Forget your liberal notions of public education. Throw aside your lofty ideals of school as a place to discuss theories and debate controversial issues. Learning to think is so last year. Welcome to the state of Georgia, 2004.
Following in the footsteps of such revolutionary states as Kansas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi, Georgia's state Board of Education has decided to obliterate the words 'evolution' and 'long' (as in 'long history of the earth') from the revised state science curriculum guidelines. As Kathy Cox, Georgia's schools superintendent said in a press conference, evolution is "a buzzword that causes a lot of negative reaction. People often associate it with that monkeys-to-man sort of thing."
Well by all means Cox, ban away. Any theory under dispute, any scientific concept that the majority of humanity willfully misunderstands and of course any bit of knowledge that in any way contradicts the Bible should be omitted from public education. Perhaps evolution wouldn't be such a negative buzzword if people actually understood it, but never mind. That's a bit too tough. Better to get rid of it altogether.
Unfortunately for the state of science education, Georgia is not alone. Alabama has disclaimers placed on biology books warning that evolution is a controversial theory. Tennessee and Mississippi avoid it completely.
During her campaign for office, Cox praised parents who favored a Christian teaching of human creation to be adopted by schools.
But to impede the teaching of a theory so fundamentally important to biology does not help the children. Many students come into universities having never really heard Darwin's ideas explained properly. David Jackson, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, estimated that roughly half his classes had no accurate concept of evolution.
It's that old "monkeys-to-man" thing again. Ask someone who doesn't believe in evolution if they do believe that individuals adapt to their immediate local environments, and that those who adapt best are at an advantage, and they will likely say yes. Tell them that is evolutionary theory in a nutshell and its back to the "no chimps in my family photo album" defense.
Yet at the same time that evolution is being phased out, religion is being phased in. Two years ago in Cobb County, Ga., the school board approved teaching "disputed views of human origins" (meaning creationism) in classes. The idea is that students should be presented with other theories on the nature of the life on earth, an idea I support wholeheartedly.
But creationism is not a science. It cannot be debated and tested. It cannot be proved or disproved by scientific means. As Dr. Francisco Ayala, a genetics professor at University of California, Irvine says, "We don't teach astrology instead of astronomy or witchcraft instead of medicine." Creationism does have a place in education: religion class.
It seems that nothing in science is as frustratingly misunderstood as evolutionary theory, which is all the more reason for educators to present it to students. Instead of a ban, Georgia might consider leading the evolution revolution: teach students what evolution actually means instead of propagating stubborn stereotypes of the past.
Katie Kelberlau is a history and religious studies junior. Reach her at katherine.kelberlau@asu.edu.
