Editorial: Kansas Schools Challenge Darwinism: The History and Future of the Creationism-Evolution Controversy in American Public Education

Abstract

The recent decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to de emphasize the teaching of evolution in the Kansas public schools has recharged the ongoing debate across America about the relative merits of evolution and creationism as curricular subjects in the nation's pub lic schools. Evolution is the scientific theory that organisms evolve over time by adopting traits that maximize their chances of survival. Creationism is the behef, taken generally from the Bible, that the uni verse and all higher things were created by a higher power. In Kansas, as elsewhere, this is a controversy that promises not to go away. Mean while, students are caught in a political tug-of-war between creationists and evolutionists who each seek to minimize, if not eliminate, the abil ity of the other to present its case in public school settings. The grow ing polarization between the two camps serves only to penalize America's youth—who deserve better. Is there not some sensible way to setde on what America's public school students should be taught about the origin and development of life forms? In short, is there a way to handle this persistent problem more responsibly than we have in the past?