Reality Check 101

My granddaughter is beginning her public educational journey this year, a milestone that caused me to look back at the education of my children. So, in the interest of my granddaughter’s future well-being, I feel compelled to address the nature of good science (historically founded squarely on the shoulders of intelligent design) and the nature of public education (historically founded squarely on theistic assumptions).

Most parents entrust their precious children to our schools believing that they are being objectively taught. They believe that science has a very defined method and a very defined purpose. The scientific method involves observation, hypothesis, testing, generalization, and retest. Knowledge derived from this process is assumed to be repeatable and independently verifiable. They also assume that the purpose of science is to teach students how to independently discover the truth about what is around them. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but evolutionary philosophy/ theology does not meet the standards for being good science. Marco-evolution is unobservable, untestable and unverifiable. It is, no less than creation, a complete framework of thought (read theology). Both interpret evidence and draw conclusions based on what filters through their world views.

I propose a challenge. If our children are to be taught science, then let’s insist our schools teach proper science — the discovery and interpretation of what is — and leave out speculations about what could have been until the facts are solidly in place. If, on the other hand, the educational system (from the Michigan State Board of Education, to the MEA, to administrators and classroom teachers) insist on including philosophical/ theological systems in their science curriculum, then at least insist that our publicly funded endeavors include perspectives other than what evolutionary biases require.

This brings me to my second and much shorter point. Last time I was aware of it, the concept of “public” included all the public. At this time creationists (of all stripes) make up a very large part of our population. I find it crassly hypocritical to censor another individual’s system of thought and then use his dollars for indoctrinating his children (and grandchildren) in a pseudo-scientific system called evolution. Public education needs to do good science education or get out of the laboratory.