The victory of authentic science education in Louisiana is being reported widely. It seemed to me worth taking the time nevertheless to look closely at what the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education president and lone dissenting voter Dale Bayard had to say:
I am an open-minded person, and I challenge anybody to come and tell me — and I’ve asked a couple of educators that are friends of mine — can you do me a favor and tell me, can you swear on a stack of Bibles there’s no other refutable data that provides an objective other approach to Darwin’s theory?
Maybe Bayard’s friends would not swear on a stack of Bibles because they were familiar with Jesus’ teaching about not swearing (in Matthew 5:34 – which, I will mention explicitly for the benefit of Bayard, is in the Bible).
Or maybe they realized that “refutable data” doesn’t seem to mean anything. Or perhaps they realized that on the best attempt to make sense of this convoluted sentence, the appropriate answer is that there isn’t refutable data, evidence and arguments, but rather there is data, evidence and arguments that have resisted every attempt to refute them.
Or maybe they assumed that Bayard was talking about something “other” than the evidence that is widely known and studied by biologists – after all, he does say “other” twice.
What I will say is that Zach Kopplin, a Louisiana high school student, seems to understand the relevant science better than the president of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education – and is also able to articulate his message more clearly. And so while the decision of the rest of the school board gives us hope for the present, and students like Zach give us hope for the future of science education in Louisiana as well.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In