Creationism lives on in US public schools

5 years ago this week was the start of the Dover trial (Kizmiller v. Dover) and to remember it New Scientist published an article on creationism still existing in U.S. public schools.

Chemistry teacher Robert Eschbach, who was also a plaintiff, says the trial has made teachers less afraid to step on people's toes when it comes to evolution. It "forced me to be a better educator", he says. "I went back and read more of the history around Darwin and how he came to his conclusions."

None of this means that the Discovery Institute, the Seattle-based think tank that promotes intelligent design, has been idle. The institute helped the conservative Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), headed by Christian minister Gene Mills, to pass a state education act in 2008 that allows local boards to teach intelligent design alongside evolution under the guise of "academic freedom".

Philosopher Barbara Forrest of Southeastern Louisiana University, another key witness for the Dover plaintiffs in 2005, testified against the Louisiana education act. "Louisiana is the only state to pass a state education bill based on the Discovery Institute's template," she says. Similar measures considered in 10 other states were all defeated

I think the article has too broad a focus and needed to pick either talking about the Dover trial itself or about the current brand of creationism taking place in the U.S. right now and why it gets so much support. I have covered the controversy in Livingston Parish in a couple of earlier posts but I feel the Dover trial forced a major change in the way that creationists operate and in fact has made it more difficult for them to try to force their religion into science class.

Creationism on hold, for now

A little over a week ago I wrote a post about Livingston Parish School Board talking about trying to teach creationism in their science classrooms. I ended that post with this:

There is some good that I can see with the school board finally deciding to teach creationism. This will give the ACLU a chance to sue over this bill and to finally get it struck down and prevent other schools from going through the same thing. Lets just hope that is what happens.

Well it turns out that the school board decided not to teach creationism this upcoming year, although they put a group together to study if it is feasible. Why? Well an article published by the Baton Rouge Advocate says this:

A decision to teach creationism could become expensive for the parish school system, said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“If they were to do it, they could anticipate that any litigation would result in them not only losing, but having to pay enormous legal fees,” she said. “They would be wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money on a battle they can’t win.”

Livingston Parish School Board President Keith Martin, who acknowledges that the parish school system faces major financial challenges, said the cost of litigation does have to be taken into consideration.

“A lawsuit is something you always have to factor in because of finances of the board,” Martin said.

While this is not the way I would have preferred to have seen this happen I am glad that at least for the next year they will not be teaching creationism in Livingston Parish.

There is one problem, however. They have not completely taken the idea of teaching creationism off of the table for the 2011-2012 school year. As I said earlier they have formed a committee to look at the possible options. The lawyer for the school board does seem to think that teaching creationism is illegal.

Tom Jones, the School Board’s attorney, said a board member brought the issue up when evolution was mentioned as being part of the state’s 2008 Science Education Act.

Jones said his previous research indicated that under the U.S. Constitution public schools can’t teach religion or the religious theory of creationism.

“Without a doubt it’s a constitutional issue,” and state law does not supersede the U.S. Constitution, he said.

Mr. David Tate the person who first brought up the issue of teaching creationism doesn't seem to get it though:

Tate said teaching evolution as a theory is fine, but there are other ideas.

“Creationism is another thought of how things came into being,” he said. “Give every theory due time” in the classroom.

To the citizens of Livingston Parish Mr. Tate is not helping your cause. He is holding you back do not support him in upcoming elections (I don't know when he will be up for reelection sorry) and listen to the experts, if for no other reason than you risk hurting the financial situation of your schools.

And it begins

So I have covered the controversy about the Louisiana State Board of Education allowing the teaching of creationism in the science classrooms (here, here, and video here). This morning I came across this article. The article discusses the fact that the school board in Livingston Parish, LA is considering teaching creationism in science class.

Having lived in Louisiana I am personally surprised that it took 2 years for some school board to decide to take up teaching creationism. There are also plenty of areas that I figured would have tried to teach it before Livingston Parish. But what really got to me was this:

Board Member David Tate quickly responded: “We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?”

Fellow board member Clint Mitchell responded, “I agree … you don’t have to be afraid to point out some of the fallacies with the theory of evolution. Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom.”

No this isn't the way that classroom policy should be determined just because all of you believe that creationism is correct doesn't mean that it is correct. The way that they are handling this is no better than the way Texas handled the social studies curriculum earlier this year (here, here, and here). While I am perfectly fine with teaching the "fallacies" with evolution filling in these gaps with creationism is not the way science works, just because we don't know the answer right now doesn't mean that we won't in the near future.

There is some good that I can see with the school board finally deciding to teach creationism. This will give the ACLU a chance to sue over this bill and to finally get it struck down and prevent other schools from going through the same thing. Lets just hope that is what happens.