Considerable consternation has been aroused by the recent decision of a school board in Kansas to forbid the discussion in the classroom of the theory of evolution and other aspects of the great age of the earth, and its origin. This is no new move on the part of creationists in the United States to advance their own dogma and discount Darwin, but it represents a stiffening of their resolve.
A commentary in Science for August 20 reports that the state governor of Kansas has been greatly upset by the school board decision, describing it as “a terrible, tragic, embarrassing solution to a problem that did not exist”. Protests have been made throughout the US that the vote to eliminate the teaching of evolution and any other studies hinting at the great age of the earth is calculated to upset scientists and teachers alike and have adverse effects upon the students involved, and on the future of science education in Kansas.
The drive to eliminate references to evolution in schools is attributed to a group based in Missouri called the Creation Science Association of Mid-America, thought to be trying to extend its hold upon the education syllabus throughout America. A comment expressed in Nature for August 19 is that there is a massive difference between science on the one hand and dogma on the other and that scientists should point this out.
There is a case for scientists to take a more active part in public life and be better represented on bodies which take responsibility for drawing up educational schemes. There is danger in the presentation of science as a set of facts to be learnt by rote, rather than a way of inquiring into the natural phenomena we encounter and thereby building up a body of knowledge which can be applied to yet more phenomena. Above all, children at school should be taught that science means interrogating nature, not adopting a rigid set of rules for answering examination questions.