"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

How Many Dinosaurs Does it Take to Fill an Ark?

Former teacher, Ken Ham, has a religious road show that is touring the country confusing children along the way about religion and science. Example: How did Noah get all those dinosaurs onto the Ark? Easy--he chose baby dinosaurs. These and other creationist science facts can be found in this story, reprinted from the Times.

In the meantime, back in the real world, developments are moving quickly, it seems, against the intelligent design folks. This story in today's Times about developments in Ohio:

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 13 — A majority of members on the Board of Education of Ohio, the first state to single out evolution for "critical analysis" in science classes more than three years ago, are expected on Tuesday to challenge a model biology lesson plan they consider an excuse to teach the tenets of the disputed theory of intelligent design.

A reversal in Ohio would be the most significant in a series of developments signaling a sea change across the country against intelligent design — which posits that life is too complex to be explained by evolution alone — since a federal judge's ruling in December that teaching the theory in the public schools of Dover, Pa., was unconstitutional.

A small rural school district in California last month quickly scuttled plans for a philosophy elective on intelligent design after being challenged by lawyers involved in the Pennsylvania case. Also last month, an Indiana lawmaker who said in November that he would introduce legislation to mandate teaching of intelligent design instead offered a watered-down bill requiring only "accuracy in textbooks." And just last week, two Democrats in Wisconsin proposed a ban on schools' teaching intelligent design as science, the first such proposal in the country. . .

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