Now, here's a touchy subject. Clearly, however, it's one to which every science teacher - and, in my opinion, every citizen - should be paying attention.NPR reported this past week that the Dover, Pennsylvania school board had a near-wholesale turnover and that the turnover lined up almost perfectly with candidates who supported the overturning of a school board policy mandating the includion of a statement supporting the possibility of intelligent design being voted onto the board and supporters of the requirement of Dover science teacher to read the following statement at the beginning of the ninth-grade biology course:
The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part.As a science teacher with an admittedly anti-religious bent, I find myself incredibly pleased with the election results and saddened by the testimony of some of the outgoing board members in the trial filed by parents of school students who are opposed to having intellegent design presented as a scientific threory to their children. I am also shocked at the behavior of outgoing school board members in "purchasing textbooks" for use in the science classrooms of the school district.
Because Darwin’s theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.
Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view. The reference book, “Of Pandas and People,” is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves.
With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families. As a standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on standards-based assessments
And I will readily admit that I hope my students and fellow staff members shared my position on these issues, but even more importantly I see it as important that my students, their parents, my staff members, and other community members understand both sides of this issue. We have here two sides who - in their most extremist views - believe either that any classroom without God is not a classroom worth housing their children or children of their neighbors or that any classroom that mentions God in even the most infinitesimal way is one where their children cannot be raised as the parents choose.
I would ask that if you have any questions about either of these viewpoints (pro-intellegent design/anti-science or anti-intellegent design/pro-science), that you read more than what I have provided here. Do your own research. Here are a few starting points for further reading:
- The National Constitution Center's page on the Dover school board elections
- Access Research Network
- The Panda's Thumb
- A NYTimes article on President Bush's public opinion Intelligent Design Network
- Skeptic.com
- Discovery Institute
- An Open Letter to the Kansas School Board
- Intelligent Design the Future
- Another NPR report
- A critique of PBS's Evolution
- National Center for Science Education
No comments:
Post a Comment