More on the fight to make sure students are ignorant about science before they graduate. In Cobb County, Georgia teaching evolution must be pretty hazardous since the high school Biology textbooks come with a warning sticker.
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
The disclaimer was adopted by Cobb County school officials in 2002 after hundreds of parents signed a petition criticizing the textbooks for treating evolution as fact without discussing alternate theories, including creationism.
Everything in the high school curriculum should be "approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered"! But let’s start by getting the kids to understand the basic concept of a scientific theory. Theories are not fact, but they must be supported by evidence, not a whole lot of hot air, before being accepted as scientifically valid.
And while we’re on the subject of hot air, I would like to ask these dim bulbs supporting the teaching of creationism to stand up and explain just one of the "alternate theories" to evolution. Just ONE. Scientifically speaking, that is.
Sidenote: After finishing this rant, I found Paul Myers post at Pharyngula featuring an illustration of the evolution of a creationist (preposterus ludicrus). If only such humor would drive them to extinction.