being taught along with evolution in the classroom.
Let's spread the love around to the other counties. This is the first I heard about this bunch in Pinellas.
I have written often about the fact that the
majority of the members of the School Board of Polk County support teaching Intelligent Design alongside Evolution. The new standards are not expected to agree with that stance.
Now we find out that the majority of the members of the Pinellas County School Board feel the same way.
Four School Board members would teach intelligent design alongside evolution.A majority of Pinellas County School Board members think that if Florida children are taught evolution, they also should learn other theories on the origin of life.
Board members Jane Gallucci, Carol Cook, Peggy O'Shea and Nancy Bostock stopped short of saying that faith-based theories should be included in the state's proposed new science standards, which the Board of Education likely will vote on in February. They would include Darwin's theory of evolution but not faith-based theories such as intelligent design or creationism. But in interviews, all four said such theories should be taught in public school classrooms.
"I think that students should be given the opportunity to view all theories on how man evolved and let their science background and their religious background take over as to which one they believe in," said Gallucci, also the immediate past president of the National School Boards Association.
"To teach one as if nothing else existed, I think we're doing our students a disservice," Cook said.
So this board member is saying that one's religious background could easily trump science.
One of the board members is thinking very clearly on this subject. I very much like this comment from her. Astute and to the point.
Clark, a former middle school science teacher, said the proposed standards are a "step into the 21st century." She pointed to a recent study that found American students lagging behind many of their international peers in science.
"Let's start teaching the Bible as science," Clark said, "and then see how our students compete against the rest of the world."
And today I finally found something I had been looking for a while. I knew that the Polk County, Florida, School Superintendent was letting Creationism be taught at the discretion of the teachers, at their whim.
From 2005, after the Dover PA decision:
McKinzie: Polk Schools Teach Evolution, Allow Discussions of Intelligent DesignBut Polk County Superintendent Gail McKinzie said she's not opposed to science teachers discussing or even formally presenting the controversial theory in science classes, so long as they don't exclude traditional science.
"I wouldn't want to say you must only teach evolution," she said. ". . . I think obviously evolution is based on scientific theory. But I'm also confident other explanations of how people have come to be on Earth provide other discussion topics."
Polk's science books, as do most science books, include sections on the theory of evolution. Evolutionary science says life today, including plants, animals and humans, developed through a series of small changes over very long periods of time.
The theory conflicts with the Biblical interpretation of the Earth's creation.
Excuse me, Gail McKenzie...this statement of yours gives the impression that the scientific theory is wrong, but you must be careful not to "dismiss" it:
But Polk County Superintendent Gail McKinzie said she's not opposed to science teachers discussing or even formally presenting the controversial theory in science classes, so long as they don't exclude traditional science.
That is very dismissive of the scientific theory. Sounds like Gail really doesn't like the scientific standards but must not appear to "dismiss" them.
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