Teaching evolution is teaching science; teaching science is teaching evolution

Important story out of Florida that shows why the discussion of teaching evolution matters.

I know some people think, "this isn't a political issue, and it shouldn't be part of the presidential debate." That's what I heard when it came up in the GOP debate.

But the fact is, the reason creationists bring this issue up is that they want creationism taught in public schools. It's not enough to talk about it in the pulpit. They want it to be in the curriculum.

In Florida, the debate is distracting from the issue of science education. The sate recently revised its science standards to clarify the place of teaching evolution in the state curriculum.

The educators who framed Florida's new science standards worry that the old argument over evolution is overshadowing a more important issue: the sorry state of science education in Florida's classrooms.

Updated standards, they say, would bring focus and depth to science instruction.

"I think it's a tremendous improvement over what we have now, and I hate to see it rejected on the basis of how evolution is treated," said Alice Winn, a biology professor atFlorida State University who helped write them. "That would be a complete travesty."

As the article explains, educators "cringe" when they hear things like this:

"I have no problem with them hearing about evolution. I just don't want them to hear a one-sided fact," said LeVon Pettis, a Panhandle father who may look for private schools for his daughters if the standards are adopted as is. "If you're going to teach evolution, then also throw in creationism and intelligent design," said the pastor of Evangel Worship Center in Marianna.

This is the strategy... to put creationism on an equal footing with evolution by teaching them side by side.

Evolution has long been controversial in the classroom and in the courtroom. The 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" inTennessee saw a biology teacher charged with a crime for teaching Darwin's theories. Eighty years later, a federal judge ruled against a Pennsylvania school board that mandated teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.

State Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, who represents nine Panhandle counties, said her part of the state is "very conservative" and that the revised standards clash with many residents' beliefs.

Coley has urged the state board to ensure evolution is taught as a theory, not a fact. She said she and other lawmakers will push to make such a requirement state law if the board approves the standards as is.

"I think it would be irresponsible to present it like that in our public schools," Coley said.

Florida Citizens for Science, which favors the changes, says 10 school boards in North Florida have passed resolutions opposing the new standards. The association keeps track on its Web site under a headline that reads, "Those not in favor of a good science education, raise your hand."

It'll be interesting to see if Florida sticks to its plan to develop reasonable and rigorous science standards--or if they cave to the anti-science religious extremists.

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