Science Education at Risk

The Texas SBOE voted to adopt the new science TEKS at their March 27, 2009, meeting. As required by law, the SBOE had science teachers and scientists draft a modernized science curriculum for them to consider.

The anti-evolutionists on the SBOE were thwarted in their attempt to preserve the “strengths and weaknesses” language that had been in the TEKS. They tried to challenging every scientist who testified that evolution is strong. The teacher proposed new standards would teach evolution as confirmed scientific theory, but the board has amended some of these standards to include language not unlike “strengths and weaknesses” in order to support some of their own ideological ideas.

Our understanding of evolution is grounded in science. To argue against evolution you have to use rhetoric. It takes new evidence to change science.

Anti-evolutionists on the SBOE want to teach false arguments against evolution. They call these arguments “weaknesses with evolution,” but they are false weaknesses designed to instill doubt about evolution. Evolution is one of the most strongly confirmed theories in science. Life is the most complicated thing we study, and evolution accurately explains why its details are they way they are and not some other way.

Teaching false weaknesses doesn't just affect a student's understanding of evolution, it affects the student's understanding of science. The false arguments teach students that science is a rhetorical game of winning any way you can. To teach these false weaknesses is to teach students to think unscientifically in science class.

Accepting evolution is a matter of understanding the science that supports it. Belief in God is a matter of faith and is personal. Science concerns itself with the natural world, while religion concerns itself with the spiritual.

Clergy throughout the country understand this. Consider that nearly 12,000 Christian clergy have signed a letter at The Clergy Letter Project affirming that ”the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests.”

Consider also that 68 academies of science from around the world, comprising the InterAcademy Panel, have also signed a statement asserting that life evolved. People from Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist countries around the world have many differences, but their scientists agree on evolution.

Texas is so big that the entire country is at risk. The Texas State Board of Education controls the content of more textbooks than any other board of education in the country. California may be a bigger state, but it has many boards of education, one for each district. To maximize profits and keep investors happy, publishers make sure their textbooks meet Texas standards.

Many states end up buying textbooks made for Texas. Problems with these textbooks become their problems too. Undermining science education in Texas undermines science education around the country.

Making ideological ideas part of the science curriculum undermines our children's education and has the potential for far-reaching damage. When we teach our children unscientific ideas in science class…

• they will not understand essential biological concepts, which are key to many career pathways.
• they will do poorly on science entrance exams.
• they will not be competitive with students who have been taught sound science. Universities and companies prefer applicants who understand current scientific knowledge.
• companies will be reluctant to locate in Texas because parents want their children in good schools learning science.
• science standards will suffer nationwide, since Texas’ curriculum and textbooks are used extensively in the U.S.
• the United States could lose its status as a world power in scientific research.

Fundamentally, if we teach students that science works in ways that it does not, they will not understand science.