The School Board for Rio Rancho, New Mexico has rescinded “Policy 401” which is said to have supported the teaching of creationism. Let’s have a look.I managed to grab a copy of the policy from the Rio Rancho Public Schools web site … presumably it will disappear shortly:
The Rio Rancho Board of Education recognizes that scientific theories, such as theories regarding biological and cosmological origins, may be used to support or to challenge individual religious and philosophical beliefs. Consequently, the teaching of science in public school science classrooms may be of great interest and concern to students and their parents.The Board also acknowledges the conditional trust parents place in public education, as well as the requirements of the Constitution and New Mexico education law, that the classroom not be used to indoctrinate students into any religious or philosophical belief system.Because of these concerns, this policy recognizes that the Rio Rancho Public Schools should teach an objective science education, without religious or philosophical bias, that upholds the highest standards of empirical science.Therefore, science teachers in Rio Rancho Public Schools will align their instruction with the District’s approved curricula and fully comply with the requirements of the New Mexico 2003 revised Science Content Standards, Benchmarks, and Performance Standards. Age-appropriate emphasis will be given to Strand I, Science Thinking and Practice; Strand II, The Content of Science; and Strand III, Science and Society.Students shall understand that reasonable people may disagree about some issues that are of interest to both science and religion (e.g., the origin of life on Earth, the cause of the Big Bang, the future of Earth).Rio Rancho Public SchoolsAdopted: August 22, 2005Revised April 10, 2006
This is not a very creationism-enriched policy, but it does give an open door with the statement that “Students shall understand that reasonable people may disagree about some issues….”This policy or the lack of this policy has meaning only in the context of what the actual science standards are. I’ve read them, and they seem OK to me. I would like to see evolutionary thinking more broadly deployed in the curriculum, but at least there is no clear way to skirt evolution or question evolutionary biology as the fundamental tenet of biology in general anywhere in the standards that I can see.The opinions among fourteen people who spoke about rescinding the policy was 11 for rescinding it, 3 against. When the board voted, it was much closer: 3:2. Be careful Rio Rancho, you are walking a fine line!I recommend this analysis of the event, and news sources included this and this. Additional information came from the Rio Rancho school board web site.
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Greg, why are you recommending the Discovery Institute’s Ministry of Disinformation analysis, replete with gems like “Only a Darwinist would rescind a policy like this.”May I recommend an analysis written by scientists who have lobbied hard (along with a very large number of Rio Rancho science teachers themselves) against this unnecessary, divisive, and stealth-ID policy, on the Panda’s Thumb.Dave Thomas