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At a public hearing on Wednesday, people on both sides of the ongoing evolution
debate duked it out over how the topic should be covered in Texas high school
biology textbooks. Several hundred people attended the 12-hour hearing, where
emotions ran high and attacks grew personal at times. The Texas State Board
of Education is considering 11 different textbooks for inclusion in the 2004-2005
school year. Publishers will have until Oct. 3 to submit any changes to the
texts based on testimony at the meeting, and the board will vote at a meeting
Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 on which, if any, of the texts to adopt (Geotimes,
September 2003).
Trying to impress upon the board the importance of teaching evolution, many
notable Texas scientists testified at the meeting, including Steven Weinberg,
Nobel Laureate and physics professor at the University of Texas, Robert Dennison,
president of the Texas Association of Biology Teachers, and Terry Maxwell, biology
professor and curator of birds at Angelo State University. Evolution is one
of the great unifying concepts in the natural sciences and not teaching it,
or teaching what some call the weaknesses of it, would place extra hurdles in
students' paths, they said.
"There is a definite consensus among the people who should be listened
to that the textbooks should be left as written," says Casey Kaplan of
the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), a nonprofit, nonpartisan alliance that includes
more than 7,500 religious and community leaders. "That includes the distinguished
university science professors — biology, geology and physics — and
teachers and clergymen." While dozens of high school teachers testified
in support of the textbooks as written, Kaplan remembers only one who suggested
changes and introduction of weaknesses.
The weaknesses that should be introduced include critiques of several examples
of evolutionary science covered by the science books including the Cambrian
explosion, the peppered moths and Haeckel's drawings of vertebrate embryos,
according to testimony by fellows of the Discovery Institute (DI) — a nonprofit
public policy and research organization based out of Seattle and supporter of
the theory of intelligent design. DI has taken an interest in the Texas debate
because the state is the second largest purchaser of textbooks in the country.
Thus any changes publishers make to cater to the state may be seen elsewhere.
DI says that it does not support the teaching of creationism and does not suggest
introducing intelligent design to the texts, but does support changes to the
texts to include controversies about evolution. Most mainstream scientists call
such arguments scientifically invalid and a "creationist distortion of
science," as Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science,
said in a press release.
"Making the 'corrections' of the textbooks recommended by the antievolutionists
would result in the production of substandard textbooks and substandard education
for Texas students," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National
Center for Science Education (NCSE), in a press release. "If publishers
are required to make these changes, the Texas editions of the textbooks will
be inferior to textbooks sold elsewhere, which will put Texas students at a
disadvantage. Is this what the Texas SBoE [State Board of Education] wants?"
In a letter to the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 2, board member Terri
Leo wrote that the board members are not advocating removal of evolutionary
theory or the inclusion of religion, creationism or intelligent design. "Our
curriculum in Texas is not 'agenda driven,'" she wrote. Evolution is required
learning by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the test each Texas
student must pass in order to graduate. TEKS requires that students "analyze,
review and critique hypotheses and theories as to the strengths and weaknesses,"
Leo says. The board is questioning whether the texts adequately note the weaknesses
of evolution.
"All of the textbooks are scientifically acceptable as written," says
Louis Jacobs, a paleontologist with Southern Methodist University. Although
Jacobs was not present at the hearing, he has been following the ongoing debate
closely and has actually gone a step further by examining all of the textbooks
in question. He says the books even have sections where they address the arguments
against evolution and debunk such arguments, which Jacobs believes is a good
thing. He says if the board members have read the texts, he wonders why they
still have concerns.
"It's so humiliating," Jacobs says. "It's really quite pathetic
that we keep having these discussions in this day and age, and in this state,
which boasts one of the most highly qualified groups of earth scientists anywhere."
One of the reasons teaching evolution keeps coming up for debate is that it
is not only a political issue but also a religious one, says Jacobs. Samantha
Smoot, executive director of TFN, testified that trying to teach criticism of
evolution is merely a cover for religious creationism and intelligent design
movements.
Rather than debunking or "correcting" long-used examples of evolution
as DI is attempting to do, Jacobs and colleagues advocate teaching of both early
and modern examples of evolutionary science to resolve the questions. "For
the people who criticize evolution for what it is not, if we inform them and
teach what the science is, we resolve the issues," Jacobs says.
One such way would be to introduce earth sciences into the Texas high school
curriculum, as geologist Edward Roy of Trinity University in San Antonio has
advocated. Roy testified in front of the board's Committee on Instruction on
Thursday, in a separate session to discuss the findings of the earth science
task force established to study Texas' graduation requirements for science and
earth science (Geotimes,
September 2002). He and other geoscientists believe learning earth science
is critical to the intellectual development of students.
Although more than 150 people were signed up to testify at the board meeting,
the board voted to limit testimony to Texas residents only, which cut the list
to 138. Out-of-staters, including such bigwigs in the ongoing evolution in the
classroom debate as Eugenie Scott and Alan Gishlick of NCSE on the pro-evolution
side, and John West and Jonathan Wells, both with DI, on the other side, were
allowed to submit written statements to the board. They also testified briefly
in an informal 45-minute session at the end of the public hearing.
The hearing was the second of its kind, leading up to the board's textbook adoption
decision in November. Many people are worried about the ramifications for Texas'
students and students in other states if Texas does decide to introduce weaknesses
of evolution or teach alternative theories; however, each individual school
district has the right to choose which textbooks to adopt. The districts will
only get reimbursed for books approved by the state board but would at least
have other options. As Jacobs says, Texas might be a big market, but the rest
of the country is bigger.
Megan Sever
Links:
Earth
Science in Texas: A Progress Report, Geotimes, September 2002
Textbook
battle over evolution, Geotimes, September 2003
Opposition
to Evolution Takes Many Forms, Geotimes, September 2003
National
Center for Science Education
Discovery
Institute
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