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As you maybe aware Chrisitine Comer was forced to resign her
post as science director of the Texas Education Agency because she
was "not neutral" about teaching the theory of evolution. She is out
of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about
evolution and creationism -- 'a subject on which the agency must
remain neutral,' according to a dismissal letter last month that
accused her of various instances of 'misconduct and insubordination'
and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the
product of 'intelligent design.'"
Who is Barbara Forrest and why would circulating an email
about an upcoming lecture get someone fired from her job? Dr Forrest
is professor of philosophy at Southwestern Louisiana University has
been a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Center (a major
proponent of Intelligent Design) which was for a while a major
supporter of the Dover School district's effort to introduce
Intelligent Design into the high school biology curriculum. Her
expert testimony at the Dover trial was very important in making the
case against introducing intelligent design into the Dover High
School curriculum. She is part of the recent NOVA television program
about the trial (Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (Dover,
PA).
For more information about Dr Forrest and why the Texas Education
Agency might not have wanted her lecture publicized see:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/11/8448/52824
This from the National Center for Science Education (www.ncse.org)
Reaction to the Comer resignation
The forced resignation of the Texas Education Agency's director of
science curriculum continues to attract attention and comment.
Writing in The New York Times (December 3, 2007), Ralph Blumenthal
reported, "After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the
Texas Education Agency's director of science, Christine Castillo
Comer said she did not think she had to remain 'neutral' about
teaching the theory of evolution. But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin,
is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about
evolution and creationism -- 'a subject on which the agency must
remain neutral,' according to a dismissal letter last month that
accused her of various instances of 'misconduct and insubordination'
and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the
product of 'intelligent design.'"
The e-mail message that Comer forwarded, which was originally sent by
NCSE, announced a talk in Austin by Barbara Forrest, a professor of
philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and a member of
NCSE's board of directors, on the history of the "intelligent design"
movement and her expert testimony in Kitzmiller v. Dover, in which
teaching "intelligent design" in the public schools was ruled to be
unconstitutional. "I don't see how I took a position by F.Y.I.-ing on
a lecture like I F.Y.I. on global warming or stem-cell research,"
Comer told Blumenthal. "I send around all kinds of stuff, and I'm not
accused of endorsing it." The article added, "But she said that as a
career science educator, 'I'm for good science,' and that when it
came to teaching evolution, 'I don't think it's any stretch of the
imagination where I stand.'"
The following day, The New York Times (December 4, 2007) expressed
concern about Comer's termination on its editorial page, writing, "Is
Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of
evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of
Christine Comer, the state's top expert on science education. ... It
was especially disturbing that the agency accused Ms. Comer -- by
forwarding the e-mail message -- of taking a position on 'a subject
on which the agency must remain neutral.' Surely the agency should
not remain neutral on the central struggle between science and
religion in the public schools. It should take a stand in favor of
evolution as a central theory in modern biology. Texas's own
education standards require the teaching of evolution. ... We can
only hope that adherents of a sound science education can save Texas
from a retreat into the darker ages."
In Texas, too, newspaper editorials were critical of the TEA. The
Austin American-Statesman (December 1, 2007), which broke the story
about Comer's termination, commented, "from all appearances, Comer
was pushed out because the agency is enforcing a political doctrine
of strict conservatism that allows no criticism of creationism. ...
Forcing Comer out of her job because she passed on an e-mail about
the critic's presentation is egregiously wrong." The Corpus Christi
Caller-Times (December 4, 2007) concluded, "apparently state
education officials want educators to perpetuate an academic scam on
the state's schoolchildren in service to special interests." And the
Waco Tribune's columnist John Young sarcastically commented (December
4, 2007), "Imagine. Someone devoted to real science forwarding an
e-mail about someone devoted to the same thing."
--
Martin Weiss, PhD
Science Interpretation
Consultant,
New York Hall of Science
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