Here is an interesting tidbit I picked up from another creation/evolution
discussion list. *Very* interesting reading! And, of course, it contradicts
Stephen's claim that the new Kansas standards actually increased the level
of science taught.
Susan
--------------
NEWS RELEASE - NEWS RELEASE - NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release 12/10/99
Creationists Secretly Authored Kansas Science
Standards, Kansas Citizens For Science Members Charge
Members of Kansas Citizens for Science (KCFS) have
uncovered evidence that a Genesis-based creationist
group led by Tom Willis, president of the Creation
Science Association of Mid-America (CSAMA), was the
primary author of alterations made to the science
standards that were adopted by the Kansas State Board
of Education in August.
At the December Board meeting in which KCFS members
Jack Krebs and Steve Case presented this evidence,
Krebs stated, "Allowing the creationists to alter the
standards in this way is a serious violation in spirit
of the separation of church and state."
The standards originally had been written over a
13-month period by a statewide 27-member writing
committee composed of scientists, educators and
curriculum experts. At the August Board meeting, the
Board subcommittee of Steve Abrams, Scott Hill, and
Harold Voth claimed to have written the changes to the
standards themselves, and, despite concerns expressed
at the time, claimed that they did not use any outside
sources for their
work. At the recent SUA forum at KU, Mr. Hill said,
"As the primary author of the compromise standards
that were passed, I guarantee that it was not input
from fundamentalist religious zealots that did the
work."
However, drawing on a document found on the website of
Celtie Johnson, a primary organizer of the creationist
group, Krebs and Case showed the Board that virtually
all the additions made to the science standards in
August actually came from a alternative draft of the
standards written byTom Willis and his group, the
Citizens1 Drafting Committee. This
document, entitled Working Draft CDC/A8 and available
at http://www.homestead.com/ncese/index.html,
contains, verbatim, 40 out of 42
major additions to the standards made by the
Abrams-Hill-Voth team. Draft A8 also contains
information that shows that the document was revised
at least four times on Tom Willis's computer, shipped
to Dr. Abrams' computer and then returned to CSAMA.
Neither members of the original 27-member standards
writing committee nor the Board as a whole has ever
seen this document. However, on their website the
creationists take credit for their efforts, writing
that their "citizens drafting committee had an
unprecedented opportunity to assist the members of the
Kansas School Board in the development of new Science
Curriculum Standards.... The Citizens Drafting
Committee prepared several
drafts ofthe proposed Kansas Science Standards,
eventually arriving at the Citizens
Draft Committee A8 version."
Earlier in May, BOE member Abrams had presented an
alternative draft, Trial 4A, and implied that he was
the author. However, WSU professor and creationist
Paul Ackerman, in his recent book about the science
standards, "Kansas Tornado," states that the draft was
written at Tom Willis' house in Missouri, and that
Abrams agreed to submit it under his name. Celtie
Johnson's website says of this draft that it "is the
early draft of the Kansas Science Curriculum which was
assembled by the Citizens Draft Committee"
Jack Krebs also presented information from other
articles and public presentations that showed that the
real reasons for the creationists' efforts are
religious: they believe that evolution contradicts
central tenets of their religion, and particularly
their belief that Jesus
died to redeem humankind from Adam's original sin.
Krebs concluded "By eliminating
all standards which contradict Genesis and by
inserting many examples that bolster a creationist
view, the Board has accommodated the religious views
of these creationists at the expense of scientific
knowledge that is considered essential and accurate
worldwide."
On Dec. 7, Board voted 9-1 to send the standards out
for independent review. This costly and time-consuming
project, says KCFS member Steve Case, a member of the
original 27-member writing committee, "merely prolongs
the rejection of these standards and allows the board
to divert attention from the fact that a religious
right group secretly authored them."
It is estimated that the independent review will cost
$18,000 to $20,000.
Kansas Citizens For Science is an organization
composed of parents, educators, scientists, students
and others who support the teaching of sound science
in Kansas public schools. For more information, see
the KCFS website at: www.kcfs.org.
--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------
Save 50 percent at MotherNature.com. See site for details
<a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/MotherNature ">Click Here</a>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Under the First Amendment, there is no such thing as a false idea.
However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on
the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas."
- Justice Lewis Powell 1974
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 26 2000 - 11:13:55 EST