So what happened in Kentucky post 1999

[Sticks]

I was doing some "media screening" for work purposes on the BBC site, looking for work related stories that might need to be brought to the attention of senior officers, when, on the BBC site in the Northern Ireland section they had a pole about the teaching of Creationism, but no related story as to why this old chestnut had been dragged up.

So I did a search on "Creationism" in the BBC News search facility, and in the audio section (Which for network reasons I assume) would not play is a link to a August 1999 sound file refering to a creationist vistory. As it would not play I tried to find the story that it might refer to and found this possible story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/467892.stm)

The theory of evolution has been removed from what pupils in Kentucky are expected to learn.
'Evolution' has been edited out of guidelines published by the state's education department on the subjects that schools should be teaching and testing.


Incidentally I still could not find any recent story as to why the BBC was running the poll

I am not planning on defending either Creationism or Evolution, just curious as to how things played out, so my question is more of a historic one, what happened in Kentucky after this. Was this reversed? What is state of play today. I did try and look through the BAUT / Google search facility, but it only came up with references to what happened in Kansas.

[Tog_]

I am not planning on defending either Creationism or Evolution, just curious as to how things played out, so my question is more of a historic one, what happened in Kentucky after this. Was this reversed? What is state of play today. I did try and look through the BAUT / Google search facility, but it only came up with references to what happened in Kansas.

Here is a PDF (http://www.aibs.org/public-policy/resources/teaching-evolution-0701.pdf) of a three page report dated Jan 2007 which lists the status of Evolution in the curriculum for each state.

Here is another (http://www.evolutionnews.org/2006/04/attempts_to_misconstrue_intell.html) that talks more about the issues in Kentucky.

[Sticks]

Thanks for that

Incidentally, that poll has now vanished from the BBC News website Northern Ireland section

[farmerjumperdon]

Interesting that Discovery still insists ID and creationism are not the same. Right. One says an all powerful, all knowing diety known as God created the universe and everything in it. The other says the diety is not known - but I'll bet they have a preferred candidate in mind.

Yes, very different.

[DyerWolf]

While Kentucky is the site of the Creation Museum (http://www.creationmuseum.org/) its schools have not succumbed to the wiles of the ID mafia yet.

Living things compete with one another to survive and reproduce in a
wide range of environmental conditions. Adaptations are features that
help living things survive and reproduce in their particular
environment. Because there is such a wide range of conditions and
potential roles to fill, an incredible diversity of life has evolved on
Earth. The diversity within a species results in no two birds, people,
tomato plants, or trees being exactly alike. We all have characteristics
that are unique to us and distinguish us from the rest of the bunch.

Link (http://keec.ky.gov/Biodiversity%20Book%20.pdf)

Students still learn science - at school at least.

[RalofTyr]

ID is the PC word creationists came up with to make their religion sound scientific.

[Sticks]

ID is the PC word creationists came up with to make their religion sound scientific.

This is getting off thread here, which is about how teaching of evolution fared since the 1999 decision in my OP.

Since an answer has been provided by Tog_ and DyerWolf, perhaps to prevent future arguments perhaps this thread can be seen to have served it's purpose and can be locked.

Incidentally I was not impressed with ID either, which for reasons of forum rules, I will not go into here.

[Jim]

The Original Poster's question has been answered to his satisfaction, and the thread is showing signs of wandering into other areas. At his request, thread closed.