According to the article, the school's bylaws
show that students and faculty members are required to believe that humans did not evolve from animals but were created in fully human form from the start, that God created all physical and living things in the universe in six days, and that anyone who rejects Jesus Christ will be consigned to "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."If people want to believe that, that is fine. If you want to teach it to your children, that is fine. But let's not call it science.
There's another quote in the story that bothers me. Attempting to justify the Institute's program, its science education department chair Patricia Nason said, according to Haurwitz, "that most students wind up teaching at Christian schools but that they learn about evolution and are qualified to teach in public schools."
Wait a minute. I went to Christian (Catholic) schools. I always thought that, although private schools are not subsidized by the state, they have to be accredited in order to offer diplomas. Does TEA (which may not be the accrediting agency, but which decides which diplomas will be recognized) actually allow children to graduate from high school in Texas who've been taught that the world was created in six 24-hour days and evolution is a Satanic hoax?
I guess I've assumed that, public or private, eleemysonary (fancy word for K-12) schools in Texas had to offer a relatively standardized curriculum. 2+2=4, not 5, and all that. They can additionally offer religious instruction (which I received), but when it comes to readin', writin' and 'rithmetic, they gotta keep it in the middle of the fairway.
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