Institute for Creation Research wants to train future science teachers

Ladies and Gentlemen, the following article from the "Religious News" website is being presented here untouched, unmarked, unadulterated and unwashed. I am not going to make any comments about it since I think you know my position on something like this already.

The nonprofit Institute for Creation Research in Dallas wants to train future science teachers in Texas and elsewhere using an online curriculum. A state advisory group gave its approval Friday; now the final say rests with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which will consider the request next month.

The institute’s proposal comes amid a fierce debate over how to teach evolution – the theory that humans and other species evolved from lower forms of life – in Texas public schools.

Some advocacy groups are attacking the creation institute’s plan, saying it’s an attempt to undermine the teaching of science in public schools.

“They teach distorted science,” said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the California-based National Center for Science Education, which opposes teaching creationism in public schools. “Any student coming out from the ICR with a degree in science would not be competent to teach in Texas public schools.”

The institute was created in 1970 by the late Henry M. Morris, a Dallas native known as the father of “creation science,” the view that science – not just religion – indicates that a divine being created the Earth and all living things.

Patricia Nason, chairwoman of the institute’s science education department, said that, despite the institute’s name, students learn evolution along with creationism.

“Our students are given both sides,” said Dr. Nason, who has a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M University. “They need to know both sides, and they can draw their own conclusion.”

The institute, through its graduate school, wants to offer an online master’s degree in science education.

According to the school’s Web site, it offers typical education classes, teaching such fundamentals as how to use lab equipment, the Internet and PowerPoint in the classroom. But it also offers a class called “Advanced studies in creationism.”

And the course Web page for “Curriculum design in science” gives this scenario: “The school board has asked you to serve on a committee that is examining grades 6-12 science goals. Both evolutionist and creationist teachers serve on the curriculum committee. How will you convince them to include creation science as well as evolution in the new scope and sequence?”

The school has offered science degrees in California for years. It offered its first graduate courses in 1981, and its first online courses about two years ago.

The institute began moving its headquarters from the San Diego area to Dallas last year, making it necessary to get approval from the state of Texas to offer degrees here.

The school now has more than 50 students taking online classes all over the world, school officials say.

Since I am not going to comment on this it is up to you, dear reader, to give some input to this story.

Please leave a comment on this however you like, just let your feelings be known!

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Assholes of the week!

This has turned out to be an interesting week. We are going to give you two assholes for the price of one.

The first loud fart goes to Texas Govenor Rick Perry for appointing Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education.

The second louder, and wetter fart, goes to Don McLeroy himself for being the new chairman of the State Board of Education. (The board makes the decisions regarding the school fund and its investments, textbook selection for all school grades and curriculum standards for public schools.)

The board also is the state licensing entity for charter schools.

As chair, McLeroy leads a board of 10 Republicans and five Democrats and McLeroy, a self-described social conservative, is one of the Republicans who vote as a bloc on nearly all issues.

He has a reputation for casting votes that are based more on ideology than on science or facts.

In 2001, McLeroy and a majority of the board rejected the only Advanced Placement textbook for high school environmental science because its views on global warming and other events didn't comport with the beliefs of the board majority. (These guys are all Right Wing Fundamentalists.)

The book wasn't factual and was anti-American and anti-Christian, they claimed.

(Meanwhile, dozens of colleges and universities were using the textbook, including Baylor University, the nation's largest Baptist college.)

In 2003, McLeroy voted against approving biology textbooks that included a full-scale scientific account of evolutionary theory.

(Luckily, the books were approved!)

A majority of Texas public school students are minorities, and they are largely from lower-income households. Many students don't speak English and are living in homes headed by single parents. Schools today are tackling issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, gang violence and harassment of female and gay students.

That's the environment in which students learn to live and work in a global economy.

McLeroy seems stranded in a Beaver Cleaver universe that is light years from the reality of today's schools. (Or perhaps the "Bugs Bunny Show!")

As the Chair and a board member, McLeroy deserted a conservative principle of local control. Instead, he and other GOP board members have sought to consolidate power and force their ideological agenda on all school districts.

Those tactics continue to spawn public feuds over textbook selection and curriculum content.

All of that has left the board more marginalized and has diminished its role in shaping public schools.

But the board still is capable of significant mischief.

McLeroy's elevation to chairman comes as the board begins a revision of science standards for public schools. That could prove embarrassing for Texas if McLeroy pushes for standards that push theology over science.

If McLeroy wants to restore the board's credibility, he should promote standards — and textbooks — that educate, not preach.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com