http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/metro_e3d131ff739f01a51040.html

Cobb issues evolution guidelines to teachers
Mary MacDonald - Staff
Thursday, January 9, 2003

Four months after Cobb County schools opened the door to considering "disputed views" of evolution, the district essentially told teachers Wednesday to handle the topic as they always have.

Superintendent Joe Redden issued guidelines that advise teachers to stick to state standards, and keep science classes focused on science.

"I don't think it's going to change at all the practices of our teachers," said Deputy Superintendent Don Beers.

That has some parents irked.

"That's disappointing to me," said Marjorie Rogers, parent of an eighth-grader. "I'd like teachers to be encouraged to open discussions. I want it to be opened up so kids can be introduced to other scientific evidence that would disprove evolution, in my opinion."

The guidelines advise teachers to moderate class discussion carefully and if conflicts arise, "to promote a sense of scientific inquiry and understanding of scientific methods, and to distinguish between scientific and philosophical or religious issues."

At South Cobb High School, biology teachers reacted to the new guidelines with some indifference. The fact is, evolution makes up a tiny portion of the state standards for biology and other life sciences.

Erika Ijames, a teacher for 10 years, estimated she spends about three days on evolution themes during each biology course. If a student asks a question, she handles it quickly and moves along.

The teachers at South Cobb say the fractious debate over the way science is taught there has not changed their approach. "I still cover the same things," said biology teacher Ann Dau. Her colleague, Julie Quarles, said teachers understand not to teach evolution as a fact, but as accepted theory. "In science, we don't ever teach something as an absolute. It's always changing."

The guidelines did not require board approval, but its seven members reviewed the language this week and did not object. The four-paragraph regulation is the work of an administrative committee that included teachers, and a team of lawyers, said Curt Johnston, board chairman.

"Our objective was to clarify what was appropriate and what was not," Johnson said. He shrugged off the criticism that the guidelines will not encourage discussion of alternate views of evolution, saying, "Encouraging discussion of that might be illegal."

The suburban district became the center of national focus in September, when its school board unanimously approved a policy on evolution that allowed science teachers to include "disputed views" on the origin of man. Seeking to dispel criticism from parents and scientists, the board said its purpose was to encourage critical thinking among students, while ensuring "neutrality toward religion."

By then, debate over the teaching of evolution had polarized parents for months. In August, the district placed stickers in middle and high school science textbooks advising students that evolution was a controversial theory, not a fact, and should be critically considered. The stickers drew a federal court lawsuit challenging the inserts as "fundamentalist Christian expression."

Christopher W. Ashcraft