Not all have read standards - Board member, witnesses among those who didn't

 

 

 

(Note: Language deception is in full application here, and the stakes couldn't be higher: the "education" children receive.)

 

 

May 7, 2005

 

By David Klepper, The Kansas City Star

 

http://www.kansascity.com

 

To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@kcstar.com

Topeka, Kansas - One of the state school board members leading hearings into possible changes to the teaching of evolution said Friday that she had not read the standards under scrutiny.

Board member Kathy Martin of Clay Center said she had not read the entire document proposed by educators and now criticized by proponents of intelligent design.

Two sets of proposed science standards are before the Board of Education. One, known as the majority opinion, received support from 18 members of a 26-member curriculum panel and maintains the current science standards for the teaching of evolution.

The other proposal, submitted by eight panelists and called the minority report, requires that criticism of evolution, and alternatives to the theory, be taught. It also offers a new definition of science that does not rely only on natural causes.

Martin, who said she had doubts about evolution, said many of the science standards proposed by the majority were too technical for her to read thoroughly. She said she had read most of the minority report.

“I scan,” she said. “I'm not a word-for-word reader.”

Board members Connie Morris and Steve Abrams, who also express doubts about evolution, said they had read both proposals. Once the hearings are complete, the full 10-member school board will vote on any changes to the standards.

Getting the minority report into the curriculum is the goal of the critics of evolution theory who called for this week's hearings in Topeka. Twenty-five witnesses — scientists, educators and writers — have been called to argue against the way evolution is now taught.

Most are strong proponents of intelligent design, the idea that nature is too complex to be the result of natural processes, and therefore is best explained as the work of a creator. They want this idea taught in public schools as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

Though they shy from the term “creationist,” many of Friday's witnesses acknowledged under questioning that they do not accept the theory of human evolution or of the common origins of all animals. Two said they believe the earth could be as young as 5,000 years old.

Most large scientific and educational organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers' Association, dismiss intelligent design and creationism as nonscientific religious arguments. When that point was made Friday, several witnesses responded by saying those groups are led by atheists.

Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka lawyer who is defending the way science is currently taught, berated witnesses who admitted that they had not read the standards they were criticizing.

That led Martin to tell one witness that it was all right he had not studied the science standards, because “I haven't read it word-for-word myself.”

At one point, Irigonegaray criticized another witness, Bryan Leonard, a biology teacher from Ohio. Leonard said he supported the minority report over the majority opinion but admitted he had not read the latter.

“You have been brought to Kansas to tell us how we should educate our Kansas children, and you have not even read the majority opinion?” Irigonegaray said.

John Calvert, an intelligent-design proponent from Lake Quivira, is leading the fight against the way evolution is taught. He said the minority report has references to the other standards, and that it was “wholly disingenuous (for Irigonegaray) to badger these witnesses because they have not read the four corners of the document.”

Irigonegaray responded, “It's the least they can do for Kansas children.”

• Several educators and scientists argued that intelligent design is an acceptable, scientific alternative for the theory of evolution. Scientists who accept evolution are boycotting the hearings.

• Fewer people attended the hearings than on Thursday, the first day. Tony Kostusik drove from Leawood to watch the debate. He said that his Catholic faith makes him dismiss evolution and that scientists boycotting the hearings “are shooting themselves in the foot.”

• Roger DeHart, a biology teacher at a private California high school, told the audience he almost lost his job because he taught intelligent design in public schools.

• Scientists from the University of Kansas and Kansas State University attended the hearings and held a news conference to say there isn't an evolution controversy among most scientists. John Leslie, a Kansas State plant pathology professor, said the evidence supports the theory of evolution and that scientists who dismiss it “are creationists first, and scientists second.”

• The hearings continue at 8:30 a.m. today and Thursday at Memorial Hall, 120 SW 10th Ave., Topeka.

• Go to www.KansasCity.com for more on intelligent design and evolution and up-to-the-minute news from the hearings.

 

Copyright 2005, Kansas City Star.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11586285.htm