Choice of Intellectual Freedom
NW Okie wrote this "Heart To Heart" piece, Thursday, January 20, 2000, "Choice of Intellectual Freedom." What does it mean to you?
I received an interesting challenge at the beginning of this week. I bring it briefly to you NOW -- NOT to stir up anything, but to get you thinking about our Freedom of Choice in the books we read and our Intellectual Freedom.
The challenge that I received earlier this week was an email from a friend who received the following email with this statement, "If you thought that Kansas was stupid. What about the Oklahoma State Textbook Committee with this disclaimer in science books to question the validity of the evolution theory: "No one was present when life first appeared on earth.' They did not say the disclaimer was in support of the theory of creation. I guess they could not decide whose creation theory; Christian (several varieties), Muslim, Buddhist or whatever."
An intellectual friend sent me this reply. I only wish to simply honor them by printing their response here. I truly hope they don't mind! I believe their statement says it all! My friend states, "It is only through seeing the whole picture that one can make an informed decision. To study a theory does not mean you believe, only that you have studied it and become enlightened. Are they attempting to discount the value of that theory or are they just saying it has not been established as fact. I would think that educators above all others would be receptive to looking at all sides of the issue. If any theory or doctrine can't stand up to questioning then maybe it should be looked at a little closer and maybe from a different angle. As to whether we are giving up our freedom in this area... Yes, if we are not permitted to study different types of thinking that has proceeded us. We are after all the culmination of everything we have learned and experienced good and bad, right and wrong."
Disclaimers Elsewhere - Oklahoma and Kansas are not the only states revisiting evolution 74 years after the famous Scopes trial in Tennessee, where a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Every biology textbook in Alabama, for instance, comes with a disclaimer pasted inside the front cover that says in part, "No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact."
I sent out other queries and this is one of the responses concerning that statement, "All of the textbook committee was appointed by Keating and the litmus test was their adherence to the ultraconservative, far-right, fundamentalist ideology. While other states are making giant leaps in preparation for the future, this state is trying to crawl back into its dank and moldy cave of intentional ignorance. And then we wonder why high tech businesses with good paying jobs pass us by for another location and people think we're backward... The textbook committee needs to sit down and wtch the movie with Spencer Tracy that was based on the Scopes Monkey Trial... They certainly don't understand the concept of scientific theory... I'd like to hear the answer from the Textbook Committee if they were asked if they wanted all our future doctors, researchers, and other scientists educated only to the level of understanding we had back in the 19th century... I will say this for the new Oklahoman editor, the paper has done a fairly good job of printing letters and articles from educators, scientists, etc. about the effects of disregarding whole bodies of scientific knowledge."
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