School boards heeding lessons from Dover ruling

The York Daily Record reports on the Ohio School Board of Education’s decision to drop the terminology ‘critically analyze’ from its curriculum pointing out that while ID activists were quick to argue that the Dover Kitzmiller ruling had no legal standing outside the school district it observes that:

Even so, other school boards across the country are heeding the words of U.S. Judge John E. Jones III, who wrote that, “To be sure, Darwin’s theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.”

Judge Jones’ comments on using back door tactics to introduce the teaching of Intelligent Design into the school curriculum were scathing. In the case of Ohio, the many problems, errors, misrepresentations identified in the lesson plan shows how Intelligent Design not only fails to present scientifically relevant alternatives but also often results in poor lesson plans. Perhaps it’s time to educate the public that ‘teaching the controversy’ or ‘critically analyze’ can often lead to poor lesson plans which repeat the various creationist misunderstandings of evolutionary theory.

A child deserves better.