Books, science, myth, Cobb County and the ACLU...

Fair warning, minor rant to follow: Yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a heart-warming piece titled: Cobb gives up on evolution book stickers. In brief, the Cobb County school board, in an attempt to add their own surreal touch to Cobb's colorful (or is it colorless) history ordered stickers be tipped into all the science books (35,000) basically stating that evolution is a theory, not a fact.

Needless to say, some number of rational residents of CC brought suit, supported by the ACLU and many lawyers were made extremely pleased. A judge ordered the stickers removed. Many people sat around scrapping stickers out of books. CC appealed. CC settled the action, agreeing to pay about $167,000 to cover the Plaintiff's legal fees. Add to this sum their own legal fees and I wager that CC has managed to blow about $250,000 or so that could have been spent on...er...new science books.

The issues in CC can best be summed up with the closing comments of the article. Larry Taylor, a father of three students in the system and an advocate for the stickers used the currently trendy "if I find it threatening to my myopic view of the world, blame 'terrorists'":

"They were trying to do the right thing. It's terrorist organizations like the ACLU that are hijacking our country's educational system by imposing their own secular agenda on the rest of us."

On the rational side of reality, Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C., stated:

"Students should be taught sound science, and the curriculum should not be altered at the behest of aggressive religious groups. Cobb County school officials have taken the right step to ensure that their students receive a quality education."

This is, of course, the latest skirmish in the ongoing "Intelligent Design" debate and I am not going to dwell on the generalities (admittedly, I have ranted about this before). I have, however, had a thought.

This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.

I have had a change of heart. I rather like this statement. It is clear and states things that make sense. The textbook contains material on evolution - *excellent*, I'd be worried if it did not and it lets me know what to look forward to in the book. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things - again, *excellent*, evolution is in fact a theory (a reasonably well tested and understood theory, but a theory just the same)...with luck, this statement might trigger useful discussions about theories, hypotheses and facts, a very useful conversation in this age of reality distortion. And finally, noting that "this material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered" should be a "restating the obvious" issue...but if schools find it necessary to remind students (and/or teachers) of this *fact*, so be it.

No, to be fair, I think there should be a sticker added to the front of all bibles (and possibly other religious texts, but for the moment, just bibles. I propose something like the following:

This bible contains material on spirituality, the nature of the human condition and a hypothesis on the origin of all things. The text contained herein is the product of many centuries of an oral history, the stories being told by one person to another, with all the inherent issues origin presents. It is also the product of many iterations and revisions, again over many, many years...some official, some less so, with large portions edited, excised and/or added at various points of time and for various reasons; it should be viewed as a theory, not a fact regarding the original of all things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.

Or words to that effect, this is clearly very preliminary. It's just a thought...but it might might be a useful approach. I am very open to all constructive thoughts.