Pro-Evolution 'Biggies' Tell Kansas to Get It Right ... or Else
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
November 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - - Two national pro-evolution groups are lashing out at the state of Kansas, trying to bar the state from using science education curriculum developed by an intelligent design think tank. The Kansas Board of Education is looking at adopting science standards that would teach students more about evolution, including some of the scientific challenges to the theory. That plan has angered the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), which have threatened to deny Kansas use of their science standards and copyrighted education materials.
In an October 26 letter to the Kansas Department of Education, NSTA president Mike Padilla says the majority of the state's proposed standards "could proudly serve as a model for other states to emulate," but that there are errors regarding the theory of evolution.
"[T]he standards, as currently written, will result in Kansas students being confused about the scientific process and ill-prepared both for the rigors of higher education and for the increasingly technological and scientific challenges we face as a nation," the NSTA letter states. "Specifically, the ... standards fail to recognize the theory of evolution as a major unifying theme of science and the foundation of all biology."
For that reason, says NSTA, it has asked the Kansas State Board of Education to "refrain from referencing or quoting" NSTA standards.
Rob Crowther is with the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, an intelligent design think tank. Crowther says what the National Academy and NSTA are doing is "ridiculous."
"The state of Kansas would like to adopt a definition of science that simply says science is a systematic method of investigation that uses observation, hypothesis, testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument, and theory-building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomenon," Crowther explains. "This [definition] is almost identical to the definition of science in over 40 states across the country."
Nevertheless the two groups, Crowther asserts, are "bullying" the state into dropping the proposed revisions because they do not want students to learn about the scientific challenges to Darwinism. He says he finds that "really strange" because "a state [is] trying to do the right thing by their students -- and then here come groups making political statements by withholding materials because they don't like the viewpoint expressed."
As a result, the Discovery Institute spokesman says, students in Kansas are not going to get the full story about evolution and Darwinism -- "and that's really a shame," he adds.
A spokesman for the Kansas Department of Education says the board will likely approve the proposed science standards that include teaching scientific challenges to Darwinian theory. The board is to vote on the changes tomorrow (Nov. 7). Nothing would have to change immediately in what is taught, notes the Wichita Eagle, because the state science test will not change to match the standards for two years.
