A New Twist on "Origins of Man"

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Date
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 08:39:35 -0600 (CST)

This morning as I sat down to the Montgomery Advertiser (AL), I couldn't 
help but notice that one of their lead stories read (in BIG bold letters):
                    BILL: TEACH EVOLUTION AS THEORY
Believing that the Alabama Legislature was trying to mandate educational 
policy, I read on only to learn that the bill has been introduced in the 
State of Tennessee.  The following are excerpts from the article.

     ================================================================
   Legislation to fire any teacher who presents evolution as fact was on 
the Tennessee Senate agenda Monday.  It was expected to pass despite an 
attorney general's opinion that it violates the constitutional separation 
of church and state.

   The Senate voted 19-13 to send the bill back to the Education 
Committee after six amendments were introduced, including one that would 
have protected teachers who wanted to teach the Biblical theories of 
creation along with evolution.

   One amendment that was adopted changed the bill to say that a teacher 
could be fired instead of shall be fired.

   The sponsor of the evolution bill is Sen Tommy Burks, whose home 
district is 45 miles northwest of Dayton, site of the 1925 Scopes "Monkey 
trial."  He said he introduced the bill because constituents told him 
evolution was being taught as fact in Tennessee schools.  He won't say where.

   The bill seems destined to pass the Senate and then the House without 
significant help from lobbyists.  The conservative Eagle Forum has been 
the most vocal backer of the bill, which some lawmakers said is hard to 
oppose.

  "You can't explain a no vote in a 15-second sound bite," said Rep. 
Eugene Davidson, who voted for the bill when it cleared the House 
Education Committee.

   Burks' bill doesn't ban the teaching of evolution as theory or promote 
the teaching of Biblical theories, but teachers say no one knows how the 
law might be interpreted.  "Teachers will be afraid to teach anything 
about evolution."
     ================================================================

With the recent activities in Louisiana and Alabama, the passage of such a
measure in Tennessee can not be a surprise.  What it signals, IMHO, is a
resurgence of attempts throughout the South to provide "equality" in the
classroom.  Over the past decade, more legislators who have had
significant financial support from the fundamentalist right have been
elected to public office.  Other legislators realize that they are in 
a position to lose their seats without such support from this 
constituency.  It's politics as usual, but with the potential for 
severely crippling our educational system by mixing myth with science.

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Robert A. Gastaldo
Alumni Professor of Geology
Auburn University, AL 36849
                      "The past may not repeat itself,
                            but it does rhyme"
                                        - Mark Twain
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