
Last Tuesday, the Ohio Board of Education voted 11-4 to remove science standards and lesson plans that encourage students to seek evidence for and against evolution. The critics of the material believed it was an open door to teach intelligent design, a fancy word for Christian creationism. Marth Wise, a critic of the material, stated “It is deeply unfair to the children of this state to mislead them about science.â€
It is good to see that our school administrators are willing to see intelligent design advocates’ true motives to push faith and Christianity. This seems to be greatly due to the U.S. District Judge Jones’ ruling against intelligent design/creationism in Dover, Pennsylvania, schools. He described Dover’s policy as “breathtaking inanity†and stated that the six-week trial illustrated that intelligent design “is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory.â€
Jones stated:
(The Dover policy) singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource and instructs students to forgo scientific inquiry in the public school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere.
I am glad that our board is standing up for the educational standards of our science classes. Now, if only they would stand up to this.