A Texas-Sized Fight for First Amendment Rights
Rabbi Ana Bonnheim is the Assistant Director for Education at the Union for Reform Judaism's Greene Family Camp. All views expressed are her own.
I went down to Austin this week to testify before the Texas State Board of Education (TSBOE) to keep intelligent design out of our public schools. Rabbi Nancy Kasten, Dr. Cynthia Schneidler, Cheryl Pollman, and Max Brodsky joined me on the trip from Dallas.
The TSBOE is currently revising the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards. Groups of teacher-writing teams wrote solid drafts of K-12 science curricula; the TSBOE asked a group of six experts to review the draft. Two of those experts advocate language that opens the door to introducing religious teachings in the science classroom. The third expert, Stephen C. Meyer, is head of the Discovery Institute, which is known for pushing the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.
When we arrived at the meeting, we found a new draft of the science TEKS standards. The language in the second draft was far worse than in the first draft. Instead of asking students to apply the scientific method to learning science, the draft encouraged students to look at "strengths and limitations of scientific explanations."
In light of the new changes, the five us of quickly sat down to revise our written testimonies. Between us, we addressed many arguments against such poor language in the TEKS standards -- most notably the importance of church/state separation and of teaching Texas kids solid science.
I felt proud to meet so many other people committed to keeping religion and pseudo-science out of our public schools. We met professors from Texas' best universities, clergy members of different faiths, caring parents and committed graduate students. Listening to the varied testimonies was a reminder to me of how essential it is that thoughtful, committed citizens take part in our political process, even when it isn't through traditional methods like lobbying congressional representatives.
On the other hand, though, four of the 15 TSBOE members, in particular, said more and more disturbing things the longer we stayed at the meeting. Chairman Don McLeroy (District 9), Cynthia Dunbar (District 10), Ken Mercer (District 5), and Terri Leo (District 6) refused to consider how muddy TEKS language could open the door to teaching religion in science classrooms. While they didn't respond to the majority of testifiers who testified for better scientific standards and language, they did warmly thank every creationist who testified and asked them whether they thought evolution was widely-accepted (predictably and incorrectly, the answer was, "No"). Even more disturbing, one member of our group heard Chairman McLeroy tell a friend during one of the TSBOE's breaks that he is a creationist.
Yesterday's hearing was a discussion meeting, meaning that the board heard testimony but did not vote. The vote on this issue will probably happen sometime in January. After my experiences yesterday, I know that I will do my best to be at that vote. The TSBOE may well vote poor science standards into the curriculum, inviting the teaching of intelligent design. Such a vote, while a terrible loss, would signal the beginning of a long fight to keep religion out of our public schools and would bring renewed national attention to Texas' schools and the TSBOE.
In light of the new changes, the five us of quickly sat down to revise our written testimonies. Between us, we addressed many arguments against such poor language in the TEKS standards -- most notably the importance of church/state separation and of teaching Texas kids solid science.
I felt proud to meet so many other people committed to keeping religion and pseudo-science out of our public schools. We met professors from Texas' best universities, clergy members of different faiths, caring parents and committed graduate students. Listening to the varied testimonies was a reminder to me of how essential it is that thoughtful, committed citizens take part in our political process, even when it isn't through traditional methods like lobbying congressional representatives.
On the other hand, though, four of the 15 TSBOE members, in particular, said more and more disturbing things the longer we stayed at the meeting. Chairman Don McLeroy (District 9), Cynthia Dunbar (District 10), Ken Mercer (District 5), and Terri Leo (District 6) refused to consider how muddy TEKS language could open the door to teaching religion in science classrooms. While they didn't respond to the majority of testifiers who testified for better scientific standards and language, they did warmly thank every creationist who testified and asked them whether they thought evolution was widely-accepted (predictably and incorrectly, the answer was, "No"). Even more disturbing, one member of our group heard Chairman McLeroy tell a friend during one of the TSBOE's breaks that he is a creationist.
Yesterday's hearing was a discussion meeting, meaning that the board heard testimony but did not vote. The vote on this issue will probably happen sometime in January. After my experiences yesterday, I know that I will do my best to be at that vote. The TSBOE may well vote poor science standards into the curriculum, inviting the teaching of intelligent design. Such a vote, while a terrible loss, would signal the beginning of a long fight to keep religion out of our public schools and would bring renewed national attention to Texas' schools and the TSBOE.