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Feb. 20, 2006 Those of us who love Kansas and have suffered the slings and arrows of universal, worldwide disdain because of the long-running flap over our state board of education and its infatuation with creationism and intelligent design have, finally, reason to cheer. Last week, the Kansas Association of Teachers of Science noted that, "by redefining science in the Kansas Science Education Standards, the Kansas State Board of Education is promoting intelligent design tenets that support supernatural explanations of natural phenomena as valid scientific theories." The association of science teachers urged teachers to continue to "not attribute natural phenomena to supernatural causation" and to teach students about the evidence for evolutionary theory and refute the "so-called evidence against evolution." The association also said the Education Board was "irresponsible for ignoring mainstream science and substituting its own religiously motivated agenda." The organization of Kansas science teachers also said the State Board of Education and its new standards impeded the state's efforts to increase bioscience research. Last November, our State Board of Education voted 6-4 for science standards that criticize evolution. I subsequently got emails from friends and acquaintances in other states; one of which, from a former college roommate who now lives and works in West Virginia, asked if I could assist an acquaintance of his, a fundamentalist preacher who routinely handles poisonous vipers as an adjunct of his faith, to find work as a science teacher in a Kansas public school. I gritted my teeth and made the best of it, as we are taught to do in adversity, but it was a bitter pill. I was born and raised in Kansas, and educated at the University of Kansas. There is a quiet, regal beauty in my state that settles in your bones and reminds you of the majesty of God. Not long after, the New York Times, Newsweek, and Time magazines, among several others, weighed in that, while most states hide their uneducated trolls and troglodytes, Kansas elects them to its state board of education. The die was cast, the damage done. Our reputation as solid, sensible people, made in the pattern of William Allen White, was shredded and we are held up before the educated world as objects of scorn and derision. Criticizing evolution and encouraging the teaching of intelligent design has hurt Kansas in ways many of us did not expect or foresee. Kansas has quietly become a leader in bioscience, with the University of Kansas a school that many in the scientific community look to for data about issues and problems as diverse as the melting of Greenland glaciers, global warming, and alternative energy production. That the state is now held up to ridicule does not engender trust or confidence among those not already acquainted with Kansas, and makes recruiting top-flight staff and bioscience researchers more difficult. The decision of the state's science teachers to defy the education board and continue to teach Darwinian evolution is a welcome event. We can also take heart in that, if all goes well, later this year a new state education board majority will be elected, a board that will change the state science standards back to those supportive of evolution. Once our state science standards are "back to normal," we must, and will, remain vigilant that those who wish to impose their religious mythologies into public education are thwarted. In this war between reason and irrational faith, we must accept that we will take hits and sustain wounds, but reason will triumph in the end. ------------ Email Terry McClain: kansasmcclain@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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