Howard posted the Kansas science standards, which included these words:
""Science studies natural phenomena by formulating explanations that can
be tested against the natural world. Some scientific concepts and
theories (e.g., blood transfusion, human sexuality, nervous system role
in consciousness, cosmological and biological evolution, etc.) may differ
from the teachings of a student's religious community or their cultural
beliefs. Compelling student belief is inconsistent with the goal of
education. Nothing in science or in any other field shall be taught
dogmatically."
I both applaud and view with alarm those last two sentences.
Understanding how they came to be, and what they are trying to guard
against, they seem far too strong. Surely we wish to teach our
youngsters that gravity works, so don't jump off the roof; that drugs can
kill, so "just say no." Surely we do not wish to teach science in such a
way that "this is the best explanation for X, but if you want to believe
in a different explanation, that's OK for your beliefs are just as valid
(to you) as others' beliefs are to them."
What I think of here, primarily, is of course youngsters who are fed the
YEC position exclusively at home and at church. Stephen Carter, usually a
very perceptive writer, seems to think in his most recent book, GOD'S
NAME IN VAIN, that the school needs to honor this, teaching, in fact,
that holding such an invalid belief is perfectly OK and as valid as any
other. I don't know if he'd extend this to "Flat Earthers"or not -- or to
the teachings of the "Christian" militia, but I see nothing in his
arguments that draws any lines of this kind.
For my YEC friends here, put some other position than YEC in the above --
KKK teachings on race, for instance.
Burgy (John Burgeson)
web page (back in operation) is
www.burgy.50megs.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 16 2001 - 11:45:11 EST