The voters of Kansas chose yesterday between teaching their children one point of view, or that same point of view along with the possibility there is another. The Washington Post here today explains:
By a 6 to 4 vote that supporters cheered as a victory for free speech and opponents denounced as shabby politics and worse science, the board said high school students should be told that aspects of widely accepted evolutionary theory are controversial.
In the isolation of a school classroom and faced with standard test questions they must master, our children are spoon-fed a few science specifics which are crafted by the textbook and curriculum industries at a cost of billions of dollars annually. The point of view of this education industry is restricted to what education “experts” select from the inductive expanding scientific fields.
Compounding the censorship effect of shoehorning science into textbooks and curricula is the requirement that kids learn standard answers to standard questions.
Now there is a better way.
When our kids can explore science that is free and open on the Internet they will enjoy true free speech and be able to look over the shoulder of real science as it unfolds. And I dare say that parents who want their children to learn intelligent design principles will be able to show them much better online descriptions of that than they will ever find in the confines of a Kansas classroom.
