Teaching evolution, respecting religion

Editor's note: Earlier this month, President George W. Bush reignited the debate over evolution by suggesting the theory of intelligent design should be taught in schools. Today in the first of a two-part series the Southeast Missourian examines how public schools in the region approach teaching about the origins of life.

Pointing out that biology is a science founded on a theory, Charles Darwin himself asked whether biology is a science or a faith.

In 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial cooled the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools. But President Bush's recent suggestion that students ought to be exposed to different schools of thought about how life was created has turned the heat back on. In 1925, the choice was between evolution and creationism. Bush supports teaching a third view called intelligent design, which contends that the theory of evolution does not hold up and that the universe is the result of an intelligent cause.

The National Science Teachers Association said in a statement that it is stunned and disappointed that Bush would endorse teaching intelligent design and "open the door for nonscientific ideas to be taught in the nation's K-12 science classrooms."

In its statement, the National Center for Science Education said: "It sounds like you're being fair, but creationism is a sectarian religious viewpoint, and intelligent design is a sectarian religious viewpoint."

On Aug. 10, the debate was given more strength in the public school arena when the Kansas Board of Education voted 6 to 4 to include greater criticism of evolution in school science standards.

The state of Missouri sets Grade Level Expectations, a content guideline, for its schools. Central High School strictly follows those guidelines.

"It's really a no-win situation because we do what the state tells us to do, and we teach the kids what they need to know." said Scott Kuse, assistant principal at Central.

Kuse taught biology before becoming assistant principal.

You cannot teach biology without the principles of the theory of evolution, he said. "Everything fits together."

Pam Schulte, a biology teacher at Central, said the state GLEs have been recently revised to prepare students for questions about evolution in MAP tests. She adds that the Advanced Placement biology tests rely heavily on a student's knowledge of the evolutionary process.

"I don't see how you can be a biology teacher and not address it," she said. "Even if you don't talk about it, it's there. Everything that you do relates back to it. It's the guiding theme of biology, just like atomic theory is the guiding theme for chemistry."

Schulte said the real debate is over the term "theory."

"A theory has to be based on tremendous amounts of support from all areas before it's ever termed a theory," she said. That's very different from the layman's use of the word. "People who are not into science frequently do not understand what is meant by theory."

Kuse agrees that terminology is at the heart of the controversy and with science there are not a lot of hard and fast facts. Once there is a fact it, is based on so much evidence that it is almost indisputable.

"People don't realize the difference between fact, theory and hypothesis."

In Schulte's biology classes she introduces students first to the idea of change over time, not evolution.

"I don't like to approach it as a controversy because it's not," she said. "It's the underpinning of biology, but if you throw the word out there there's so much that has been out in the popular press by people that do not understand it, and it makes my job harder."

She says she is not trying to fool her students or trick them into accepting something that they are not supposed to.

"I've found that the word bothers them when they don't understand it because they have heard all of this other stuff, but once they know what it means it's not a problem," she said.

Jackson High School biology teacher Andy Helle takes a more unorthodox approach to teaching evolution. On the first day his students delve into evolution he asks them to list the various theories and assumptions out there about those theories. He asks the students to compare the various theories. He says he wants to let them know what's out there without getting into the religious aspects.

"I don't think the classroom is the place to share one's religious beliefs," he said.

He said he does not see anything wrong with teaching the basics of creationism because ultimately the goal of education is to prepare young people for life outside of the school. Knowing the different theories allows them to be informed, he said.

"I feel like ignorance by choice is not an option."

Last year Helle held a debate between evolution and creationism. The students argued one side or the other based on which one they pulled out of a hat. He said some very avid creationists ended up on the evolution side, but their grade depended on how well they were able to defend the theory.

"As a result they had to learn the basics and the theories of it. My goal is not for someone to abandon their religion, their beliefs."

He said some of his own professors tried to make him feel stupid for believing what he believed. "But it actually strengthened my faith," he said.

But he said there is always room for debate.

"Science is always questioning," he said. "If you stop questioning, you stop science."

Wednesday: How parochial schools in the region teach about the origins of life.

---

DEFINING ISSUES

Creationism: Theory that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo) -- Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Intelligent design: Holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection. Intelligent design is thus a scientific disagreement with the core claim of evolutionary theory that the apparent design of living systems is an illusion.

-- www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/

Evolution: A theory in biology claiming that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types of animals and plants and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations. The theory of evolution is one of the fundamental cornerstones of modern biological theory.

-- Encyclopedia Britannica Online