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I need to toss in a thought with another perspective.  Maybe the real issue
behind this conflict is the need for conflict at any cost.   It seems clear
to me that the small percentage of "religious people" behind fueling this
debate are doing so to raise money and gain political power.  To do this
they need a conflict that they can use to convince others that they are
saving the world.  In effect they are using this - and many other issues -
to show how others are destroying society and create a need for another
solution.   No different from Galileo's time.  (And, actually not different
from some science initiatives to seek funding.)  When they make progress
from their perspective, such as changing the content in books, they make
even more money.  In some religious sectors there really may be no debate
about evolution and ID.  The purpose of the debate may often be to keep
conflict alive with an issue that can be easily become highly emotional.

Much of their power is made possible by large numbers of good and caring
people who are almost totally ignorant of what science is, is not, and how
it contributes to understanding.  Maintaining this ignorance is an asset for
the power behind the conflict.  We are all aware, or should be, of efforts
to resist active questioning, debate, discussion, and critical thinking in
the classrooms.   As reference we should review the conflict in California
over the CLASS assessments in Science and Language Arts in the 90's that
attempted to assess students ability do critical thinking and discuss and
defend ideas.  These assessments attempted to raise the bar and create a
need for really good authentic learning and critical thinking.   The tests
were strongly opposed by: guess who?  The result was that the political
machine in CA eliminated the test. The science assessment the was only given
once was not graded as far as I know.

The future may not look any brighter.  In visiting many schools I find very
few instances in which we are helping today's students really understand
science through experiences where they are personally actively involved in
construction of powerful knowledge through authentic interactions with
nature. Instead they are being subjected to listening to long eloquent
explanations and proofs of "important science knowledge" that was created by
others and answering questions to see if they remember what was said.  With
the current efforts to improve learning, we may be ignoring the most
important aspects of learning.   I suspect that the National Science
Standards that seek very high quality science learning are being almost
completely watered down by the political machines in many states.   They
keep the information content and almost totally eliminate the process.   It
would not surprise me if the majority of today's students will complete
their education without ever having actually participated in doing science
to build understanding at an age-appropriate level in school.  Thus we may
be continuing to develop a mostly science ignorant society for the future.

Maybe our greatest response is to continue to give students experiences in
science in ways that they do science to understand science. In the 1970's
science education seemed to be at the bottom of the pile.  It seemed that
schools and funding sources had greatly ignored science. In many instances
opportunities for quality science experiences were offered only because of
the informal science community maintained an exceptional effort.  Today our
challenge is even greater.  The best response to this debate may be to
reduce ignorance of science through the approaches to doing science that we
offer in our institutions.

Bill Schmitt

"Creating opportunities for discovery and understanding."

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