Kruse is back with a new proposal, a bill that he says will promote critical inquiry in the classroom. The Indianapolis Star reported that Kruse described the bill like this: “If a student thinks something isn’t true, then they can question the teacher and the teacher would have to come up with some kind of research to support that what they are teaching is true or not true.”
At first glance, that sounds harmless. After all, we want to encourage youngsters to be inquisitive in the classroom. But Micah Clark, executive director of American Family Association of Indiana, blew the lid off what’s really going on here, telling the Star that he interprets the bill as a form of protection for teachers who want to discuss creationism and intelligent design.
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A quick-witted science teacher would know how to handle a challenge like this in the classroom. (Handing a dissenting student a copy of On The Origin of Species would be a good start.) But Kruse’s law doesn’t seek to help good teachers. It is designed to create the impression that evolution is somehow controversial or in doubt, and thus special laws are needed so that it can be challenged. The idea is to encourage teachers to water down such instruction or not offer it at all.
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Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, put it well: “It’s fine for a child to have religion; it’s fine for a child to believe whatever he or she wants to believe,” he said. “But within the science classroom, if we’re going to produce the strong workforce we need for this country, we have to stick to science and we have to stick to the evidence behind science.”
Creationism Canard: The Last Thing Fundamentalists Want Is Open Inquiry In The Classroom | Americans United
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