Education and Ideological Momentum

The Kansas State Board of Education has adopted standards to promote the teaching of intelligent design in schools. They follow the lead of a school district in Pennsylvania that is now embattled in litigation over the issue.

To adopt such standards, Kansas's Board of Education had to change their definition of "Science."

Meanwhile, the US continues to lag behind other nations in Math and Science (14th and 8th, respectively).

College science courses will not teach intelligent design. This leads to at least two problems:

1) Students who do not pursue further scientific studies will have a missunderstanding of the subject that will never be corrected. The scientific community completely disaffirms the idea of intelligent design. Even Michael Behe, who developed the idea based on religious beliefs ("I conclude that based on theological and philosophical and historical factors." What? Not scientific facts, Professor?), states that he is glad he waited until after he got tenure before advocating the idea.

2) Those who do pursue further scientific studies will have to then unlearn what they were previously taught. College level science courses will not be teaching any doctrine or theory based on intelligent design, but instead will rely heavily on evolution by natural selection - first introduced in 1859 by Charles Darwin, and obviously, subject to and withstood more than 150 years of scientific scrutiny.

When asked, isn't it true that intelligent design has little support in scientific fact, Behe conceded.

Who would want to send their children to a school where their science courses spend time teaching ideas that "ha[ve] little support in scientific fact?"