ike Dorothy and her dog in the famous "Wizard of Oz" book, the standard of teaching evolution as a scientific fact may not be around much longer in Kansas public schools. On Wednesday, the Kansas Board of Education meets for a showdown over a new statewide curriculum covering all primary and high schools that "wipes out virtually all mention of evolution and related concepts: natural selection, common ancestors and the origin of the universe," according to the Washington Post.

   Proposed by a vocal conservative majority which now holds sway on the Board, the curriculum guidelines -- while not explicitly prohibiting the teaching of evolution -- leave the door open for infusing school classes with creationist and other religious doctrines by declaring that "no evidence contradicting a current scientific theory shall be censored." Other proposed sections leave out any reference to Marco-evolution, the concept that species evolve into other species given time and the propitious physical conditions. And the proposed guidelines leave out a critical statement included in current standards which requires all students to understand "that evolution by natural selection is a broad, unifying theoretical framework in biology."

   The Wednesday meeting caps years of work in Kansas and other states by religious groups who embrace a literalist biblical account of how life and the universe began. Indeed, Gallup polls reflect that nearly 44% of Americans share this view, that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years." Another 40% are said to believe in some kind of god-driven "theistic evolution" where a deity supposedly orchestrated a longer evolutionary process. Only about 10%, notes the Washington Post and Gallup, hold to a "strict, secular evolutionist perspective" that looks for scientific explanations of how life arose from inanimate matter and developed into progressively more complex organisms over a protracted period. It is this stark difference in views that leads many fundamentalist Christians to agree with organizations like Answers in Genesis and the Creation Research Institute. Answers spokesperson Mark Looy says, "Teaching evolution in public schools and telling children they are just products of a survival of the fittest, just animals struggling to survive, leaves many students with a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness... What meaning is there to life?"

   Claims like that lead to other questions which reflect cultural stresses and dislocations in an increasingly complex and secular culture. Creationist advocates often include other objections to public school curriculum, touching upon issues such as sex education, teaching tolerance and that charge that the nation's public schools are hostage to a "conspiracy" of secular humanists. Some, such as Christian Reconstructionist Samuel Blumenfeld, charge that the problem is not just what is being taught in schools, but the entire public school system which "undermines Christians' ability to influence their children." According to the Kansas City Star newspaper, Blumenfeld and other Christian conservatives "want to return to a time when public schools worked," and supposedly reflected the views of Calvinist founders "who believed that man is, by nature, a depraved creature who needs fear of a higher power to do the right thing."

   Once thought consigned to the historical rubbish heap, attacks on evolution have found new voice thanks to the nation's resurgent religious right wing. Religious conservatives such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have stepped up their criticism of secular education; Robertson told last year's Christian Coalition "Road to Victory" conference that education reformer John Dewey trained a new generation of teachers who spread "the poison of secular humanism" throughout the nation's schools. Those sorts of charges have resonated with other groups, including James Dobson's Focus on the Family movement, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America and those who follow TV evangelists like D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries.

   The religious groups which are critical of evolution, however, are relying on more than just Biblical scripture in their battles with local and state boards of education. One tactic has involved looking for deficiencies in scientific findings -- even evolutionary scientists say that the fossil record they study is, naturally, incomplete. Creationists also advance a number of controversial arguments which mainstream science rejects, such as the claim that human footprints have been found in the same geologic strata as dinosaur tracks, thus suggesting a "young earth" rather than the deep-time epochs which most scientists argue for. There is also the "fairness" argument, that Creationist accounts deserve "equal time" along with evolutionary teachings, or that "students should hear all sides" on the issue. Critics, though, point out that Creationists advance a Judeo-Christian view of life and universal origins, and do not extend "fairness" to permit accounts from other religions such as Native American beliefs, Hinduism or Scientology.

   But that whole debate is not appropriate in a public school classroom setting designed to teach science, says Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science education. She told the Kansas City Star that students need to understand evolution in order to master other subjects such as biology, and that "The job in education is to educate, not to compel dogma." Supporters note that the National Academy of Science has established the teaching of evolution as a "cornerstone" in science school curriculums throughout the nation.

   In several states, though, that has generated controversy especially from fundamentalists. In Nebraska recently, the state Board of Education agreed with the NAS until Deputy Attorney general Steve Grasz warned that including such language in school guidelines might violate students' rights to freedom of religion. "Requiring students to 'recognize' (as fact) theories which contradict their religious beliefs would appear to be an interference with a right of conscience." In June, Board members had to rework the guidelines, but still maintained the evolution teaching standards over the objections of board conservatives.

    Other states have become divided over the evolution-creationism controversy...

    ¶   Alabama enacted a law in 1995 requiring that all biology books used in the state's public school system conspicuously display a warning label declaring that evolution was "a controversial theory... No one was present when life first appeared. Therefore any statement about life's origins should be considered a theory and not a fact."

   ¶    In 1997, religious conservatives in Texas almost succeeded in replacing the current biology texts with new books -- many published by fundamentalist institutions -- which omitted any reference to evolution. As the nation's second largest buyer of texts, the Lone Star is considered a bellwether state. Science educators now worry that even mainstream texts are minimizing any mention of evolution or Charles Darwin.

   ¶    The Tennessee legislature considered a 1996 bill to dismiss any public school teacher who did not present evolution as "theory," rather than "fact."

   ¶    In Louisiana, demands that creationism be given "equal time" in the classroom along with evolution led to a Supreme Court fight. In 1987, the justices ruled in EDWARDS v. AGUILLARD that the state could not mandate the "equal time" scheme without violating the separation of church and state.

   Wednesday's Board session has many educators worried. One biology instructor told the Washington Post, "Evolution is the unifying theory of biology, and now students will get such an incomplete picture." Another who has been teaching the subject in a Kansas public high school since 1972, John Wachholz, says that every year he warns students that he will not discuss religion in science class. "If they want to talk creationism they can meet him at his Lutheran church, where he is a regular member." He adds that if the new standards are approved by the state BOE, "This thing will drive me out of teaching. I'm a science teacher. If I teach biology without evolution I'd be doing an injustice to students, and to myself."

   The religious conservative majority is expected to prevail at Wednesday's gathering. Striking evolution from the guidelines would be a major victory for the creationists; but it could also be yet another wake-up call for those who feel that the entire creation-evolution debate died in 1925 with the Scopes trial in Tennessee. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, despite the growing body of evolutionary evidence, substantial numbers of people believe that they are the product of intelligent design explained accurately in the Book of Genesis, rather than the workings of nature in a universe we still do not fully understand.

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