Posted on 12/11/2002 6:28:08 AM PST by A2J
By WILL SENTELL
wsentell@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau
High school biology textbooks would include a disclaimer that evolution is only a theory under a change approved Tuesday by a committee of the state's top school board.
If the disclaimer wins final approval, it would apparently make Louisiana just the second state in the nation with such a provision. The other is Alabama, which is the model for the disclaimer backers want in Louisiana.
Alabama approved its policy six or seven years ago after extensive controversy that included questions over the religious overtones of the issue.
The change approved Tuesday requires Louisiana education officials to check on details for getting publishers to add the disclaimer to biology textbooks.
It won approval in the board's Student and School Standards/ Instruction Committee after a sometimes contentious session.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe. Stafford said evolution should be offered as a theory, not fact.
Whether the proposal will win approval by the full state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday is unclear.
Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, president of the board, said he will oppose the addition.
"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Pastorek said.
"I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks," he said. "We shouldn't be involved with that."
Donna Contois of Metairie, chairwoman of the committee that approved the change, said afterward she could not say whether it will win approval by the full board.
The disclaimer under consideration says the theory of evolution "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life.
"Study hard and keep an open mind," it says. "Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth."
Backers say the addition would be inserted in the front of biology textbooks used by students in grades 9-12, possibly next fall.
The issue surfaced when a committee of the board prepared to approve dozens of textbooks used by both public and nonpublic schools. The list was recommended by a separate panel that reviews textbooks every seven years.
A handful of citizens, one armed with a copy of Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species," complained that biology textbooks used now are one-sided in promoting evolution uncritically and are riddled with factual errors.
"If we give them all the facts to make up their mind, we have educated them," Darrell White of Baton Rouge said of students. "Otherwise we have indoctrinated them."
Darwin wrote that individuals with certain characteristics enjoy an edge over their peers and life forms developed gradually millions of years ago.
Backers bristled at suggestions that they favor the teaching of creationism, which says that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible's Book of Genesis.
White said he is the father of seven children, including a 10th-grader at a public high school in Baton Rouge.
He said he reviewed 21 science textbooks for use by middle and high school students. White called Darwin's book "racist and sexist" and said students are entitled to know more about controversy that swirls around the theory.
"If nothing else, put a disclaimer in the front of the textbooks," White said.
John Oller Jr., a professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, also criticized the accuracy of science textbooks under review. Oller said he was appearing on behalf of the Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian lobbying group.
Oller said the state should force publishers to offer alternatives, correct mistakes in textbooks and fill in gaps in science teachings. "We are talking about major falsehoods that should be addressed," he said.
Linda Johnson of Plaquemine, a member of the board, said she supports the change. Johnson said the new message of evolution "will encourage students to go after the facts."
Her name, Arabella, was also her mother’s name
Appositive phrase: Arabella
From this dippy argument:
The structure of all three sentences is essentially identical. How you managed to extract "adjective phrase" is beyond me.
Emphasis mine. This is key. Discussion of religious beliefs, even the practice of religious precepts in schools, government, or any other public place, if not mandated by law, is within the intent of the first clause.
If it were constitutional to allow the practice of "discussions of religious beliefs, even the practice of religious precepts in [public] schools, government [meetings] , or any other public [sponsored] places, [& events]";
-- equal treatment would be demanded by all sects, creeds, & factions. Public meetings, events, schools, etc, would soon be a pandemonium of competition to be heard. Every zealot in town would line up, insisting to be heard at the bully public pulpit.
Nope, it's best we keep religion & politics separated.
hahaha I'm caught!
I must admit I NEVER look in this smokey secret place but I got curious today! (lol)
When I saw this thread I was impressed, you all have been very busy while the REST of us have been watching the world for you! (ha)
Aren't these fightin words? ;)
You guys have managed to fight about EVERYTHING on this thread apparently! lol
That's not right either - learning is primary.
Asked and answered a couple days ago. You can look it up; it's in your "replies" queue. Suffice to say, it isn't what YOU think he means.
And when did he join the creationist conspiracy?
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Now the grammar:
Apositive: A word, phrase, or clause that has the same referent and the same or a similar grammatical function as a preceding word or phrase
That's a good definition of apositive. Keep it in mind as I continue.
The phrase
"Evolution, the sequence of events by which the world came to be as we see it today, is the central organizing principle of the historical sciences -- biology, geology, and cosmology"
"Evolution" is the noun. A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea
"the sequence of events by which the world came to be as we see it today" is an adjective clause. This is a clause which acts as an adjective. An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words
No. It is not an adjective clause. Clauses have predicates, and that has no predicate being acted upon by "the sequence of events." I don't have my grammar text with me, but I think the correct term for it is a "noun phrase" (with a somewhat complex prepositional expression appended to it, starting with the words "by which...".)
Now does an adjective and a noun have the same grammatical function?
==========================================
I'll cut straight to the chase. Do you agree that a sentence has to have a subject? Do you further agree that adjectives aren't suitable as subjects?
Okay. According to you, the expression "the sequence of events by which the world came to be as we see it today" is an adjective clause, and you further state it doesn't have the same grammatical function as a noun, and hence, it isn't an appositive in the original sentence. Right?
Remove the noun "evolution" from the sentence. What do you get?
According to you, we should have a subject-less "sentence." But look:
"Evolution,the sequence of events by which the world came to be as we see it today, is the central organizing principle of the historical sciences -- biology, geology, and cosmology"
"The sequence of events by which the world came to be as we see it today is the central organizing principle of the historical sciences -- biology, geology, and cosmology." [the second comma is removed because by removing the noun to which the appositive refers, we eliminate the appositive and it now TAKES THE SAME GRAMMATICAL PLACE AND FUNCTION AS THE NOUN TO WHICH IT REFERRED.] Amazing; it's a complete sentence, with BOTH a subject, verb, and object! How could that be? Perhaps because the expression "the sequence of events...." is a NOUN PHRASE, and this is can be used in the same grammatical function, as in:
".... and [has] the same or a similar grammatical function as a preceding word or phrase"
as you quoted from the definition at the top of your response to me.
It's an APPOSITIVE.
appositive: A noun or noun phrase that is placed next to another to help explain it.
That's where the second clause comes in.
Congress shall make no law ...prohibiting the free exercise therof [religion]...
That's the freedom this nation was founded on.
It sounds good, but I really wonder if this is practical. Politics is, for many people, informed by their religion. How do you tease that religion out of their politics?
It also reminds me of my childhood when one of my brothers said grace at the dinner table "...and please, dear God, let my sister not be such a bitch."
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