Why We Can't Just Smirk and Ignore the Kansas Evolution Debate

Speaking just for myself - which may or may not be representative of you - there's a part of me that just wants to smirk and laugh and generally ignore the big debate in Kansas with the Board of Education trying to redefine science to include religion and pseudoscience so they can push the Bible in science classes.

But here's why I - and you - probably can't afford to do this. The Dominionists aka the Rabid Wrong are pushing Kansas hard on this issue. And they don't want to stop with Kansas either. If the story of Adam and Eve and that silly "rib" story are forced to get equal or even greater status with Darwin and the theory of evolution in Kansas schools science classes, expect this to come to schools in a town near you. Perhaps even yours.

Right now, evolution is the flash point. But don't expect it to stop there either. These are people for which reality is defined as only what they deem acceptable. While the president seems to do a great job at changing reality to meet his seemingly limited understanding of things, that's a luxury most of us cannot begin to afford. Nor can we afford to allow our children to receive substandard education. Nor should we permit public schools to be turned into born-again religious indoctrination centers where kids come out with a host of reasons why gays and - heck, why not, brown-eyed people - cannot be tolerated yet these same kids won't be able to spell, communicate, or understand basic math, science, or any critical thinking. When Bill Gates said recently that the time was fast coming when his company would not be able to hire American kids because their academic standards were falling so rapidly, he's right, at least in part. What Kansas proposes to do would make this inability a certainty.

None of us have any issue with people choosing for themselves and their children to belong to a particular religious group and having those children go through religious training. But the place for that is not in tax-supported schools who are already under enough stress to try to teach the basics.

While one particularly idiotic recent addition to the Kansas school board insists that this country was founded on Christianity and not Science, the truth is that it was neither. America was founded - by whites, that is - as a democracy where religious tolerance (missing from their home country) would be promoted. While God and the Judeo-Christian background was a part of all of that, this is NOT a Christian nation nor is it a theocracy. Even if Christians are the majority, it still is not a Christian nation or a theocracy. We can love God with all our hearts and yet we should still resist any attempts to force it to become a strictly Christian nation or theocracy. I'd even dare say that you cannot keep America a democracy and yet make it into a Christian nation because religion will be used to trump democracy every time.

Think about why public schools exist. Think about the skill sets and knowledge your kids need to have by the time they finish their formal education. Then consider how your children will be damaged if nothing can be taught in these schools that does not meet the Dominionists' smell test for "what's right".

We've allowed sex education, for example, to be shunted aside in favor of abstinence programs. There's nothing at all wrong with abstinence programs but sex education classes have traditionally taught abstinence along with the reproductive facts people need to know to avoid disease and pregnancy. Now we just have abstinence and - happy horseshit aside - sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies are still WAY TOO HIGH.

Praying alone will NOT get your children to be good, responsible, intelligent, decent wage earning adults. Framing all education around some people's very narrow minded views of religion and what's right is a recipe for disaster even more potent than Mr. Bush's No Child Left Behind program.

And - if you haven't been paying attention - Houston's just fired a bunch of teachers they say were responsible for "cheating" to help kids pass the tests Mr. Bush required as governor of Texas and now as president, for the rest of the nation's schools. The problem isn't with testing kids and it's not with cheating teachers. It's that Mr. Bush puts all the focus on certain tests and nothing on actual education. The only way for Texas kids to get ahead - and for the schools to continue to remain open - is to pass these tests. Thus, you have teachers who aren't teaching but showing kids how to pass the test.

Mr. Bush is a very good example of what you get when you put no emphasis on real knowledge and put it all instead on surface accomplishments. I'm sorry to say this (really sorry, actually) but he's not very bright. Neither is his wife or daughters. Mr. Bush has never run a company he didn't bankrupt. He's doing the same thing with this nation.

Now... do you want your child to become another George? And before you say yes, realize that your kid is likely missing what George had: money, power, and connections. At best, your kid learning under HIS model is just going to bankrupt companies and his own family. There won't be any golden parachute.