The Loss to Science

I was tired of reading shit like this:

'Liberalism Will Die'

Despite some disagreement, Calvert, Harris and the Discovery Institute collectively favor efforts to change state teaching standards. Bypassing the work of a 26-member science standards committee that rejected revisions, the Kansas board's conservative majority recently announced a series of "scientific hearings" to discuss evolution and its critics.

The board's chairman, Steve Abrams, said he is seeking space for students to critically analyze" the evidence.

That approach appeals to Cindy Duckett, a Wichita mother who believes public school leaves many religious children feeling shut out. Teaching doubts about evolution, she said, is "more inclusive. I think the more options, the better."

"If students only have one thing to consider, one option, that's really more brainwashing," said Duckett, who sent her children to Christian schools because of her frustration. Students should be exposed to the Big Bang, evolution, intelligent design "and, beyond that, any other belief that a kid in class has. It should all be okay."

Fox -- pastor of the largest Southern Baptist church in the Midwest, drawing 6,000 worshipers a week to his Wichita church -- said the compromise is an important tactic. "The strategy this time is not to go for the whole enchilada. We're trying to be a little more subtle," he said.

To fundamentalist Christians, Fox said, the fight to teach God's role in creation is becoming the essential front in America's culture war. The issue is on the agenda at every meeting of pastors he attends. If evolution's boosters can be forced to back down, he said, the Christian right's agenda will advance.

"If you believe God created that baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby," Fox said. "If you can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die."

Like Meyer, Fox is glad to make common cause with people who do not entirely agree.

"Creationism's going to be our big battle. We're hoping that Kansas will be the model, and we're in it for the long haul," Fox said. He added that it does not matter "who gets the credit, as long as we win."

So I wrote the board of education. The letter I sent is a little longer, but is not seen in its entirety due to cyberspace/Blogger eating it yesterday evening. If I ever get a response from the Board, it may contain my original sent message, and I will add the extra paragraphs:

I grew up in Kansas. I graduated from high school here, and I graduated with a degree in microbiology from Kansas State University.

My graduate school classmates at The University of Minnesota's School of Public Health were aware of these facts. So, when our professor casually mocked my home state during a lecture, saying, "...unless you're from Kansas, and you don't believe in evolution," many of the heads in the room swiveled to see my reaction. I frowned.

I was not pleased to be labeled as a disbeliever simply because of my state of origin. I had already graduated from high school by 1999, when the Kansas Board of Education first de-emphasized evolution, and had a good understanding of the subject. Still, because of the publicity that resulted from the Board's decision, I was stigmatized. I was a less educated scientist until I could prove otherwise to my classmates and my professor.

[transition paragraph goes here - I wrote something about how I'm not happy with the Board, how I'm not happy that my science degree from Kansas looks less and less impressive as our science standards become less science-ish.]

Please teach science -- and only science -- in science class.

I was able to restrain myself from writing something like, "There is more than one theory about the holocaust, too, but no one is clamoring for those alternative theories to be included in our high school history books."