ACLU may sue NM Board of Education (was Re: Creationists win...)
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
31 Aug 1996 14:50:19 -0600
I today's _Albuquerque Journal_, the front-page news is that the ACLU
will sue the board of education in New Mexico for allowing the teaching
of creationism as science. (The op/ed page is an exchange between
scientists and creationists.)
The new guidelines were adopted immediately following (and in spite of) an
hour-long parade of scientists opposed to the new guidelines.
Opposition from the scientific community wasn't based solely on the
elimination of a requirement to teach freshmen about evolution.
The education guidelines no longer require teaching such topics as the
age of the earth, or nuclear science that allows students to understand how
that age is determined scientifically.
The recent National Science Education Standards are not met in the new
guidelines, needless to say.
In defense of the new guidelines, state school board president Eleanor Ortiz
told the _Journal_ that "local autonomy in what is taught in science is very
important."
Many, I think, instinctively sympathize with such pluralistic language.
But science is not democratic in its outcomes: there are reality
checks, and while everybody in the world is free to come up with ideas,
those that don't stand up to the rigors of verification are rightfully
discarded. Creationists and education board members don't seem to
understand the very basics of the scientific effort.
Bryant
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