Opponents of origin theories plan presentation
By JENNY JOHNSON Staff Reporter
The push to broaden the Darby science curriculum and encourage teachers to challenge evolution as a biological origin isn't over.
Countering a proposal to include biological origin theories other than evolution in science class, opponents Wednesday will argue to maintain the long-established theory of evolution as the genesis of biology.
Sponsored by the Ravalli County Citizens for Science, the public meeting Wednesday at the Darby Junior High gymnasium at 7 p.m. will include a presentation by Allan Gishlick of the National Center for Science Education.
With a resolution on the table that would change school policy and possibly thrust Darby into a national spotlight, school board trustees decided to hear a presentation against the "objective origins" policy before making a decision at a special meeting next week.
The policy calls for students to "assess evidence for and against theories," and "to analyze the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories, including the theory of evolution." Although the policy doesn't spell out what other theories would be included in science curriculum and courts have emphatically prohibited the teaching of creationism in public schools, the objective origins curriculum inevitably willinclude discussions of intelligent design - a theory that assumes a designer of the biologically complex world but stops short of declaring who or what that intelligent designer might be.
Opponents of the intelligent design idea say that the theory holds little scientific merit and is a round-about way to bring creationism into education.
Last month, school officials in Roseville, Calif., decided not to add anti-evolutionist materials to the district science curriculum, according to a report in the Sacramento Bee. Darby is the first school district in Montana to take up such a decision, according to Montana School Board Association officials.
Darby school board trustees are generally split on the decision, but at least two trustees have said they support the objective origins curriculum. Trustees were approached about the policy in November by Curtis Brickley, a Darby parent and minister who used a high-tech, multimedia presentation to introduce more than 200 Darby residents to the objective origins science policy.
Wednesday's presentation by people opposed to straying from the Darwin's theory and teaching intelligent design in school will outline the science behind teaching evolution not just as a theory, but as scientific fact. Since 1859 the theory of evolution has been the benchmark in public science curriculum.
Brickley argues that scientific debate exists regarding Darwin's theory and students need to examine all of the facts. He says that restricting science academic standards to evolution censors information from students and in order to teach objective, science-based curriculum, schools must offer other theories.
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