A suburban American school board found itself in court last month after it tried to placate Christian fundamentalist parents by placing a sticker on its science textbooks saying evolution is ‘a theory, not a factâ€.
Atlanta’s Cobb County school board, the second-largest board in Georgia, added the sticker two years ago after a 2?300-strong petition attacked the presentation of ‘Darwinism unchallengedâ€.
Shortly after the stickers were put on the books, six parents launched a legal challenge, which started last month, with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union.
‘I’m a strong advocate for the separation of church and state,†one of the parents, Jeffrey Selman, said. ‘I have no problem with anybody’s religious beliefs. I just want an adequate educational system.â€
The board says the stickers were motivated by a desire to establish a greater understanding of different viewpoints.
The controversy began when the school board’s textbook-selection committee ordered $8-million-worth (about R48-million) of the science books in March 2002. Marjorie Rogers, a parent who does not believe in evolution, protested and petitioned the board to add a sticker and an insert setting out other explanations for the origins of life.
â€It is unconstitutional to teach only evolution,†she said. ‘The school board must allow the teaching of both theories of origin.â€
Her efforts galvanised the fundamentalist community.
‘God created earth and man in his image,†another parent, Patricia Fuller, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ‘Leave this garbage out of the textbooks. I don’t want anybody to think I came from a monkey.â€
Wendi Hill, one of the parents who signed the petition, said: ‘We believe the Bible is correct in that God created man. I don’t expect the school system to teach only creationism, but I think it should be given its fair share.â€
Cobb county achieved what it believed to be a compromise by adding stickers to the books that read: ‘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.â€
But secular parents believed the board had been browbeaten. ‘I’m shocked Cobb County is handling it this way,†said Gina Stubbart, who served on the textbook-selection committee. ‘The average person knows evolution is an accepted scientific theory.â€
This year, Georgia’s schools superintendent, Kathy Cox, removed the word ‘evolution†from the state’s science teaching standards, but she quickly backtracked after receiving nearly 1?000 complaints.
In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that creationism is a religious belief that cannot be taught in public schools along with evolution. Since then creationism has been repackaged as the theory of ‘intelligent designâ€.
Pennsylvania’s Dover area school board has already voted to teach intelligent design.
The hearing in Georgia will have to establish whether intelligent design is a religious theory; and whether the stickers that mention no religion by name, violate the separation of church and state.
The issue of creationism in schools has long been a point of contention in the United States. In 1925, John Scopes went on trial for teaching evolution in Dayton, Tennessee, in what became known as the monkey trial. It ended with Scopes being fined $100 for violating a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of ‘theory that denies the story of divine creation as taught by the Bible and to teach instead that man was descended from a lower order of animalsâ€. —