Attack on science
(By Barbara Forrest, Hammond Daily Star, July 26, 2010)
Darrell White’s July 21 letter urging people to review science textbooks proposed for state adoption is the beginning of the Louisiana Family Forum’s attack on the public school science textbook selection process.
White, an LFF “consultant,” works fulltime promoting the goal of injecting the LFF’s religious views into public schools. The LFF engineered passage of the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008. In 2009, at the LFF’s request, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gutted the policy that implements the LSEA, stripping out protections against the teaching of creationism.
Now, the LFF wants to control the content of the textbooks.
White’s letter makes the fact that BESE and the Legislature have allowed the LFF so much control over public policy absolutely mindboggling. It is a mishmash of misinformation and right-wing propaganda. The only way to respond is to address White’s points one at a time. So here goes:
(1) White claims that “Congress has declared that ‘... a quality science education should prepare students to distinguish the data and testable theories of science from religious or philosophical claims that are made in the name of science. Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such as biological evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the full range of scientific views that exist, why such topics may generate controversy, and how scientific discoveries can profoundly affect society.’”
But Congress declared no such thing. White is quoting a “sense of the Senate” resolution that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stuck into the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. Santorum acted on behalf of the Discovery Institute, the creationist think tank that in 2008 promoted and helped write the LSEA. Science and education organizations successfully lobbied to get Santorum’s resolution removed from the NCLB legislation. Discovery Institute supporters on the congressional conference committee subsequently stuck it in the NCLB legislative history, where it has NO force of law. I discuss this thoroughly in chapter 8 of my book, "Creationism’s Trojan Horse."
(2) White cites “national polling data confirming that most Americans would prefer that the weaknesses of evolutionism be presented alongside its so-called ‘strengths’ in the biology textbook.” First, there is not a shred of evidence that weakens “evolutionism.” None. Zero.
All available evidence confirms evolutionary theory as a robust explanation of the development of life.
Second, the polls to which White refers are bogus surveys that the Discovery Institute literally bought from Zogby International. I analyzed these polls carefully in my book. The questions were loaded in order to get the results for which Discovery Institute paid Zogby.
(3) White directs readers to
www.textaddons.com to see problems supposedly found in biology textbooks in 2002. White and the LFF tried to persuade BESE to insert evolution disclaimers into state textbooks, but BESE voted 7-3 against this. (What on earth has happened to BESE since then?)
Textaddons.com is the website of Charles Voss, who has written creationist addendums to be used with state-approved biology textbooks. These are the “supplementary materials” that the LSEA was designed to permit teachers to use. Voss is not qualified to critique textbooks. In 1994, he and his creationist friends tried to persuade the Livingston Parish School Board to adopt an incompetently written curriculum guide that included “intelligent design.” I personally fought against that effort. A public school chemistry teacher on the Science Curriculum Committee stumped Voss with a simple question, “How does one test (scientifically) for intelligent design?” Voss replied, “I will have to get back to you on that.” We never heard from him again.
(4) White cites “historian Cleon Skouson,” actually W. Cleon Skousen, concerning the “great secret weapon of Communism,” namely, teaching students about evolution. Skousen, now deceased, was a lawyer by training, not a historian. Glenn Beck promotes his books, which explains why White cited him. Alexander Zaitchik documents in *Salon* (September 2009) that Skousen was a nutball. Even his fellow conservatives wanted nothing to do with him because he had “gone off the deep end.” Skousen’s own Mormon church distanced itself from him. He was fired from his job as Salt Lake City police chief by the ultraconservative mayor, who stated, “The man is a master of half-truths . . . a liar.”
Skousen wrote a 1982 history textbook, "The Making of America,"calling African-American children “pickaninnies” and claiming that American slaveowners were the “worst victims” of slavery. Enough said about White’s authoritative source.
The LSEA was only the beginning. The LFF’s attack on science textbooks is next. And now the Livingston Parish School Board has announced its intention to consider teaching creationism. This is what the Legislature, BESE, and Bobby Jindal have enabled the LFF to pull off. Throughout it all, the citizens of Louisiana have remained almost completely silent. With a few commendable exceptions, the scientific community has done the same. Will they finally do something this time to stop the assault on science and public education?
To quote Darrell White’s letter, “time will tell.”
