OH House-18: More on Grady's Efforts to Restrict Teaching of Science

Here's what the Columbus Dispatch had to say about State Board of Eduation member Colleen Grady's effort to subvert the teaching of real science in the summer of 2006:

Once again, the State Board of Education is provoking a debate on whether evolution is a controversial scientific theory that should be taught with warnings and disclaimers.

This fight should have been dead and buried in February, when the board voted 11-4 to drop a science standard and lesson plan that called for "critical analysis" of evolution. But a few dogged members still insist on "teaching the controversy" about evolution, even though the controversy has been manufactured by disingenuous people who wish to introduce the supernatural into science classrooms.

At a Monday meeting in Columbus of the board's Achievement Committee, member Colleen D. Grady proposed that the science standards be changed to guide teachers on how to present controversial topics such as global warming, stem-cell research and, of course, evolution, in science classrooms.

Grady borrowed words and phrases from different parts of the current science standards to create a Frankenstein monster of a standard. It would read:

"Describe that scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretation of data or about the value of rival theories, but they do agree that questioning response to criticism and open communications are integral to the process of science.

"Discuss and be able to apply this in the following areas: global warming; evolutionary theory; emerging technologies and how they may impact society, e.g. cloning or stem-cell research."

Context is important, and the public should see through this ploy.

Ploy, indeed. Each scientific area listed in the proposed the proposed standard is a favorite target of right-wing religious extremists. And as the piece notes, there are no legitimate alternative scientific schools of thought on those topics:

Intelligent design is code for the Christian version of creationism. ...

There is no debate within the scientific community that evolution occurs; the theory is bolstered constantly, as newly discovered fossils fill in the record.

The scientific community also has concluded that the globe is warming. Only the particulars, such as the conclusions to be drawn from the numbers and what to do about it, are up for debate. ...

As for stem-cell research and cloning, there is no debate about the science involved in these issues. The only debate would be over the morality of these practices, a worthy discussion, but not one appropriate for a class devoted to teaching the scientific method.

These few wily board members are the best possible evidence that evolution exists; their tactics mutate every time the public catches on to what's happening.

Speaking of sneaky tactics, Colleen Grady was a founding member of Moms for Ohio, a purportedly non-partisan PAC that blogger Len at Blogesque discovered last summer shared its mail server with the Cuyahoga County Republican Party newsletter.