© 1999 VNN
|
USA September 5, 1999 VNN4663 Comment on this story Kansas Rejects Evolution In Science Classes FROM REUTERS USA, Sep 5 (VNN) — Yahoo! News Top Stories Headlines - Wednesday August 11 3:34 PM ET Full Coverage - Religion News By Carey Gillam TOPEKA, Kan. (Reuters) - The Kansas Board of Education rejected evolution as a scientific principle Wednesday, dealing a victory to religious conservatives who are increasingly challenging science education in U.S. schools. The 10-member board, ignoring pleas by educators and most scientists, voted six to four to embrace new standards for science curricula that eliminate evolution as an underlying principle of biology and other sciences. "It's a step forward. We're going to improve rather than detract from science education in Kansas, " said Scott Hill, a farmer and board member who helped write the new standards. "There's a liberal agenda to build up or glorify evolution in our schools, " Hill said, adding that evolution had been pushed on students as a "dogmatic fact." Individual schools can continue to teach evolution in science classes from elementary through high school, but knowledge of evolution will not be required and will not be needed to pass state-sanctioned tests. School board members opposed to removing evolution from the curriculum recoiled at the change. "In removing an important concept like evolution from life sciences and biology, (students) are going to go essentially crippled. It's like removing a leg and asking you to run a 100-yard dash, " board member William Wagnon said. Others predicted students would fail college entrance exams and be ill-prepared for college science classes. "Our children will not be prepared, " member Val DeFever said. "It's sad that people are attacking education." The guidelines eliminate evolution as a way to describe the emergence of new species -- for instance the evolution of primates into homo sapiens -- while leaving intact references to "microevolution, " or changes that occur within a single species. The theory of evolution was developed by 19th-century British scientist Charles Darwin. His discoveries were famously argued in the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial, " in which the state of Tennessee put teacher John Thomas Scopes on trial for knowingly infringing a law banning the teaching of evolution. ... Religious groups have argued that evolution cannot be proven, and some feel that evolution is not in accordance with Biblical teachings regarding the origins of life. "It's deception, " said Tom Willis, director of the Creation Science Association for Mid-America, which helped write the new standards. "You can't go into the laboratory or the field and make the first fish. When you tell students that science has determined (evolution to be true), you're deceiving them." Comment on this story  Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
|
