I didn’t say it shouldn’t be taught. I think all ideas should be explored in a scientific fashion. Some will immediately be discarded, others may survive for further debate. My challenge was the article’s classification of Creationists as being only young-earthers.
And what will be used to discard those ideas? Science?
A good idea in the abstract, but we see in these discussion why it wouldn't work in practice. The teacher presents the theory of evolution, and Johnny raises his hand and asks why there aren't any transitional fossils. So then there's a whole lesson on what a transitional fossil would be and why, yes, there are too transitional fossils. Then Carmen asks why you never see a chicken evolve from a lizard, and there goes another week on how speciation actually works and the concept of clades and ring species and all the rest. Then Antwan says his daddy said all the fossils were deposited by the Flood, and there's another week gone talking about stratification and mineralization and tree rings and the rest. And then Sanjay asks... and then Sacheen asks... and then Tomiko asks... and bam, your school year is over.
And don't forget, this would have to occur again in geology, when Robert asks about the fountains of the deep and where all the water went. And in astronomy, when Felipe wants to talk about how the Earth is the center of the universe and the speed of light used to be different. And, and.
And then in physics class, little smartass Billy wants to know how gravity isn't just invisible pixies pushing down apples and holding up airplanes. What do you tell him? How much time do you spend on that? Don't get me wrong: I think these would all be fruitful discussions. But we're talking about middle school science class. Frankly, I want my kid to come out with a basic understanding of how science thinks the world works. If anyone can guarantee that the amount of time spent on these alternative theories is proportional to the number of real scientists that hold them, then fine--we'll dispense with all of them in a couple of days. But that's not what's going to happen.