Posted on 12/14/2005 6:23:06 AM PST by PatrickHenry
An education oversight panel has put off a final recommendation on the state's biology teaching standards at the urging of a state senator who wants alternatives to evolution - including creationism - taught in classrooms.
The Education Oversight Committee voted Monday to recommend approval of the state's biology content standards, but by an 8-7 vote, the panel removed for further study the wording that deals with teaching evolution.
The committee plans to put together a panel of scientists and science teachers to advise committee members on the biology standards dealing with evolution, JoAnne Anderson, the committee's executive director, said Tuesday.
State Sen. Mike Fair, a panel member, wants the education department to change the standards to encourage teaching alternatives to the theory of evolution. Fair, R-Greenville, also has proposed a bill that would give lawmakers more say on biology curriculum.
The Education Department writes standards teachers must follow in designing their daily lessons. The State Board of Education must give those standards final approval. The Education Oversight Committee can recommend the board approve or reject those standards.
The head attorney for the state Department of Education said he didn't think committee members are authorized to change the standards.
"This is unprecedented," attorney Dale Stuckey said. "It's my interpretation of the law that [EOC members] have no authority to change the standards."
Anderson said Tuesday that is not the committee's intent. The committee issued a news release clarifying that it does not have the authority to revise content standards.
"We are asking our colleagues at the State Department of Education for recommendations of individuals from the science community who can assist the committee in bringing about a resolution."
Fair said he wants to encourage "critical analysis of a controversial subject in the classroom."
State Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat, said Fair was trying to derail teaching standard revisions she said have wide support in academia. The agency recently conducted a yearlong review of key subjects and basic knowledge all science teachers in public schools must teach.
Current biology curriculum includes Charles Darwin's 19th century theory that life evolved over millions of years from simple cells that adapted to their environment. Creationism relies on the biblical explanation that mankind's origin is the result of a divine action.
In November, the S.C. Board of Education approved changes to science standards some teachers said needed clarification. The oversight committee put off voting on the rules in October to give Fair more time to lobby education officials.
Karen Floyd, a Republican candidate for state education superintendent, has said she will encourage the teaching of intelligent design.
Rep. Bob Walker, R-Spartanburg, said he supports Fair's efforts because "there are other ideas that can be addressed as to how this world came about."
One school official, Lexington-Richland 5 science supervisor Kitty Farnell, said the committee's questioning of educators' work sets "a terrible example for our students."
"It's an embarrassment," she said.
I don't understand the problem at all. Even if you believe fully in evolution and believe creationism is totally false, WHY do you want your children to be closed-minded and ignorant to different theories? Doesn't everyone want their children to learn everything they can? Why shouldn't they learn about both?
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There is nothing wrong with them learning about both. What is wrong is when ID is presented as science, when it manifestly is no such thing. I would be just as annoyed if kids were learning that astrology is science. Now, that is not to say that tID and astrology cant be discussed in school, perhaps in a lesson on the philosophy of science as demonstrations of how science differs from pseudoscience. Or maybe in a class on mythologies and beliefs.
Or, a study of evolution as pseudoscience, by your lights.
A criterion is a wonderful thing.
Now, that is not to say that tID and astrology cant be discussed in school, perhaps in a lesson on the philosophy of science as demonstrations of how science differs from pseudoscience.
Or, a study of evolution as pseudoscience, by your lights.
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No. Because that would be a lie. Evolutionary biology fits all the requirements to be defined as a science. The other two do not.
You are on a roll guessing the authors of quotations. Who said the following:
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Someone who was talking about faith, not science. And thus someone I am not really interested in discussing right now.
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On second thoughts, was it CS Lewis?
Oh, Dear. A lie! How dreadful. So evolutionary science is teaching truth? Your earlier critics are correct. Your science is your religion.
No. Because that would be a lie.
Oh, Dear. A lie! How dreadful. So evolutionary science is teaching truth? Your earlier critics are correct. Your science is your religion
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Do you know the definition of "science"? Do you know what evolutionary biology is? If the answer is yes to both of those questions, perhaps you could explain exactly why evolutionary biology is not a science.
The fact of the matter is that evolutionary biology is not a psuedoscience, it is a science. Teaching kids the opposite would be a lie, tantamount to teaching them that physics is not a science, or that astrology IS a science.
Revelation 4:11Intelligent Design
See my profile for info
Spoken by Mad Elsie!!!!
These are OUR rules - learn or suffer!
It means you use bigger words when you guess.
"What the HELL was I thinking, when I let those Israelites go???"
Pharoh
Now just WHERE is the fun in THIS????
Just wait; you'll get a link to how all this occurred!!
I like the 'fact' that Evolution inventing procreation happened just in time, because DEATH was at the door!
He DID????
WHAT 'other' slaves??
NIV Exodus 1:1-13
1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
7. but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
9. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
10. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
11. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
13. and worked them ruthlessly.
NIV Exodus 12:43-51
43. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it.
44. Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him,
45. but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
46. "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
47. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48. "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it.
49. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."
50. All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
51. And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
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