Well, it looks as if the so-called "Scientific Creationists" have won this round, I'm sad to say.   A source inside the school tells me that the proposed elective on evolution (March 4, front page) is being stonewalled by the district's cabinet, which includes the superintendent, assistant superintendent and directors.   I get the distinct impression that the cabinet does not want this proposed course to go before the school board.  I fear that the reason this is occurring is because the cabinet is afraid of more controversy.   Perhaps they hope that this issue will just go away if they stall long enough.

In my opinion, preventing this course from moving forward is to deny our students an opportunity of  scientific literacy.  The only effective counter to the pseudo-science of  "Scientific Creationism" is real science, but the district cabinet has forfeited the field to the creationists, or so it appears.

I recently re-read The Children's Story by James Clavell.  This tiny (45 page) classic illustrates the first 25 minutes of an elementary school classroom after a country (presumably the USA) loses a fictional war (presumably against a communist nation.)  In this book the children, under the indoctrination of their new teacher, move from pledging allegiance to the flag, to cutting it into pieces and throwing the flagpole into the yard.   The setting is dated, but the message is timeless.   We must teach our children more than just rote facts, we must teach them how to learn, how to think critically; the deeper meanings behind the concepts that they learn.  To do otherwise is to abandon them to the indoctrinators.

As a Christian, I teach my children moral values, right and wrong, respect, and love.  I teach them about God and Jesus.   I also teach them about the glories of the natural universe.   My three-and-a-half year old is fascinated by airplanes, growing plants, and that the stars are like the sun just farther away.   To prevent her from learning about science in general and evolution in particular is to set her up for a crisis of faith in her late teens.  Just at the point when she begins to think for herself, and reach out on her own, will she discover that her parents have concealed the true nature of the world?  Or will she already know that science and religion do not need to clash, because her parents have taught her the deeper meanings behind the things she has learned?  God created the universe.  Then He created science, so that we could better understand the scope and magnificence of the universe that He has made.  Will she accept both concepts, or will she choose one over the other?  I have no idea, but I insist that she be given the opportunity to decide.

I urge the district cabinet to re-examine the motivating factors, and to reconsider their position.  A public statement on why the course has not been allowed out of the cabinet would be appropriate at this point.