Anyone with an interest in the teaching of evolution will no doubt have noticed the news this month from Tennessee, where a creationism bill (let’s call it what it is) was allowed to pass into law by Governor Bill Haslam. The reaction to this has been as incredulous as you might imagine, especially given the history of this conflict in Tennessee. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) campaigns tirelessly against such attempts, and their Director of Outreach has penned a good overview of recent events in the Huffington Post, which is well worth a read. He also does a good job of explaining why the seemingly innocuous language – which will be no surprise to anyone acquainted with the ‘wedge strategy‘ – presents such a problem for science educators (or, of course, a boon for those who wish to teach religious doctrine in place of science).
Dr Peter Hess on the Tennessee creationism bill:
