Oct. 8, 2003, 7:59PM
Truth won out in debate on Texas textbooks
By STEVEN D. SCHAFERSMAN
AT the Sept. 10 State Board of Education public hearing on textbook
adoption, scientists, educators and students overwhelmingly supported
leaving the evolution content in biology textbooks unchanged, since none
contained factual errors or omissions about evolution and all contained the
necessary material to comply with the Texas science curriculum. Indeed,
every Texas scientist who testified not only supported the biology books,
but also objected to efforts by creationists to confuse the public and State
Board members about supposed "weaknesses" of evolution. In addition, the
Texas Education Agency soon after reported that the biology textbooks all
totally conformed to the TEKS, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, as
required by law.
All the scientific evidence presented in the hearing strongly supported the
scientists' evaluation of the textbooks. Speakers representing the Discovery
Institute, a Seattle, Wash., organization that promotes intelligent design
creationism, relied on misinformation to support their unwarranted claims
that the biology books were inaccurate and incomplete. Scientist after
scientist from the University of Texas at Austin spoke to the board,
dissecting each creationist claim in detail and showing why each was
illogical and unsupported by the evidence. Thus, the overwhelming effect of
the testimony was to support the accurate scientific evolution content in
biology textbooks and to leave them unchanged. Nevertheless, there is
concern that some State Board members will try to change the textbooks or
place them on the nonconforming list.
My own written testimony was misrepresented when I compared the current crop
of anti-evolutionists on the State Board to Stalinists and Nazis. The Soviet
Union and Nazi Germany both had long and unfortunate histories of political
interference and control of specific scientific topics for ideological
reasons (genetics in the USSR, anthropology in Germany). Such interference
and control of biology is precisely what some State Board members are trying
to do in Texas, and scientists and educators have had to organize to stop
them. While not similar in scale or murderous consequences, the motivation
is identical and will result in "only" the corruption of our state's science
education system.
The same tired litany of scientifically discredited support for intelligent
design, such as arguments of anti-evolutionist Michael Behe, has been put
forward as reliable science. However, readers are never informed of the
dozens of reviews and essays by prominent scientists, including my own, that
closely examine Behe's claims and show why they are illogical and
unscientific. Today, there is zero scientific support for intelligent design
and overwhelming support for modern evolution; indeed, evolution has never
been stronger as an active scientific research topic. All the "weaknesses"
that anti-evolutionists wish to have forced into biology books are
illegitimate: They have already been corrected, are educationally
unwarranted, or never existed in the first place.
Organized creationists, in their entire existence, have never conducted a
single science experiment or made a single scientific observation. They just
don't practice real science. Instead, their strategy is to use rhetorical
and marketing techniques to persuade politically powerful non-scientists of
the truth of their arguments, and convince them to force changes in science
textbooks and curricula using the power of the state. This is what the
creationist supporters tried to do in Kansas and Ohio, and now they are in
Texas attempting to do the same thing. They failed in those two states, and
they will ultimately fail here.
Houston readers should be aware that the most extreme anti-science advocates
on the State Board of Education are from Houston and its surrounding
counties: Teri Leo, David Bradley, Don McLeroy and Linda Bauer. Their
efforts to subvert accurate science instruction are well-known and
documented in the written and oral testimony available on the Texas
Education Agency and Texas Citizens for Science Web sites. The first three
members have publicly championed creationist speakers and their goals, and
have announced their plan to place all the biology textbooks that refuse to
make unscientific changes on the nonconforming adoption list, thus
restricting their sale in Texas. For her part, Bauer appointed two
creationists to the state biology textbook review panel, where they
attempted but failed to have the books listed as nonconforming.
I have opposed such State Board of Education members since 1982, and the
problems we have with anti-scientists on the board will never disappear
until voters take the time to learn the true natures and beliefs of State
Board candidates before electing them to office. The position is low on the
ballot, and dedicated creationists run as stealth candidates to stay below
the radar. I urge each reader to investigate this controversy yourself and
begin to take a personal interest in Texas science education and keep
ideologues and zealots off the State Board. The reason is simple: These
individuals are neglecting our state's low standardized text scores, low
graduation rates and shrinking Texas' Permanent School Fund, while devoting
their time and energy to meddling with science textbook content. Instead of
devoting their efforts to protecting and improving public school education,
they appear to want to damage it. Some of them home-school their children or
send them to private religious schools, so it is understandable that they
have no stake in the system. Texans should demand that these public
officials start to make the education of our schoolchildren their first
priority, and we should expect them to begin by leaving science textbooks
alone and not censor them.
Schafersman, of Midland, is the president of Texas Citizens for Science. He
is a scientist, educator and writer.
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