For decades the Texas Board of Education has been
scrutinizing our public school's teaching materials. Every time the science
textbooks come up for review, it's always the same; they debate whether or not
evolution should be taught. Evolution is an established factual phenomena, that
is a necessary factor in understanding the natural world and should be taught
in schools. Through constant study evolution has been proven time and time
again. But because it conflicts with religious beliefs, they decide to put the
quality of Texas children's education at risk in order to bring the lessons in
line with some of the board members biblical literalist beliefs. Recently, the
board met to give final approval to new science and math textbooks. This
brought on a prolonged debate over Pearson Education Publishing’s coverage of
evolution in their biology textbook. The Board then proceeded to pinpoint “factual
errors”, which Pearson representatives was quick to refute. When is the Texas
Board of Education going to enter the 21st century and stop wasting
tax payers’ time and money by debating a process that is accepted by 99.9% of
the scientific community? Texas children need a strong base in science
education in order to succeed in the modern world. Texas can’t afford to let
some narrow minded, anti-science individuals dictate what is to be taught in
science classes. Experts in the various fields
should determine what should be included in Texas curriculum.
1 comment:
In Ms. Gadush blog post she mentions the necessity it is to start including evolution in Texas textbooks. I completely agree with this motion. As a person who grew up in a catholic home I have seen firsthand how parents react to even the mention of evolution. I understand that many parents do not want to expose their children to a fact that might change their kids ideas of who is God and what might happen if they don’t belive in him.
Ms. Gadush had excellent points made. One of my favorite quote she said was “evolution is an established factual phenomena, that is a necessary factor in understanding the natural world and should be taught in schools” this quote basically sums it up. Evolution is a something new and scary, but is a necessity since our science is moving forward we have to move forward with it and open our minds to new concepts. Our parents and their parents were taught that there is a God and if you don’t believe in this God than you are not going into what they call a better place. Texans take many cautions to prevent eternal damnation for their children. Jennifer point of view was pretty specific. I wish that she would’ve included some point of view from the religious perspective.
To have evolution being part of our textbooks will be a challenge, but it is a challenge that people who have strong believes can overcome. I am starting to open myself up to evolution. I have had questions all of my life and evolution is answering a lot of them maybe evolution can help others understand who they are.
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