Re: Creationism in Minnesota

[ABurke5054@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/23/2004 6:03:01 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
shays@telis.org writes:
The passages inserted into the Minnesota Standards were written by
proponents of Intelligent Design.  Of COURSE they see it as a wedge,
because they have ... TONS of "evidence" to support their contention that 
life arose as part of a Plan implemented by an Intelligent Designer.  ...
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I don't doubt that the Minnesota IDers were behind the changes you quoted.  I 
just doubt that this victory adds up to very much because I doubt that ID's 
bad ideas will chase the good ones out of most science classrooms.  We see this 
over and over in education (and on this list): people spend enromous amounts 
of energy fighting rearguard actions to protect the purity of one model or 
another.  Advocates of "whole language" get up in arms if somebody says that some 
kids need intensive instruction in phonics;  advocates of "inquiry" 
approaches get up in arms if somebody says some kids need really structured approaches 
- and on on and on.  It must be exhausting always watching out for a falling 
sky.        
...Just the fact that "plausible alternatives" are said to exist is enough to 
shift the balance to those teachers on the edge (it's easier to not teach it 
at all as it is to become embroiled in "finding the evidence" and monitoring 
the "conversations" --
read "debates" -- that will ensue once the door is open), as well as
provide fuel for those who haven't bothered to teach it at all.
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This is a problem of timid, lazy, or unqualified teachers, not one of what 
the science standards say or imply.  My kids once had a science teacher who, in 
all seriousness, referred them to the National Enquirer for news about 
scientific discoveries (Apricot Pits Cure Cancer!).  She would have been clueless in 
the face of the best science standards in the world.  (And people on this list 
wonder how a notion of "highly qualified teacher" made it into NCLB?)


Art