology
>teacher in high school will continue to include evolution as part of the
>biology courses,
This allows local school boards to also drop evolution from local
curricula, and to prevent teaching of same. When it was part of the
state curricula and statewide testing of biology covered evolution,
this in essence forced the subject to be taught.
To be honest, I think you're indulging in a bit of unwarranted
optimism - understandable, but unwarranted. This really is a
major blow.
Think about the process and statement being made. The state
convened a panel of 20+ scientists and educators to specify
changes to the curriculum. A conservative vet on the board
led a majority to reject the recommended curricula based on
arguments made by the Institute for Creation Science, with
the claim that evolution is "bad science" no matter what
scientists might say.
> since you really can't teach biology without reference to
>it.
This is exactly the point. In some school districts, biology
will now be taught without reference to evolution, in other
words they won't be teaching biology.
This isn't a major event for the state of Kansas?
I might also add that about a half-dozen other states have
come close to taking the same action as Kansas. It wouldn't
surprise me to see 10% of the states officially declaring
that evolution is "Junk science", excluded from the curricula,
in the next several years.
> I would suspect that any teacher who uses the KBE action as an excuse
>to drop evolution will have been doing such a bad job of teaching it
>anyhow that they may have been doing more harm than good.
It's going to be the local school boards in some jurisdictions,
not individual biology teachers, who will be making the decision.
> The high school students today are well aware that evolution is
>accepted. They may not know the details about evolution, but I doubt if
>you could find many HS students who believed that humans and dinosaurs
>existed at the same time, as required by the creation theory.
This isn't really true in some conservative portions of the country.
I wish it were, but it really isn't.
I guess my thinking is colored by having a fundamentalist pastor
for a sister - a relatively liberal and open-minded one, but one who is
very much on top of the anti-science movement within the fundamentalist
movement.
>recognize that humans arose from something, even if they have no idea how
>that occurred. I wouldn't worry about the effect this KBE action will
>have on Kansas HS students. I have a lot of faith in their ability to
>find out the facts.
One biology teacher was quoted as saying that fully 1/3 of his
students were openly combative about evolution, and well-versed in
ICR counter-myths. I think perhaps you underestimate the educational
efforts of the ICR and their pervasiveness in fundamentalist culture,
or I should say their books and publications. These sell in large
numbers, keep in mind, and are viewed as being truthful rebuttals
of modern biology by the faithful.
....
> Professor, Botany Dept. Box 355325
> Univ. of Washington
I would respectively submit your students at U of W are, on average,
better educated and less likely to be close-minded to science than
the average son or daughter of deeply religous parents in the
mid-West.
Lucky you, I might add!
- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.