Don McLelroy, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education has a big week ahead of him. He's worked tirelessly for nearly ten years to replace the teaching of science with the teaching of faith in Texas public schools. This week the Texas school board will vote on whether science or Dr. McLeroy's personal beliefs will be taught to a generation of Texas public shool students.
The
proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that
all life on Earth is descended from common ancestry. Texas is such a
huge textbook market that many publishers write to the state's
standards, then market those books nationwide.
Dr.
McLeroy believes that God created the earth less than 10,000 years ago.
If the new curriculum passes, he says he will insist that high-school
biology textbooks point out specific aspects of the fossil record that,
in his view, undermine the theory that all life on Earth is descended
from primitive scraps of genetic material that first emerged in the
primordial muck about 3.9 billion years ago.
The textbooks will "have to say that there's a problem with evolution
-- because there is," said Dr. McLeroy, a dentist. "We need to be
honest with the kids." (Link)
The
tragedy of this is, of course, the kids that will be impacted by the
ruling will have no say in the decision. A decision that places a whole generation of Texas kids at an educational
disadvantage upon graduating and either going out into the world or
applying for colleges and universities across the U.S. and the rest of the world.
UPDATE: In the original version of this post, I included what was reported to be an illustration from a fundamental Christian coloring book. I've since become aware the illustration is a parody. I apologize for the error.
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