Texas Science Standards and Why We Care
cartoon by Gary Larson
If you read other skeptical or science blogs you have already heard about this, but just in case you haven’t here is a thumbnail sketch.
Young Earth Creationists and believers in Intelligent Design have been trying to have creationism / intelligent design taught in science classrooms for decades. The creationists are quite clever at changing their tactics to slowly chip away at science standards. From an article on CNN.com,
”The controversy over the teaching of intelligent design came to a head in Pennsylvania, where the Dover School Board voted that ninth-grade students must be read a statement encouraging them to read about intelligent design. A federal judge said the board violated the Constitution in doing so because intelligent design is religious creationism in disguise and injecting it into the curriculum violates the constitutional separation of church and state.”
So, the creationists started calling it “Intelligent Design” instead of Creationism and are pushing for “Academic Freedom.”
Unfortunately, in Texas they have been successful. One of their tactics is to add seemingly innocuous language to the science education standards that then can be used to eliminate excellent science textbooks on a technicality and get creationism friendly books into the classroom. These amendments to the science standards undermine the idea that life of Earth derives from a common ancestry and other major principles of evolution. It would also possibly effect the teaching of plate tectonics, radioactive decay, the age of the earth and how the solar system developed.
School board chairman Don McLeroy, is quoted as saying,
“I’m a skeptic. I’m an evolution skeptic. I don’t think it’s true. You need to present other ideas to the kids.”
His position is pretty darn clear! You can see videos on youtube of Don McLeroy talking about his version of evolution. It’s difficult to believe the things that come out of his mouth.
There are 15 members on the Texas School Board, 7 of them are creationists/ Intelligent designers.
As parents, why do we care about this?
Texas is so big that it is what is called, “An Adoption State”. States purchase textbooks from the manufacturers and then distribute them to schools. Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks, which means textbook manufacturers have to cater to Texas standards. It doesn’t make financial sense for them to also print a non-Texas version of textbooks, so all other states will probably wind up with textbooks that are influenced by Texas science standards. This is not good.
What can we do?
There is an election in Texas is 2010 where Texas citizens can vote some creationists off the school board. In 2011 the Texas school board will select science textbooks for their schools so there is some hope that there will be new people on the board by then.
If you don’t live in Texas then Phil Plait has a good suggestion,
” If you live in some other state, find out who is on your school board [Edited to add: go here for that information]. Find out when they hold meetings, and find out when they adopt their standards. And if it’s soon, or even if it’s not for a while yet, make your voice heard. And even better, when elections come up for the board, find out where the candidates stand. Ask them point blank: do you think evolution is true? Do you think creationism is true? How would you vote on science standards for our state?”
To find out more about this issue you can check out these links:
The Texas Freedom Network Blog
Neurologica Blog and the update.
nonplus Said,
April 9, 2009 @ 9:51 am
Jessie, your Texas Citizens for Science link is broken. You may also want to add a link to the “Teach Them Science” web site, which is a great resource for people interested in this issue.
http://www.teachthemscience.org/
Julie Said,
April 9, 2009 @ 10:37 am
As a teacher, I deal with textbook issues quite a bit. Recently I encountered a similar omission of fact in a textbook. Although the central issue is somewhat different, in essence we’re talking about the same thing: religious dogma editing these books.
In the high school Health curriculum here in California, which has got to be a pretty darn liberal state (Prop 8 notwithstanding), there is no mention of birth control, at least not at my school. The textbooks we have for our high school students at my school are all about abstinence, and that’s it. I subbed for a high school class recently and was very surprised to see this, especially since I teach in an area with a lot of what you’d call “at risk” kids at a continuation school. Many of the kids are there because they didn’t pass a class in their regular high school. And well, many of them actually have one or two kids already. So there they are, making up the health class they failed in their regular high school, learning about abstinence. It’s odd to see a 9 month pregnant 15-year-old turning in a test on abstinence.
Anyway, I talked to the full time teacher of that class about adding to the curriculum. We’re not allowed to change stuff, but we can supplement. When I pointed out the hypocrisy of the textbook, the other teachers agreed, but they were too busy, or lazy, to add any new stuff.
Teachers do have power within their classes to comment on, add to, or outright disagree with textbooks. However, the books have a lot of power, since many teachers just don’t do those things.
Kelly Gorski Said,
April 9, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
What I don’t get is how ID can meet scientific standards. How can they even ATTEMPT to make this fit? Beyond me.
Chris Said,
April 9, 2009 @ 6:53 pm
The amount of logical fallacies and appeals to human emotions employed by the ID supporters in their campaign against the non-existent enemy (liberal scientists, oppressive atheists, whatever strawman they can come up with next) is ridiculous. I realize people can get worked up over the dumbest things for their entire lives, but surely, there has to be that point where they realize that not only was their debatory logic flawed, but also that they were basically mocking their own faith’s real principles.
I’m open minded, but in no way does Intelligent Design meet any real scientific principle. “Because people and animals look they were engineered” is hardly a measurable observation. Great, it’s nice that you think that; so what are you going to do to prove your fait-, er, “scientific theory” other than show empty-handed amazement at the complexity of organic life and the laws of the universe?
Kathleen Said,
April 16, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
I agree that Intelligent Design doesn’t meet any real scientific principles, but does evolution completely jive with those same standards?
Let’s be completely open minded here (sans cruel sarcasm). If it cannot be tested, observed or manipulated it is not true science. The existence of a God (or Gods) or the theory of a divinely created universe cannot be tested, so these things do not belong in a science classroom. Also, the theory of Macro-evolution cannot be tested or manipulated–we can’t observe the evolution of man in real time–so I don’t think it belongs in the science classroom either.
Let’s stick with micro-evolution and testable, observable science in the classroom and leave the origins of life to a separate class all together, or leave that debate to the discretion of the parents at home–it’s their business to bring their children up as they see fit anyway. That way, no one is forcing their beliefs on anyone else. Be they creationists or evolutionists or whatever, it doesn’t seem right to me for anyone to say to my children, with full authority from the state, “What you were taught at home is wrong. This is where you really come from.”
Don Said,
April 29, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
Kathleen – are you kidding me? Micro-evolution not testable? Do you know how to use the internet…do some research before you post? .. Micro-evolution happens all the time… did you miss out on the anti-biotic resistant bacteria?… seriously. Bacteria has evolved to become resistant to antibiotics because of the over use of antibiotics… want more testable examples? Fish that mature sooner because of over fishing… Mans own mixing of genes to produce different plant varieties?
come on…think. If you want to home school your children to believe nonsense thats up to you. But public schools should teach actual facts… and inspire children to think and judge the world around them with an inquisitive mind.
-d
Steph Said,
April 30, 2009 @ 8:20 am
“Ask them point blank: do you think evolution is true? Do you think creationism is true? How would you vote on science standards for our state?”
But science is not about what people “think” is “true”! It’s about what there is evidence for. There is evidence to support evolution, but that doesn’t mean it’s “true” – just the best we can come up with based on the evidence so far. There is no evidence to support ID, it’s a belief, so it’s not science.
Steph (pastafarian)