November 11, 2005--Fanaticisms VIII--The Dover Monkey Trial
Science itself is under attack. And I’m not just talking evolution.
If you have been wondering, what’s the matter with Kansas, I’ll tell you. But there is also good news. Let me take you through this, starting with Kansas.
Kansas for some time has been the front line in the Culture Wars as it was in the Desegregation Wars—recall that Brown v. Board of Education was about desegregating the Topeka, Kansas public schools.
Most of the recent attention has been focused on the struggle between Intelligent Design advocates and the Evolutionists within the Kansas Board of Education. State boards such as the one in Kansas have the constitutional power to determine what is taught in all the schools statewide, including which texts to use. And thus this battle has been fierce. The NY Times reported (see link) that the Kansas School Board this week voted 6 to 4 to adopt new standards that require that "alternatives" to evolutionary science be included in all classrooms.
Advocates of Creationism and ID claim that they were “simply trying to open students’ minds to alternative viewpoints.” Others assert that Kansas is now “the laughingstock not only of the nation but of the world.”
In an attempt here to resist joining in on the mockery justifiably directed toward Kansas, in my restraint, let me share some concerns about why this situation is more dangerous than laughable.
A defender of Evolution, Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education, fears that the new standards in Kansas will become the “playbook for creationism” nationwide. Here’s how this might happen:
It’s all about how the textbook industry works. When a state decides to teach science in a certain way, they simultaneously need to decide which textbooks to require and purchase. In order for textbook publishers to make the substantial investment needed to produce new texts, they have to be assured that there will be enough statewide bulk orders to make this profitable. Thus, if Kansas is interested in, say, Of Pandas and People, a favorite of IDers, the publisher can then go to other state boards to make advantageous deals with them. Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all call for their science courses to include a critical perspective on evolution and thus are now prime targets for goods deals for the same texts that will be purchased in Kansas—it’s all about reducing per unit costs as a way to make the price of texts attractive to state textbook committees. Kansas will now help induce that momentum.
There is though a greater concern--if what the Kansas board promulgated becomes a precedent, we will be talking about more than just providing “critical perspectives” on evolution. They are in effect attempting to redefine science itself. Included in their new science standards there is the explicit requirement that science instruction that derives solely from “natural explanations” will no longer be permitted. In other words, the centuries-long requirement that in order to call something science it needs to be experimentally verifiable via natural explanations is no longer the definition of science in Kansas.
Leave it to the youth to sum up the situation—A high school senior from Overland Park, Kansas said, “I’m glad I’m a senior. I feel bad for all the kids that are younger that have to be taught things that aren’t science in science class.”
Meanwhile, back in Dover, Pennsylvania, where in their Monkey Trial they are awaiting a decision about the inclusion of Intelligent Design in their science courses, the entire eight member Dover school board was voted out of office, in a sort of a kick-them-all-out kind of gesture. To quote one voter, “We are tired of everything this school board brought about.”
In fact, they may have even brought down on themselves the Wrath of God. Or minimally, the wrath of Pat Robertson, who said yesterday that because they “voted God out of their city,” God is no longer available to the people of Dover when disaster strikes, as Robertson claims it now surely will.
Maybe through, while waiting for The End, the kids from Dover will be able to find jobs when they graduate.
I wonder what the kids from Kansas will be doing?
If you have been wondering, what’s the matter with Kansas, I’ll tell you. But there is also good news. Let me take you through this, starting with Kansas.
Kansas for some time has been the front line in the Culture Wars as it was in the Desegregation Wars—recall that Brown v. Board of Education was about desegregating the Topeka, Kansas public schools.
Most of the recent attention has been focused on the struggle between Intelligent Design advocates and the Evolutionists within the Kansas Board of Education. State boards such as the one in Kansas have the constitutional power to determine what is taught in all the schools statewide, including which texts to use. And thus this battle has been fierce. The NY Times reported (see link) that the Kansas School Board this week voted 6 to 4 to adopt new standards that require that "alternatives" to evolutionary science be included in all classrooms.
Advocates of Creationism and ID claim that they were “simply trying to open students’ minds to alternative viewpoints.” Others assert that Kansas is now “the laughingstock not only of the nation but of the world.”
In an attempt here to resist joining in on the mockery justifiably directed toward Kansas, in my restraint, let me share some concerns about why this situation is more dangerous than laughable.
A defender of Evolution, Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education, fears that the new standards in Kansas will become the “playbook for creationism” nationwide. Here’s how this might happen:
It’s all about how the textbook industry works. When a state decides to teach science in a certain way, they simultaneously need to decide which textbooks to require and purchase. In order for textbook publishers to make the substantial investment needed to produce new texts, they have to be assured that there will be enough statewide bulk orders to make this profitable. Thus, if Kansas is interested in, say, Of Pandas and People, a favorite of IDers, the publisher can then go to other state boards to make advantageous deals with them. Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all call for their science courses to include a critical perspective on evolution and thus are now prime targets for goods deals for the same texts that will be purchased in Kansas—it’s all about reducing per unit costs as a way to make the price of texts attractive to state textbook committees. Kansas will now help induce that momentum.
There is though a greater concern--if what the Kansas board promulgated becomes a precedent, we will be talking about more than just providing “critical perspectives” on evolution. They are in effect attempting to redefine science itself. Included in their new science standards there is the explicit requirement that science instruction that derives solely from “natural explanations” will no longer be permitted. In other words, the centuries-long requirement that in order to call something science it needs to be experimentally verifiable via natural explanations is no longer the definition of science in Kansas.
Leave it to the youth to sum up the situation—A high school senior from Overland Park, Kansas said, “I’m glad I’m a senior. I feel bad for all the kids that are younger that have to be taught things that aren’t science in science class.”
Meanwhile, back in Dover, Pennsylvania, where in their Monkey Trial they are awaiting a decision about the inclusion of Intelligent Design in their science courses, the entire eight member Dover school board was voted out of office, in a sort of a kick-them-all-out kind of gesture. To quote one voter, “We are tired of everything this school board brought about.”
In fact, they may have even brought down on themselves the Wrath of God. Or minimally, the wrath of Pat Robertson, who said yesterday that because they “voted God out of their city,” God is no longer available to the people of Dover when disaster strikes, as Robertson claims it now surely will.
Maybe through, while waiting for The End, the kids from Dover will be able to find jobs when they graduate.
I wonder what the kids from Kansas will be doing?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
1:06 PM
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