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'Intelligent Design' Gets Little Class Time: STATE TEACHERS KEEP FOCUS ON EVOLUTION

Posted on: Sunday, 15 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Frank E. Lockwood And Greg Kocher, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Jan. 15--Jack Ousley is a Paintsville High School science teacher. He's also a Southern Baptist deacon. He believes that God created the heavens and the earth. But he also believes in evolution.

When he teaches a biology class, "I teach that things evolve, change over time," Ousley said.

Across Kentucky, teachers like Ousley are teaching Darwin's theory of evolution -- what the state euphemistically refers to as "change over time." More than 20 science teachers from across the state interviewed by the Herald-Leader say they try to be sensitive to other viewpoints, but nearly all said they don't present creationism or intelligent design as credible scientific theories.

Teachers are hesitant to stray too far from mainstream scientific teachings, even though Gov. Ernie Fletcher is urging them to tell their students about the "self-evident truth" of intelligent design, the idea that a Supreme Being has guided the development of life on earth.

At Paintsville High School, Ousley's road map is the state's science core curriculum, not the book of Genesis.

"I don't teach it like they would at a theological institution," he said. "I don't say 'God created the earth in six days and on the seventh he rested.'"

But he tells his students there are "alternative viewpoints" about the earth's origins.

That's not news to most kids from Johnson County, who are already familiar with the biblical account.

"A majority of them, if they come from a strong religious background, it doesn't matter how much evolution you give them, they're not going to believe it," Ousley said.

Ousley said he doesn't try to change any minds, but he makes sure they know the theory "so these kids can score the best they can on the (statewide standardized) test."

Since 1990, Kentucky law has allowed educators to teach both evolution and "the theory of creation as presented in the Bible."

At Lynn Camp High School in Knox County, evolution is covered, along with the "Christian viewpoint" on how earth was created, said science teacher Karen Bowman. But the two don't get equal time.

"We actually present far, far, far more on evolution than we do on intelligent design," Bowman said. "I guess maybe, if I were at a Christian private school, I might approach it differently, but being at a public school, it's kept to a minimum."

'Self-evident truth'

In his speech last week, Fletcher, an ordained Baptist minister, said intelligent design isn't a religious doctrine. "This is not a question about faith or religion. It's about self-evident truth," he said.

But a federal judge appointed by President Bush reached the opposite conclusion last month, throwing out a Dover, Pa., school board policy which mandated the teaching of intelligent design.

"The overwhelming evidence is that intelligent design is a religious view, a mere relabeling of creationism and not a scientific theory," wrote Judge John E. Jones III.

The controversy isn't limited to Pennsylvania. In November, the Kansas State Board of Education voted 6-4 to change its science standards, requiring educators to present views critical of Darwin's theory in the classroom.

Intelligent design isn't a hot topic among Kentucky teachers, says Kentucky School Boards Association spokesman Brad Hughes. At least it wasn't until the governor's speech.

Last year, Hughes e-mailed 176 school districts across the state and asked them to let him know if they were teaching intelligent design or creationism in their classrooms.

Nobody responded, he said.

In interviews with the Herald-Leader, many teachers said they'd be uncomfortable presenting creationism or intelligent design as legitimate science.

"I set out to teach science, not to become a minister," said Rowan County High School teacher Melissa Marcum. "We're not trained for that."

Intelligent design isn't mentioned in the state's core curriculum, it isn't spelled out in the state-approved textbooks and it isn't taught in college-level biology courses, teachers said.

Plus, it's hard to prove the existence of God with test tubes or the periodic table of elements.

Woodford County High School teacher Mary Beth Rouse said science deals "with things that are testable, that are measurable, that are observable."

In Fayette County and other districts, some teachers were hesitant to discuss the controversy.

"What we teach is the core content, and the core content is set by the Kentucky Department of Education," said Becky Riley, chair of the Henry Clay High School science department. "It really doesn't matter in Kentucky what I think. What matters is what (KDE) says my students need to learn."

Studying the controversy

The teaching of evolution has been a controversial topic in this state since at least the 1920s, when fundamentalists tried and failed to outlaw it. Today, however, evolution is no longer a great source of controversy in most Kentucky communities, several educators said.

Jamie Hester, a science teacher at Boyle County High School, begins the section on evolution by having her sophomores do the following writing assignment: "How did life on earth begin?"

"That's where I start with them and I allow them to answer that question. From that point, we have a roundtable discussion. You have to start where they are or it's useless." She estimates that 99 percent of the answers state the biblical creation as how life began.

"Then the second major activity is to look at the controversy. Why is this subject a problem?" Students research what various people think about how life began.

"I want them to be familiar with these terms so that they can recognize them and say 'Yes, I understand what that is, and this is why I think differently.'"

The third activity is to look at Charles Darwin's life, research and conclusions in 1859's The Origin of Species.

The students also watch Inherit the Wind, the 1960 movie with Fredric March and Spencer Tracy playing William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow battling over the teaching of evolution in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.

The whole segment on evolution may take two or three class weeks to complete. Last year, a crew from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer came to Hester's class to tape a segment on creationism vs. evolution for PBS.

"I've never been afraid of the topic," Hester said. "For me, the best way is to allow students to speak. Because any time people are afraid of anything, it's because they don't know about it or they think there's something to worry about or fear."

Hester doesn't agree with teaching of intelligent design, because it can't be tested. She said she "cringed" in 1999 when the Kentucky Department of Education replaced "evolution" with the phrase "change over time" in science curriculum guidelines.

State officials said at the time that the terms meant the same thing and that "change over time" would be less controversial wording to parents whose religious beliefs clash with the theory of evolution.

Stick with standards

Whatever you call it, most teachers surveyed said it's important to teach evolution.

Several teachers said they hope Kentucky won't change its core curriculum to include intelligent design.

"I think at this point we should just stay with the state standards," said Woodford County teacher Rouse. "There are some national benchmarks that were used to write those standards, and I think we should stick with those."

At least one teacher said he'd sooner quit than teach what critics call junk science.

"Being that I'm young and single and don't have a family, I would say 'No. It's just a job, it's not worth it.' (But) I might teach intelligent design in a religion class," said Brian Slone, a teacher at The David School in Floyd County.

"Almost every scientist believes in God," he said. "But almost all of them refuse to call intelligent design a science."

Discuss online

Staff writers Lee Mueller, Steve Lannen and Raviya Ismail, and researcher Linda Niemi contributed to this report. Reach Frank Lockwood at (859) 231-3211 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3211 or flockwood@herald-leader.com [mailto:flockwood@herald-leader.com]

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

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Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)

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