Monday, December 19, 2005

Dumbing Down South Carolina

South Carolina is not a state with a great reputation in the education field. We are small, poor, and have to many who are undereducated. One area that has received praise has been our state's educational science standards, where we received top marks in 2005.

Rep. Mike Fair is working to make sure that doesn't happen again.


Fair's latest volley deals with how South Carolina's public schools teach biology. Specifically, Fair wants students to be taught to analyze and question the theory of evolution. That has led critics to say Fair wants to open the door to religious-based theories on the history of the earth and human beings, such as intelligent design or creationism.


After the Dover case, and the political fallout for some of those who have pushed this false science, you would hope that our political leaders would have the wisdom to not try to mix education and religion.

But in South Carolina, that is clearly to much to ask.




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2 comments:

Doug said...

Analyzing and questioning the theory of evolution wouldn't be so much of a problem if we would teach our people to accept only empirical evidence rather than quasireligious gobbledygook. Questioning a theory is a good thing, but I don't see our educational system teaching analysis and questioning. I see our educational system teaching "alternatives," and by that I mean intelligent design. The theory of evolution is nothing more than an inference supported by evidence, but the notion of intelligent design is an inference that can't be supported by data. As such it has no place in a biology class, but would be perfect for a social studies class.

In short, learning science should never involve making inferences contrary to your evidence unless you are testing the validity of that evidence. If your idea is not based on facts then it isn't science, no matter how much a body of voters wishes it was.

Jon said...

Exactly.

ID would fit well in a Social Studies or better yet, a religious studies class, but never in a science class.