LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Gilroy Dispatch
March 5th, 1999

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I read with considerable alarm in the March 4 Dispatch, that Gilroy High School fears controversy over offering an *elective* in evolution, and evolutionary theory.

If some people in the community don't want their children to learn about evolution, and don't want them in a semester-long class in evolutionary theory, then I have a simple solution: Don't take this elective.

For my part, I hope the class is in place when my children reach High School age.

I have a small bone to pick with Ms. Austin's quote at the end of the article, where she says that the subject won't be presented as absolute truth, but rather as "... theory, which means that it can be worked and  reworked." 'Evolution' is a broad subject that encompasses several theories on *how* the process occurs, not *if* it occurs. That subject is observed fact. The  controversy arises only when creationists try to impose their religious beliefs on the teaching of science in the public school system, which is in my opinion censorship at its most insidious.