Anticreation in public schools

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Perhaps no place is anticreation sentiment more apparent than in the US public school system. Today Christian teachers are afraid of letting their faith be known and pray only in secret. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union quickly move to sue any school district if it's reported that a teacher is introducing intelligent design concepts. Numerous examples have also been documented where educators were discriminated against simply because of their views about God, which never made it into the classroom.

This anticreation movement has been furthered by government agencies, such as the National Academy of Sciences, which has gone so far as to published booklets discouraging the teaching of creationism (See Science and Creationism) . Government policy is also in place to prevent those who believe in God from receiving teaching certificates[1].

Discrimination of educators

• University of Idaho president Timothy White, issued an edict recently proclaiming that it is now “inappropriate” for anyone to teach “views that differ from evolution” in any “life, earth, and physical science courses.
• Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings, III, delivered a polemic speech denouncing intelligent design and scientists and scholars researching the theory.
• Chemistry professor Nancy Bryson lost her job at a state university after she gave a lecture on scientific criticisms of Darwin's theory to a group of honors students.
• Three days before graduate student Bryan Leonard's dissertation defense was to take place Darwinist professors at Ohio State University accused Leonard of "unethical human-subject experimentation" because he taught students about scientific criticisms of evolutionary theory.
• High school teacher Roger DeHart was driven from his public school simply because he wanted his students to learn about both sides of the scientific debate over Darwinian evolution.
• Biology professor P.Z. Myers at the University of Minnesota, for example, recently wrote this about anyone supporting intelligent design or even just questioning modern evolutionary theory: “Our only problem is that we aren’t martial enough, or vigorous enough, or loud enough, or angry enough. The only appropriate responses should involve some form of righteous fury, much butt-kicking, and the public firing and humiliation of some teachers, many school board members, and vast numbers of sleazy far-right politicians.”
• Iowa State University Professor of Astronomy Guillermo Gonzalez became the target of faculty discriminatory campaigns after the release of The Privileged Planet. An ISU religious studies professor and atheist, organized a campus forum to attack The Privileged Planet, then petitioned the ISU faculty to reject Intelligent Design as science shortly before Gonzalez was scheduled to come up for tenure. These actions ultimately led to the rejection of his tenure position.[2]

Anticreation government policy

It may be found shocking that some states in the US are actively involved in preventing teachers that believe in God from becoming certified public school teachers.

The following eligibility requirements for student financial aid were established by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board - which administers Washington State's student financial aid programs and provides strategic planning, coordination, monitoring, and policy analysis for higher education.

According to this Washington State policy, teachers seeking certification are ineligible to receive government financial aid if they are pursuing or planning to pursue a degree in theology.

The Future Teachers Conditional Scholarship and Loan Repayment program is designed to encourage outstanding students and paraprofessionals to become teachers, and to encourage current teachers to obtain additional endorsements in teacher shortage subjects.
To be eligible for this program, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be a resident student of Washington state;
• Plan to complete an approved program leading to a residency teacher certificate or an additional shortage subject endorsement;
• Plan to be employed as a certificated classroom teacher in Washington K-12 public schools;
• Plan to attend an eligible college at least half-time;
• You must not be pursuing or planning to pursue a degree in theology;
• Submit a complete application to us by the October 12, 2007 deadline.[3]