By Nancy R. Pearcey
What makes science superior
to other forms of knowledge, we’re told, is that it is self-correcting. But
that’s not the way science is taught in public schools-as Roger DeHart discovered when he tried to teach his students about
recent corrections to Neo-Darwinian theory.
A biology teacher at
But two years ago,
following a student complaint, the ACLU started intimidating the school board
with threats of a costly lawsuit. Critics accused Mr. DeHart
of teaching creation, though students testified that he did not talk about God
or religion in class. Indeed, he presented the issues so objectively,
students couldn’t even tell what his own position was. Yet in 1998 a new
superintendent ordered Mr. DeHart to cease and desist
from teaching students about intelligent design; he could, however, still talk
about problems in Neo-Darwinism.
Then this May, the
administration imposed even more draconian restrictions. Mr. DeHart wanted to alert students to recent reversals in key
evidence for Neo-Darwinism, and sought approval to distribute articles from
mainstream scientific journals to correct old, outdated information in the
textbooks. Astonishingly, the principal said no. In short, the ACLU’s
intimidation tactics have been so successful that Mr. DeHart
is being compelled to teach a caricature of the scientific method.
For example, the textbook
the school requires Mr. DeHart to use presents
Stanley Miller’s 1953 life-in-a-test-tube experiment as evidence that the
building blocks of life arose spontaneously in a “primeval soup” on the early
earth. But today most biologists dismiss that experiment as outdated, since it
relied on assumptions about the early atmosphere now known to be false. An
article in Scientific American tells
the story, yet the school forbids Mr. DeHart to tell
students how science has corrected itself.
Again, the most famous
example of natural selection involves the speckled peppered moth. Supposedly,
when industrial pollution darkened tree trunks, birds could see the lighter
moths against the blackened trunks, while darker moths blended in and increased
in numbers. Yet a recent article in The
Scientist reveals that these moths don’t even rest on tree trunks-and that
photos shown in textbooks were staged: Dead moths were glued onto tree trunks.
Yet the school forbids Mr. DeHart to correct this
false impression for his students.
Finally, many textbooks
include an illustration of vertebrate embryos lined up side by side, supposedly
demonstrating common ancestry. Yet as The
American Biology Teacher reports, biologists have known for years that
these drawings were fudged to look more similar than they really are. Mr. DeHart wants to tell his students the truth, but school
officials won’t let him.
When defenders of Darwinism
are willing to suppress data and teach outright falsehoods, you know they’re in
trouble. Last April, a teacher who helped write the standard textbook for
In other words, it’s OK to
teach false or misleading information, so long as it supports Neo-Darwinism.
Meanwhile, teachers who
teach the truth are restricted, and even fired. Kevin Haley was a biology
professor at
Darwinism has become our
culture’s official creation myth, protected by a priesthood
as dogmatic as any religious curia. A genuinely scientific approach should be
open to corrections and alternatives. Darwinism and design theory are not two
different subjects; they are competing answers to the same question: How did
life arise and diversify on earth? If one view is taught, teachers should be
free to teach other views as well.
This is simply good
pedagogy. The reason Roger DeHart and Kevin Haley
were such effective teachers is that they helped students weigh the evidence
and think critically. They taught students that science really can be
self-correcting-if it is free to follow the facts wherever they lead.
WORLD, June 24, 2000, Vol. 15, Num. 25