Joe MackThe 2006 Legislative Session is passing quickly. One of the hot topics that government officials are discussing is teaching the critical analysis of evolution in public schools. Education lobbyists and others want to teach the theory of evolution as indisputable science. They seem to think that allowing students to use “higher order thinking skills” to analyze and compare evolution to other scientific theories would be a bad thing.
Rather than welcoming a dialogue with the public, it seems most members of the State Board of Education and the department’s staff simply tolerate comments made during the public comment period at board meetings.
On Feb. 13, the Education Oversight Committee (the state’s school reform watchdog agency) voted to recommend that the Department of Education change the language of the biology standards to say: The student will demonstrate an understanding of biological evolution and the diversity of life by using data from a variety of scientific sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.
Although “critical analysis” has been a Department of Education buzzword for many years, it now appears to be taboo. The Charlotte Observer quoted a top education official (2/14/06), “‘Critically analyze’ is not just wordsmithing. It carries with it a whole campaign against evolution – . Science is not up for debate.” However, scientific experiments disprove previous theories every day.
If parents and lawmakers are not persuasive enough to convince the Department of Education and mainline media that it is time to question the theory of evolution, maybe 514 of today’s leading doctoral scientists could influence them.
These scientists, working at prestigious colleges and universities, from USC to Princeton to Cambridge, have stated, “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” These scientists do not claim creationism or the existence of God, the Almighty maker. They just know that we didn’t happen by chance.