Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

But Bob's personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, "I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old."

As a person with a geology background, Bob found this restriction hard to justify, especially since the new Arkansas educational benchmarks for 5th grade include introduction of the concept of the 4.5-billion-year age of the earth. Bob's facility is supposed to be meeting or exceeding those benchmarks.

Is this because there's a law against teaching evolution in Arkansas?  Have state legistlators or the school board decided to out Kansas Kansas?  Uh uh.  It's all about the fear.

The explanation that had been given to Bob by his supervisors was that their science facility is in a delicate position and must avoid irritating some religious fundamentalists who may have their fingers on the purse strings of various school districts. Apparently his supervisors feared that teachers or parents might be offended if Bob taught their children about the age of rocks and that it would result in another school district pulling out of their program.

So there you go.  In Arkansas, they've avoided all that nasty publicity that plagues Kansas by being a bunch of yellow-livered, gutless, whining pansies.  I'm sure that's working for them.  Even though state law calls for the age of the earth to be taught, they won't do it because they're afraid.  Just more evidence that everything Republicans do is either meant to generate fear, or generated by fear.

So how does Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee feel about evolution?

Student: Goal 2.04 of the Biology Benchmark Goals published by the Arkansas Department of Education in May of 2002 indicates that students should examine the development of the theory of biological evolution. Yet many students in Arkansas that I have met ... have not been exposed to this idea. What do you believe is the appropriate role of the state in mandating the curriculum of a given course?

Huckabee: I think that the state ought to give students exposure to all points of view. And I would hope that that would be all points of view and not only evolution. I think that they also should be given exposure to the theories not only of evolution but to the basis of those who believe in creationism ...

What a great idea!  Just as newspapers now balance fact with opinion, science classes should balance science with mythology.  Thanks, governor!