Starting this fall, biology teachers in South Carolina will be instructed to “summarize ways that scientists use data from a variety of sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory,” after the state’s education leaders unanimously voted to amend curriculum standards.
“This victory is an important milestone toward improving the quality of science education by ensuring that students learn the full range of relevant scientific evidence, including the scientific criticisms of evolution,” Casey Luskin, an attorney and public policy analyst with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, said in a news release June 12.
“South Carolina is the fifth current state to require students to learn about scientific criticisms of evolution, and this policy helps remedy the problem that most biology textbooks today largely ignore scientific challenges to Darwinism,” Luskin added.
The South Carolina standards do not mandate the teaching of alternative origins of life, such as Intelligent Design, but students will be allowed to examine the strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution.
South Carolina state Sen. Mike Fair, a member of South Carolina’s Education Oversight Committee, led the nearly yearlong battle to amend the standards after voicing concerns about the high school biology guidelines’ exclusive focus on evolution.
“It is impossible to meet this standard without the discussion of the meaning of critical analysis as it applies to evolutionary science,” Fair said in a joint statement with Terrye Campsen Seckinger, a member of the state board of education, after the vote. “This is a great improvement over our 2000 standards. Students will now have the opportunity to wholly learn about the theory of evolution.
“This means that students will have the opportunity to fully discuss all aspects of evolutionary theory instead of limiting discussion to only evidence that might support it,” they added.