Textbook Stickers: A Reasonable Response to Evolution?

Abstract

Debates concerning how the issue of human life's origins should be handled within the confines of American public schools still continue. In order to mitigate the impact that evolution has on students, some school boards and state legislatures have recommended that stickers voicing a disclaimer about evolution be placed in biology textbooks. Even though supporters maintain that textbook stickers promote good science, this kind of approach invariably raises the concern that public education might be unduly intertwined with religion. In this article, it is argued that regardless of whether a textbook sticker can pass constitutional scrutiny, the use of such a sticker is a flawed approach to science education.

Evolution in the Science Curriculum: The Need for a Middle Ground

“…In 1982, a U.S. District Court in Arkansas ruled that it is unconstitutional to require that creationism be taught in public schools, because it is not scientific (Borenstein, 2008). In 2005, a Dover, PA U.S. District Court Judge, John E. Jones III (a religious conservative), ruled that the school board could not encourage students to read about ID, because it is not science but thinly disguised religious doctrine (Futuyma, 2009).…”

“…Creationists have two primary arguments in support of teaching ID in public school science classes (Borenstein, 2008). First, teaching evolution as undisputed can infringe upon a student's religious beliefs.…”

“…A scientific theory is a big idea that encompasses other ideas and hypotheses and combines them to make sense of natural phenomena (Borenstein, 2008;Futuyma, 2009;Scott, 2004). An idea has to be strongly supported by numerous tests to become a theory.…”

“…Some evolutionists, such as Futuyma (2009), argue that evolution has been so well tested and supported that it should be called a fact explained by a theory. While biologists do not claim to understand all of the details about how evolution works, they do claim that there is enough evidence to remove significant doubt about the existence of the overall process (Radder, 2006), and there is currently no debate in the peer-reviewed biological community about whether evolution has taken and is taking place (Borenstein, 2008). Any debates that occur are about details, not the overall process.…”

“…Viruses also evolve quickly, which is why AIDS patients must take three different drugs at a time to keep HIV under control. Another common misconception is that evolution is about the origin of living things, as opposed to changes in living things over time (Borenstein, 2008). The first appearance of life is a completely different subject, not included in evolutionary theory.…”