Contact: Mark Edwards -- 206.292.0401 x107 -- medwards@discovery.org
SEATTLE--After months of debate, the Ohio State Board of Education has adopted science standards that require Ohio students to know why "scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory." The Board unanimously approved the science standards this morning.
Calling this provision in Ohio's science standards "historic," Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, noted that "Ohio has become the first state to require students to learn about scientific criticisms of Darwinian evolution as well as scientific evidence supporting the theory. This represents an important milestone in the effort to ensure that students learn the full range of relevant scientific evidence. This policy will help remedy the selective presentation of evidence made by most biology textbooks today."
Ohio's new evolution standard does not require teaching the theory of intelligent
design. "In recent weeks some have mischaracterized the new language as
an effort to mandate teaching the theory of intelligent design in the classroom,
but that is not accurate and is not what we asked for," said Dr. Meyer.
"The new standard requires students to learn about the evidence for and
against Darwin's theory. It does not mandate that students be tested about the
theory of intelligent design, though it does leave teachers free to discuss
it."
Dr. Meyer, a Cambridge-trained philosopher of science, and his colleague, Dr.
Jonathan Wells, a Berkeley-trained biologist (both of Discovery Institute),
were invited by the Board of Education to testify in March at a public hearing
about the scientific controversy over Darwinian evolution. At the March hearing,
Meyer, an advocate of the theory of intelligent design, proposed a compromise.
Meyer suggested that the Board not require students to know the evidence and
arguments for the modern theory of intelligent design, but that they should
require students to know the scientific arguments for and against neo-Darwinism.
The Ohio State Board's decision today essentially affirms this approach by allowing
students to learn evidence based scientific critiques of contemporary evolutionary
theory. (Meyer's original proposal to the Board can be found in his March 30,
2002 op-ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Teach the Controversy.")
Dr. Jonathan Wells, author of "Icons of Evolution," a book that documents
scientific errors in textbook presentations of the case for modern Darwinism,
urged the Ohio State Board of Education to adopt curricular materials that more
accurately represent the current state of scientific knowledge and to remedy
the one-sided presentation of evidence in favor of contemporary Darwinian evolution.
"Most biology textbooks continue to use outdated and discredited evidences
like peppered moths and Haeckel's embryos when it comes to their treatment of
Darwinian theory. It is critically important for school districts in Ohio to
revise their biology curricula in order to meet the new standards."
The Ohio State Department of Education already has pledged to carry out the
intent of the new evolution standard. Susan Zelman, Ohio's State Superintendent
of Public Instruction, testified before the state legislature on Nov. 13 that
she would "make a commitment that in our curriculum model we will deal
with this controversial issue [of evolution] in an intellectually honest way,
to protect the spirit of [indicator] #23 'to investigate and critically analyze
aspects of evolutionary theory,' and try to give examples about how to do that."
Discovery Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan policy and research organization
that studies issues from transportation to technology to tax policy. In science
education, it supports a "teach the controversy" approach to Darwinian
evolution. Its Center for Science and Culture has more than 40 affiliated biologists,
biochemists, physicists, philosophers and historians of science, and public
policy and legal experts, most of whom also have positions with colleges and
universities. www.discovery.org
File Date: 12.11.02