Posted on 12/11/2002 6:28:08 AM PST by A2J
By WILL SENTELL
wsentell@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
High school biology textbooks would include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory under a change approved Tuesday by a committee of the state's top school board.
If the disclaimer wins final approval, it would apparently make Louisiana just the second state in the nation with such a provision. The other is Alabama, which is the model for the disclaimer backers want in Louisiana.
Alabama approved its policy six or seven years ago after extensive controversy that included questions over the religious overtones of the issue.
The change approved Tuesday requires Louisiana education officials to check on details for getting publishers to add the disclaimer to biology textbooks.
It won approval in the board's Student and School Standards/ Instruction Committee after a sometimes contentious session.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe. Stafford said evolution should be offered as a theory, not fact.
Whether the proposal will win approval by the full state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday is unclear.
Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, president of the board, said he will oppose the addition.
"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Pastorek said.
"I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks," he said. "We shouldn't be involved with that."
Donna Contois of Metairie, chairwoman of the committee that approved the change, said afterward she could not say whether it will win approval by the full board.
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
The issue surfaced when a committee of the board prepared to approve dozens of textbooks used by both public and nonpublic schools. The list was recommended by a separate panel that reviews textbooks every seven years.
A handful of citizens, one armed with a copy of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species," complained that biology textbooks used now are one-sided in promoting evolution uncritically and are riddled with factual errors.
"If we give them all the facts to make up their mind, we have educated them," Darrell White of Baton Rouge said of students. "Otherwise we have indoctrinated them."
Darwin wrote that individuals with certain characteristics enjoy an edge over their peers and life forms developed gradually millions of years ago.
Backers bristled at suggestions that they favor the teaching of creationism, which says that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible's Book of Genesis.
White said he is the father of seven children, including a 10th-grader at a public high school in Baton Rouge.
He said he reviewed 21 science textbooks for use by middle and high school students. White called Darwin's book "racist and sexist" and said students are entitled to know more about controversy that swirls around the theory.
"If nothing else, put a disclaimer in the front of the textbooks," White said.
John Oller Jr., a professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, also criticized the accuracy of science textbooks under review. Oller said he was appearing on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobbying group.
Oller said the state should force publishers to offer alternatives, correct mistakes in textbooks and fill in gaps in science teachings. "We are talking about major falsehoods that should be addressed," he said.
Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, a member of the board, said she supports the change. Johnson said the new message of evolution "will encourage students to go after the facts."
[This ping list for the evolution -- not creationism -- side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. If you want to be included, or dropped, let me know.]
A very few links from the famous "list-o-links" (so the creationists don't get to start each new thread from ground zero).
From Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.
01: Site that debunks virtually all of creationism's fallacies. Excellent resource.
02: Creation "Science" Debunked.
The foregoing is just a tiny sample. So that everyone will have access to the accumulated Creationism vs. Evolution threads which have previously appeared on FreeRepublic, plus links to hundreds of sites with a vast amount of information on this topic, here's Junior's massive work, available for all to review:
The Ultimate Creation vs. Evolution Resource [ver 19].
One cannot argue against this statement if it is taten out of context, nor can anyone deny that textbooks are riddled with errors. My son's advanced biology teacher gave up trying to find a decent textbook and wrote his own. Everyone in the class passed the AP exam, so he couldn't have been a complete fraud.
The biggest threat to teaching is not creationists, but the socialized, centralized textbook purchasing systems of the public schools.
If, in another 20 years we'll be able to create life from "scratch" using amino acids, it will STILL have nothing to do with the Theory of evolution.
Also, I would like to see you create life from "scratch" using amino acids by FIRST creating the amino acids, etc.
You sound mightily impressed with yourself. There will come a time when you'll see some objective truth to having a Creator. Whether you discard the notion at that time is your choice, of course.
I'd choose wisely.
I hear you, but I was kind of hoping for the elimination of printed text books. It would be cheaper to issue interactive CDs in HTML format, even if you had to distribute Web-TV units to the computer-deprived.
Textbooks are always at the mercy of politics and social trends. My fourth grade health book had rules for what time of day to use the bathroom.
No problem creating amino acids from scratch. Decades old technology available to high school kids.
You sound mightily impressed with yourself. There will come a time when you'll see some objective truth to having a Creator. Whether you discard the notion at that time is your choice, of course.
Sounds like a threat. Does your God punish people for asking questions?
Noplace. They'll smugly trot out the same old pointless "you-get-your-own-dirt" parable.
The evolutionist version goes like this:
A bunch of scientists figured out all the secrets of life. They said to God, "We don't need you anymore. We can do all of this ourselves."
And God said, " ."
So the men said, "You want to see us to make a man out of dirt? We can do it, you know."
God said, " ."
The men said, "Hello, is anybody there?"
And God said, " ."
Eventually one of the scientists suggested they stop wasting their time, and they went back to their labs to get some work done.
"No scientific theory has ever explained all the phenomena that fall within its domain."
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