Dover County in Pennsylvania is relaxing the requirement to teach the theory of intelligent design and will allow students who choose to leave the classroom when learning about the theory of intelligent design. Organizations working for the study of evolution are still awaiting the legal hearing
A district school that required the science teachers to also read a notice about alternatives to the theory of evolution decided on Friday that the teachers could also choose not to read it, but the students would hear it from school staff members who are not teachers (administrators).
Those administrators will read the notice when the school's science teacher objects to doing so. Students can be exempted from listening to this statement if their parents request it. This was learned from a notice published on the district's website.
The district is probably the only one in the US that requires science teachers to mention the theory of "intelligent design" - a concept according to which the universe is so complex that it had to be created by some higher power.
The original curriculum approved by the school board in October states that biology students should be aware of gaps and problems in Darwin's theory and other evolutionary theories, including the theory of intelligent design. However, in November, the council said that the teachers would read a note about the intelligent planning. Seven teachers protested this reading requirement, saying it violated the Pennsylvania State Teachers Professional Code.
Tom Scott, an attorney representing the Pennsylvania State Education Association said that the teachers' organization is satisfied with the decision. He said that the teachers objected because "intelligent planning" is not science.
"Unfortunately, the school board is independent and can teach the students what it wants, but we do not intend to be their messengers." Scott said.
Senior officials at the school refused to comment, due to the fact that the issue is under legal discussion after a lawsuit filed by eight families against the curriculum. "The school staff does not have the right to choose not to comply with the judicial decision," said Richard Thompson, president and chairman of the Thomas Moore School of Law in Ann Harbor, Michigan, who is defending the school board. "We will respond in court.
Only one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Tammy Kitzmiller, is the mother of a XNUMXth grader who will be affected by this policy. In her lawsuit, she stated that she did not want her daughter to have to leave the classroom. Civil rights movements maintain that intelligent design is an apparently secular version of creationism, a Bible-based worldview according to which God created life. They say the Dover County curriculum mandates the violation of the constitutional separation of religion and state.
