New York Times had this great article on a man whose under fire for teaching creationism and pushing a religious based agenda in his classroom. The teacher in question, John Freshwater, has been accused of burning crosses on arms and teaching creationism, something which we can assume is banned from the curriculum. In his defense, "he said he had been a target for removal since 2003, when he proposed that the school board adopt a policy to teach evolution as theory, not proven scientific fact". This is understandably a very touchy issue to tread on for both Christians and those no affiliated in the church. In his defense, evolution is a theory, nothing more, but against him, technically creationism is as well. While people on both sides believe these to be true, they are just theories, not fact. But bringing this argument to a scale like this isn't the greatest way to debate the subject.
Evolution and Creationism are certainly controversial topics.
ReplyDeletesquid430 wrote “New York Times had this great article on a man whose under fire for teaching creationism and pushing a religious based agenda in his classroom.”
Keep in mind that those items are just allegations at this time.
Freshwater has acknowledged having a Ten Commandments poster in his classroom but did remove it when told to do so in writing. He also acknowledged keeping his personal Bible on his desk—stating that it was his constitutional right to do so. Freshwater testified that he did not teach creationism, intelligent design or religious beliefs in his classroom.
I live within the Mount Vernon school district and have been following the controversy closely. The following are two articles I wrote about Freshwater’s testimony:
“John Freshwater: Investigation Didn’t Follow Contract”
“Missing Evidence in John Freshwater Hearing”
squid430 wrote “In his defense, evolution is a theory, nothing more, but against him, technically creationism is as well.”
Freshwater’s 2003 proposal did not contain any phrase about switching the teaching of evolution from fact to theory. The introduction to the proposal actually stated: “Much of the evidence that supports the Darwinian evolution theory which is taught in our publics schools is controversial.”
Freshwater’s proposal was aimed at teaching the “rest of the story”, so to speak, about evolution.