Witchy Woman

"One would think that by now the teaching-evolution-in-schools debate was settled. But not in Texas, where the State Board of Education fumbled a decision on curriculum standards last week. The struggle will be resumed in March, when the board is scheduled to take its final votes on new science standards that will govern what is taught in the classroom and in textbooks.
Seven of the board’s 15 members are deemed social conservatives. What the board decides could have an impact on many other states, because Texas is a huge market for textbooks and publishers are often reluctant to produce multiple versions of the same textbook.
The voting, a preliminary test of how the culture-war winds are blowing, concerned whether to approve or amend proposed new standards that had been carefully crafted by teams of educators and other experts. The new standards dropped a phrase that had been in previous ones requiring students to study the “strengths and weaknesses” of all scientific theories. Although that language may seem innocuous, it has been construed in recent years as code words for introducing critiques of evolution theory put forth by advocates of creationism and its close cousin, intelligent design.
We were heartened when the board beat back, by a very narrow margin, efforts to reintroduce the language on “weaknesses.” But the conservative bloc immediately recouped by pushing through amendments that require students to assess the arguments “for and against” common ancestry, a core element of evolution theory, and its “sufficiency or insufficiency” to explain the fossil record. How that differs from the old language of “strengths and weaknesses” is not readily apparent.
The lesson we draw from these shenanigans is that scientifically illiterate boards of education should leave the curriculum to educators and scientists who know what constitutes a sound education."

NY Times via Religious Right Watch.

If ya'll want your kids to be exposed to Creationism (or the vaguely politically correct terminology giving it the illusion of actual science "Intelligent Design"), here's a radical thought: TAKE THEM TO SUNDAY SCHOOL! Read your particular scriptures with them. Enroll them in fundamentalist Christian schools. Spend time with them indoctrinating them with your beliefs. Don't make public school teachers do what you think is your job for you. Quite simply, your personal laziness should not affect all children because what you really want is proselytizing in the classroom.