ADDRESS TO THE HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BOARD
ON THE SCIENCE CURRICULUM
19 May 2005
William A. Wisdom, Ph.D.
At my request, the School Board of Haverford
Township (a few miles west of Philadelphia) granted me their
standard three minutes to address the Board at their meeting of
Thursday 19 May. For years I had been distressed by the efforts of
Fundamentalist Christians to dilute or remove instruction in the Theory of
Evolution from the public schools.
But, like so many people, I figured: "It can't happen here." Then the
events of Dover,
Pennsylvania, made me realize that the barbarians are at our
gates--that the attack on science could happen anywhere. So, with the
aid and encouragement of Glenn Branch, Deputy Director of the National Center for
Science Education (whose Executive Director is Dr.
Eugenie C. Scott), I decided to make a preemptive strike. My
remarks follow.
"Dr. Van Winkle [Superintendent],
Mr. Gray [School Board President], and members of the Board: I want to
thank you for allowing me to address you this evening. I'm Dr. William
A. Wisdom, and I live in the Coopertown corner of the township. In
fact, I was raised in Haverford
Township, and went through my entire
primary and secondary education in the public schools of the township.
I graduated as valedictorian from Haverford
High School in 1952. I was President of the National Honor Society,
a member of the Scott's
Hi-Q Team, and was elected "Most Likely to Succeed" by my
classmates. Along the way I earned Merit Awards in Physics, Geometry,
Algebra, English, Latin, and History.
"Thereafter I got a B.A. in Classics at Wesleyan University
in Connecticut, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from N.Y.U. and Bryn Mawr College
respectively. I taught in the Philosophy Departments of Bryn Mawr
College, Penn State's main campus, and--from 1964 until my retirement
in 1997--at Temple University, where I taught and wrote at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels in Formal Logic (authoring a textbook
in the field), the Philosophy of Science, Science and Pseudo-Science,
the Philosophy of Religion, and various periods and figures in the
History of Philosophy. I give you this summary of my education and
experience to show you that I know what I'm talking about.
"I have read House Bill 1007, with which I hope you are familiar. At
this moment, I understand, it is in the Education Committee of the
House--which committee is in recess until July, when it may take up the
bill again. Its fate is largely in the hands of the chairperson of that
committee.
"If the bill passes in the House, and subsequently in the Senate, a new
section entitled 'Teaching Theories on the Origin of Man and the Earth'
would be added to the Public School Code of 1949. Wherever evolution is
taught, the bill would encourage School Boards to include instruction
in the so-called 'theory of intelligent design'. This alleged 'theory'
is not defined in the bill. But the history of the effort of
anti-scientific movements to remove or dilute the teaching of evolution
is as old as the theory of evolution itself. It began in earnest with
the public debates of Thomas Huxley against Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
in England, continued in this country in 1925 with the debates of
Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in the Tennessee 'monkey
trial' of John Scopes, and is still going on today.
"The debates are going on today not because the
evidence on each side is about equally balanced (no evidence does, or could,
support 'intelligent design'). The arguments continue rather because
science, on the side of evolution, is opposed by antagonists of various
stripes for a number of different reasons.
"The issue is no longer about whether or not God exists: many
scientists believe and many do not. The issue is rather about the
nature of responsible reasoning about our world. It is important to
understand that scientists do not use the word 'theory' to mean a hunch
or a guess or an hypothesis. A scientific theory is a comprehensive
system of belief that explains a relatively large body of facts, from
which facts and explanatory power the theory draws its support. This
power of the theory of evolution to explain facts in biology, geology,
paleontology, and other fields is the evidence required by scientists;
and such evidence is wholly absent from the so-called 'theory' of
intelligent design.
"I don't know what if any pressure has already been put on you or your
faculty to distort the science curriculum. But I urge you to resist any
such pressure, and maintain the high academic standards of which we are
justly proud.
"I have brought with me copies both of my remarks to you, and of
supplementary material that may be of interest, which I would like to
distribute to the members of the School Board. Thank you."
As I finished my remarks, applause broke out from most of the fifty or
sixty members of the audience. Then three or four of the members of the
School Board, including both the Superintendent of the School District
and the President of the Board, spoke to the issue. They were unanimous
in thanking and praising me for my remarks, and adding--and soundly
explaining--their own determination never to allow creationism to be
taught in any form in a science class.
One of them did say wisely that creationism or any other religious
issue might well be explained in a course in Comparative Religion, but
not in a science class. Another influential member of the Board said
that if the state law required them to teach creationism along with
evolution, he would simply say "No!"
All in all, I think that the experience was a valuable one for all of
us involved, and I would recommend that more people undertake to
address the school boards in their own districts.
Copyright © 2005, William A. Wisdom