>Allen wrote:
>
>This is one of the falsehoods that was spread by many, including the
>media. There never was an attempt to ban evolution in Kansas. Few
>people have ever looked for themselves at the actual wording of the
>state school board action. To be sure, Evolution was downplayed and
>concepts critical of evolution were to be allowed. But the wholesale
>banning of Evolution from the schools is pure fabrication.
What really happened is that all references to descent with modification of
all living things from common ancestors was removed from the standards. In
addition, references to the age of the Earth, Big Bang cosmology, and
environmental issues were also removed. In other words, all references to
the conclusions of historical science were removed.
The standards do not mandate what is taught in the classroom, and decisions
about curriculum content and textbooks are made at the local level.
However, the standards determine what appears on the state assessment
examinations. Performance on these tests are used to evaluate the
effectiveness of teaching. Thus, topics not included on the standards are
unlikely to be taught, or at least unlikely to be emphasized, in the
curriculum.
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.edu
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
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