Posted on 02/15/2006 12:53:18 AM PST by jennyp
COLUMBUS - The Ohio school board voted Tuesday to eliminate a passage in the state's science standards that critics said opened the door to the teaching of intelligent design.
The Ohio Board of Education decided 11-4 to delete material encouraging students to seek evidence for and against evolution.
The 2002 science standards say students should be able to ``describe how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.'' It includes a disclaimer that the standards do not require the teaching of intelligent design.
The vote is the latest setback for the intelligent design movement, which holds that life is so complex, it must have been created by a higher authority.
In December, a federal judge barred the school system in Dover, Pa., from teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in high school biology classes. The judge said that intelligent design is religion masquerading as science and that teaching it alongside evolution violates the separation of church and state.
On Tuesday, the Ohio Board of Education directed a committee to study whether a replacement lesson is needed for the deleted material.
The vote was a reversal of a 9-8 decision a month ago to keep the lesson plan. But three board members who voted in January to keep the plan were absent Tuesday. Supporters of the plan pledged to force a new vote to return the material soon.
``We'll do this forever, I guess,'' said board member Michael Cochran, a Columbus lawyer and supporter of the lesson plan.
Board member Martha Wise, who pushed to eliminate the material, said the board took the correct action to avoid problems, including a possible lawsuit.
``It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about science,'' said Wise, an elected board member representing northern Ohio.
In approving Wise's motion, the board rejected a competing plan to request a legal opinion from the attorney general on the constitutionality of the science standards.
The state's science lesson plan, approved in 2004, is optional for schools to use in teaching the state's science standards, which are the basis for Ohio's graduation test. Although schools are not required to teach the standards, districts that do not follow the standards put students at risk of not passing that part of the Ohio graduation test.
The Pennsylvania court decision against teaching intelligent design does not apply in Ohio, but critics of state standards say it invites a similar challenge.
Wise said other events since the ruling made removing the standards even more important. Earlier this month, for example, Gov. Bob Taft recommended a legal review of the standards.
In addition, members of a committee that advised state education officials on Ohio's science curriculum said the standards improperly single out the theory of evolution and could lead to the teaching of religion.
Board member Deborah Owens Fink, who voted against eliminating the lesson plan, said it is unfair to deny students the chance to use logic to question a scientific theory. She said scientists who oppose the material are worried that their views won't be supported.
``We respect diversity of opinion in every other arena,'' said Owens Fink, an elected board member from Akron.
I can't believe this news hasn't been posted yet.
Good.
Perhaps it is time for the Flying Spaghetti Monster to make its appearance in Akron to Mr. Fink.
Or perhaps the Flat Earth Society.
If either of these aren't diverse enough for Mr. Fink, perhaps he should get some opinions from NAMBLA.
Diversity for diversity's sake is a stupid goal.
You mean another step towards think as I do or else.
If you think restricting free thought is a good thing, I pity you. You will have no problem embracing Islam, it dictates thought as well.
that's what happens when all of us are guilty of letting the NEA run every school board in this country.
when was the last time you voted in your local school board election?
ID might have a place in a philosophy or religion class. It has no place in the science classroom. This is not a restriction on free thought. Just proper classification of ID as faith-based belief.
Actually, Deborah Owens Fink is a female. An irritatingly mealy-mouthed (IMO) stealth creationist.
Then why shouldn't we follow the Iranians' lead & teach the controversy surrounding the Holocaust in high school history classes? A small but growing number of historians (with real PhD's, even!) are skeptical of the mainstream view. You wouldn't want to restrict free thought, would you?
That's what the biggest fear is. And, that is a violation of the constitution. There is no law against the teaching of religion. It's up to the people of that community to decide if they want the public school THEY pay for to teach religion. The issue has nothing to do with science, it's a battle of religions, and evolution is every bit as much a religion.
Let's keep this in the proper perspective, shall we?
Or do I need to search up all the abysmal statistical failures of the Board of Education across America???
Anyone sending their children to public schools is a total loser, because it's not like a big secret how bad the public education system is.
Thanks for the correction. I'm used to seeing the hyphen employed when a woman uses her father's surname to prove she's a feminist. :-)
barf alert.
Just because some public schools are inferior doesn't mean that all schools are inferior. The parochial schools where I live are subpar in comparision to the public schools. Those who home school tend to produce book smart children who lack the social skills to excel as adults.
They can...applying scientific methodology. This is different than faith-based belief. If ID is taught as an alternative, why shouldn't FSM be taught too? Both rely upon faith rather than evidence.
Hey, you can look up the FACTS and determine that evolution happened too, but that doesn't stop creationists from squirming & denying everything at every turn.
Seriously, 20 years from now, after every participant in the Holocaust is gone, all that'll be left will be fossil evidence: Words on paper that some people claim were written in Germany in the 1940s by members of the government, and maybe films that some people claim show something significant about the fate of somebody or other. Who's to say that that stuff is really evidence? Unless you can reproduce it in a lab, it didn't happen. Right? :-)
"The Ohio Board of Education decided 11-4 to delete material encouraging students to seek evidence for and against evolution."
Somebody didn't get past the headline.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.