HI miss penni,
This is a follow-up on something that we discussed about a year ago. I was in New Mexico last week, and stumbled across this in a local magazine. I find it troubling.
Dumb and Dumber
How the New Mexico School Board Politicized Science Education
by David Thomas
Let's face it. Here in New Mexico, mainstream science has become just another political ideology. The subject matter in our public school science classrooms is being decided not on the basis of scientific merit, but on politics and religion.
The latest debacle involves the selection of a new textbook commission. But the trouble started in March 1996, when a diverse committee of teachers and scientists from across New Mexico presented years of hard work on new Science Content Standards to the State Board of Education. This prompted board member Roger X. Lenard, a Gov. Johnson appointee, to swing into action.
Lenard is a committed creationist who frequently rails against evolution and Darwinism. His efforts against evolution in New Mexico's schools have been celebrated by organizations such as California's Institute for Creation Research(ICR) and Kentucky's Answers in Genesis(AiG).These organizations are opposed to evolution, as is their right. The problem is that these groups are advancing their religious views as "science" in our public schools.
When Lenard saw that theMarch 1996 standards mentioned such odious topics as biological evolution and the age of the Earth, he simply deleted them. The science standards that finally emerged in August 1996 were incredibly dumbed down. Evolution, along with many other important topics such as nuclear energy, was excised. A last-minute attempt to include a token mention of the dreaded "E-word" failed by a vote of 5 to 9, and the standards were adopted.
Sub-standard Standards
In fact, the board's new standards for science, math, geography, and history are so sub-standard that they flunked the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's independent evaluation of state standards edexcellence.net . Significantly, the National Acadamy of Sciences released a report in April that strongly condemned the politicization and exclusion of the important topic of biological evolution in our nation's schools.
What happened with the new textbook commission? Ten of the 20 commission positions came open this year, and it was time to select new textbooks.The Department of Education sent out a call for new applicants, and received 15 applicants for the 10 positions. These applicants were extremely qualified and included a science historian with a doctorate, an astronomer with a doctorate, two physicists with doctorates, two geologists with doctorates, an applicant with a masters degree in biology, one with a bachelor's degree in biology, a scientific sculptor, and several teachers and administrators.
But when the new commission members were to be confirmed on March 20, Roger Lenard suddenly realized that most applicants were mainstream scientists, who believe that the Earth isn't flat, that the Earth goes around the Sun, and that -gasp- species have changed and evolved over time. The textbook process screeched to a halt, ostensibly in an effort to find "more diversity", and Lenard set out to find new applicants.
By the April 23 meeting in Hobbs, the board found what it wanted. Of the original 15 applicants, only two educators were selected. Eight of 20 new applicants were picked. These included two administrators, a chemist with a doctorate, a mechanical engineer, and four others who - at odds with mainstream scientists - just happen to agree with Lenard that evolution is "a theory in crises." The four anti-evolution appointees do have degrees in physics and engineering. But they clearly arrived at their positions for one reason: their opposition to the concept of biological evolution.
Mainstream scientists dismissed
Not all the creationists who applied made it. Internationally known creationist D. Russel Humphreys was not selected, despite a glowing recommendation from Lenard. This set the stage for Lenard to justify the rejection of "idealogues on both sides." In other words, mainstream scientists were dismissed as "idealogues," but Lenards anti-evolutionists were not.
And that is how the board managed to stack the textbook commission with people ideologically opposed to validated, common-sense science. The committee that will choose the textbooks does not include one astronomer, one science historian, one geologist, or one biologist. There is not one earth, space, or life scientist. But the committee does include a teacher from Victory Christian School, who, along with three other appointees, believes almost all scientists are wrong about evolution. CW
David Thomas is vice-president of the Coalition for Excellence in Science Education (CESE), and a physicist, mathematician and author.
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Texas science books have been cleansed of the "E-word", now New Mexico, and probably most other states as well. This was the stated goal of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. They have succeeded. Now creationism has equal status with evolution in our science books. Zero!
Does anyone have any ideas about why our math and science scores are among the lowest in the developed countries, and dropping?
Del |
