Evolution In Kansas Website Journal
Well, the conservatives took a beating in the primary election. In my own district 9 election, it is appalling how few of the registered voters declined to exercise their rights. Still, until the writing was on the wall, I believed that the common sense of our electorate would pull through. Alas, it was not so!
So on we move to the November election, then the seating of the new board. Will the standards be revised again? Will Bob Corkins be removed of his post? The controversy will continue and it should. For again the probability of our children being taught origin theories as fact reigns high.
"Understand" does not mandate "belief." While students may be required to understand some concepts that researchers use to conduct research and solve practical problems, they may accept or reject the scientific concepts presented. This applies particularly where students' and/or parents' beliefs may be at odds with current scientific theories or concepts. See Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science, National Academy of Sciences, 1998, page 59.
I thought this was good, we are on the right track! But alas, this is a fully biased pro-evolution booklet. See my Books on Evolution first two entries.
I hope it will provide interesting discussions of the evolution issues and the State Board candidates that should be taking a position on them. I recommend visiting it, located at http://www.phpbbplanet.com/evolutioninkans .
All it has now are links to the PDF transcripts of testimony. I stared reading the files and it looks to be fascinating!
Up to today, I have stayed away from creationist sites for articles on this page, thinking that using them would show too much bias on my part. But the ones I have entered before today thrust the preponderance of evidence on the side of macro-evolutionists. When I consider an article to add is when I read them and determine if they are worthy of inclusion.
Today I learned today that not including creationist thoughts on this topic is a grave omission! It becomes evident by reading from both sides that here major controversy exists. What then for our children at their tender ages if they are not also so exposed?
Another growing concern as I develop this website is that the amount of information and the specialized detail required for the reader to digest is far beyond the intellectual capability of our children. To seriously expose them to all aspects of the issues herein is to take away time for the much more important topics they need such as the various biological systems of life forms, the arrangements of the heavenly bodies, the classification of species, the chemical makeup of our physical world.
I would finally note here that in the standards I have copied onto this website, both the state and local curriculums, there is no admonition for the teachers to expose the students to the dating issues. Without these students will, by inference, believe the huge time spans of geologic theory as generally accepted. This of course leads to incorporation as fact in the minds of our young students.
So far creationists are getting the blunt of it. One entry has hyperlinks to dialogues bewteen the two sides, fairly technical though.
To be honest, I am disturbed at what I see here and for 259, Wichita. At least the curriculum does not expressly state that the constraints or problems with macroevolution be provided to the student.
were white boxes that I had around specific definitions, quoted standards, etc. I've used them a lot and took some time getting them formatted right. Now they are all gone! The Wiki forum says it is a bug - yuck a bad bug! Do I wait for a fix or find another formatting method? - - - Found a workaround but have not gone back to reformat, just trucking ahead.
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Created page School District Curriculums that will contain the curriculum of schools districts as I obtain them. There may no be many as each is long. I have starte with USD46, Independence where I live. This is incomplete.
I added an opinion (read editoral) at the end of the page.
Using a Yahoo search on "Kansas evolution" I am adding press articles in the order the appear till I get bored of this. It does give me opportunity to get on my soapbox a bit. :)
I completed going through the Science Standards and copying the pertinent text to the Science Standards page. I will add some opinion at the end of this page later.
Spent time looking for a way for readers to add comments and views other earlier comments from others. There may be opportunity here.
I think that a page with press releases on reactions to the board's review and later revision is due in the near future.
I am considering visiting the website of each candidate and asking the questions:
Do you agree with the new version of the Science Standards? If not, what do you disagree with? Would you attempt to revise them again if elected? If so, what changes would you make?
I downloaded the Standards document in MS Word and began reading it. Determined the basic organization, I began posting evolution pertinent sections to the page until I reach the main standard on biological evolution. I stopped in the midst of this.
also edited out verbiage at the beginning of the Standards page, making it more readable.
I made changes. Below is the old version.
This website is devoted to addressing the issues surrounding the teaching of Evolution in the public schools in Kansas. It is only fair that you know at the outset that I, the author and a Kansan am a Christian and believe God created the heavens and the earth. I am unsure as to the details but have been concerned for some time that the way evolution may be taught in public schools could lead some of our children away from God. I would submit that this is not a good thing!
I am neither a bible literalist nor a total evolution proponent. The purpose for this website is to provide resources that should help to make informed decisions regarding educational curriculum policy concerning the origins of man and the universe in our state. These resources are large and diverse. I have not digested them all. I hope that they assist you in preparing to select a candidate for the upcoming State Board of Education election in your district.
This is a free website made possible by the folks at pbwiki.com. The google adds come with the free site. It is interesting that these ads are related to the content of the created website. You may find some of them interesting.
In using this website, I recommend that you browse through all the topics on the Sidebar to get a feel what is offered. The Journal gives a chronology of the building of this website, started in June of 2006.
If the information provided here helps you in determining what is best for our children and the candidate in your district that will most likely promote your preference, I will feel successful in the time and energy spent.
This is to discuss the revision of the science standards. I found a page with the Introduction and the document in MS Word. Entered information and text from the Introduction. The Science Standards document is 122 pages!
The definitions here came from a keyword search in Google "example theories". A most interesting addition to the website.
- included candidates and their websites
- needs more