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."
Did you bother looking at "Physicist's" Freeper homepage and follow the links to what his background and expertise were before you wrote this egregiously gratuitous disparagement?
To anyone who knows "Physicist" or has read his posts over the years here at FR, you have made an utter fool of yourself. I can think of no statement that is more self-destructive of your credibility than the one you made to "Physicist."
The fool here is you. That armor-plate around his brain will one day become the chariot that will transport him to paradise. And then you, with your pitiful facts and logic, will suffer eternal torment. HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
</idiot mode>
Excellent impression. So good, in fact, that I must ask: are you sure you haven't gone over to the "Dark Side?"
;-)
Dark Side --- faith!!!! ILLUMINATION!!! Evolution = darkness!!! Satanic!!! Stalin ... Pol Pot ... CLINTON!!!
You can't prove a negative, and you are definitely that.
Cool music on your website, by the way. Reminds me of what I'd imagine hell to be like.
So you think hell is cool?
This will end the stupid posts on my part,
I hope that means you are into self-banning, and admission of stupidity is the 1st step towards healing...
because we are not addressing the issue here which is why these Southern states with historically poor education track records insist on pursuing this assinine line of thinking.
Sounds racist. So you not only hate yourself and God, you hate people too. That just about covers it all then doesn't it.
As Conservatives, we should be concerned with having our children taught the skills and knowledge which will propel them on to college (possibly) and to thrive as adults.
Which one, Berkeley? If you were a conservative, you wouldn't be telling everyone else how to live. Leave that up to the arrogant libs you watch on TV all day.
To give them the "out" to say, "I choose not to learn biology because Jesus said so," is an insult to rational thinking conservatives the world over.
Wrapping yourself up in real conservatives is pathetic. You come off like the arrogant twit you are. The truth is you can't stand free thinking, hence the whining when someone else does.
Our country is an international joke with regards to this issue, and I, for one, hate that.
There's that hate thing again. You need to get over such hate. It clouds your thinking. You're starting to think like the French. Being as how that was your last post, I won't be needing to pimpslap your next one.
shoo fly
Whereas something about you reminds me of Stephen Hawking.
... has been amply reinforced by the nature, and depth, of your "response."
Whew! "Another low IQ moron," redundancy and all, IDs himself.
"I don't believe I evolved from some primate," said Jim Stafford, a board member from Monroe.
In his ignorance Jimbo got it right. He didn't evolve from some primate.
What he doesn't realize is that he is a primate
Primate: from L. primas: "of the first rank": the highest order of the Mammalia including man, monkeys, lemurs, and the Archbishops of York and Canterbury.
I can only surmise these forces are one in the same, and that by my simple observation. I would not be so arrogant as to claim they are absolutely identical forces.
. . . but I'm told (by other people I trust). . .
Amazing how, in the end, faith makes all the difference. The "facts" as represented WRT Universal Gravitation may one day be disproven, yet our textbooks - with all the unanswered questions WRT evolution - present it as if no questions can be asked. That's plain dishonest.
If indeed it is a matter of degrees when it comes to credibility of theories, on a scale of 1 to 10, evolution ranks a 0. "Universal Gravitation" as we know it maybe a 5. Creation out of NOTHING in Six Days or less, 11.
Your reply is appreciated, likewise your dedication to the pursuit of knowledge. I hope one day, as knowledge increases, the evidence of Contant Divine Intervention makes itself known more apparently to you. I know these things by faith, but you may one day know them by sense, and you are more sensible than me. I am just a simple fool.
Where will you go when they don't? You must expect the laws of chemistry to change in 20 years. Another "expert" in chemistry said it would be done in 50 years. You're a little more optimistic on the change.
And then they died... All pretty pointless...
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