Wisconsin to Teach Creationism

[Master of Ossus]

Not all the fundies live in Bush land?

GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- School officials have revised the science curriculum to allow the teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators who urged that the decision be reversed.

Members of Grantsburg's school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum "should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Wisconsin.

Last month, when the board examined its science curriculum, language was added calling for "various models/theories" of origin to be incorporated.

The decision provoked more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members to write a letter last week urging the Grantsburg board to reverse the policy. It follows a letter sent previously by 43 deans at Wisconsin public universities.

"Insisting that teachers teach alternative theories of origin in biology classes takes time away from real learning, confuses some students and is a misuse of limited class time and public funds," said Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin law mandates that evolution be taught, but school districts are free to create their own curricular standards, said Joe Donovan, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Instruction.

There have been scattered efforts around the nation for other school boards to adopt similar measures. Last month the Dover Area School Board in Pennsylvania voted to require the teaching of alternative theories to evolution, including "intelligent design" -- the idea that life is too complex to have developed without a creator.

The state education board in Kansas was heavily criticized in 1999 when it deleted most references to evolution. The decision was reversed in 2001.

In March, the Ohio Board of Education narrowly approved a lesson plan that some critics contended opens the door to teaching creationism.

[DPDarkPrimus]

The science curriculum "should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Wisconsin.

Okay then, suggest another scientific theory to teach. Oh, whoops! Creationism isn't a scientific theory!

[Fire Fly]

Just so people know, Grantsburg is in the very upper most western part of the state, right on the state boarders of Minnesotta and Wisconsin. Point being, much of the north is more conservative and as you go down south, it becomes more moderate and then more liberal.

In conclusion, this is an isolated incident that will most likely be over turned.....hopefully.

[Dalton]

And there are still people out there who still aren't convinced that the religious right is attempting to sneak their agenda past the first amendment. Sickening.

[Stark]

Its a terrible, awful thing to only teach one scientific theory! Thus we need class time for 'the world is flat', 'the sky is made of firmament', 'space is full of ether', 'disease is caused by miasma/demons', 'gravity is caused by sin' and other storybook favourites. What about the cosmic egg?

[salm]

*points, laughs, moves on*

[Rye]

How did they decide that creationism was a "valid alternative"? Like I don't already know...gah, they suck. I bet someone cited the "problems with evolution" and then left out the evolutionary answers to these problems and THEN continued to provide creative interpretation of a story about people that don't notice their genitals until they eat a magic knowledge-giving apple as advised by a talking snake. Yeah, that's a real believable "competitive theory."

I wonder what brand they're going to teach, whether it be "an intelligent thing did something somehow" ID, "the Earth is only 6-10000 years old (amusingly, this would make the city of old Jericho older than the Earth), a hyuck, i love my sister" YECism, or "adam lived for a billion 945 years" OECism.

[Jalinth]

Its a terrible, awful thing to only teach one scientific theory! Thus we need class time for 'the world is flat', 'the sky is made of firmament', 'space is full of ether', 'disease is caused by miasma/demons', 'gravity is caused by sin' and other storybook favourites. What about the cosmic egg?

I actually like the "earth is flat" theory. It was also religious based but was conclusively disproved.

But what I'd like to do is try my version of why things fall in place of the Theory of Gravity. I'd ask these school board members to be my first guinea pigs that'd teach them the difference between a scientific theory and a non-scientific theory.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Nice to see the age of reason is still going strong.

[Alyrium Denryle]

You know, the SCOTUS ruled on this back in the 80's aall they would need to do is point to SCOTUS precedent.

But Jesus fucking christ. Science is not a fucking democracy,a theory's acceptance is not decided based on popular opinion, or how much people want to beleive them. The are based on evidence. Evolution has it, all the other shit doesnt.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Ouchie, in my own state. That hurts me, somewhere deep inside. I suppose I'm can be happy that I live in the fairly liberal south-central part of the state. Though, according to my parents, Bush won my county by 10,000 or so votes.

[Illuminatus Primus]

A better examination would be county-by-county. Again, population density seems to be the overriding factor; just going by States to determine "Bush Country" is naive.

Superintendent of 1,000 students? That's small-fry for my county; my school contains 1,500 students. Sounds kind of rural to me, and that's definitely Bush Country.