South Australian School Students Lose!

This was first published in July 2010.  I have republished it here so I can consolidate my blogs and delete others

Fundamentalist school associations, the Christian right and creationists have combine to deprived South Australian school students a good science education. They have managed to remove the exclusion of creationism from South Australia’s non-government school science standards.
On the 9 December 2009, South Australia’s ‘Non-Government School’s Registration Board’ issued its new Policies. Non-government schools in South Australia are required to conform to those polices. Section B.4 read

B.4 The teaching of Science in relation to creation and intelligent design
The Board requires the teaching of Science as an empirical discipline, focusing on inquiry, hypothesis, investigation, experimentation, observation and evidential analysis.The Board does not accept as satisfactory a science curriculum in a non-government school which is based upon, espouses or reflects the literal interpretation of a religious text in its treatment of either creationism or intelligent design.

During the heated atmosphere of a state election, the forced removal of a Creationist poster from a school brought the policy to press attention. Because of the Board specific exclusion of creationism from science classes, the Christian School Association accused the Board of going beyond its authority under SA Education Act (s.72G(3)). A joint letter by four fundamentalist school associations insisted that section B.4 be amended by removing “in relation to creation and intelligent design” from the title and delete the entire second paragraph. On the 7 May 2009, Dr Dale Wasley, the Board’s chair, replied informing them that the policy was under review and would not be enforced. On 22 June 2010, the Board reissued its Polices which now read

B.4 The teaching of Science
The Board requires the teaching of Science as an empirical discipline, focusing on inquiry, hypothesis, investigation, experimentation, observation and evidential analysis.

This is as a cave in to creationism!
As a Christian, I was disturbed by The Sydney Morning Herald report’s concluding paragraph.

A spokesman for the South Australian Non-Government Schools Registration Board said it was not banning teaching of creationism full-stop. ''It can be taught in religious studies”.

Even before winning the right to distort science, the Board granted South Australian fundamentalist schools the right to distort Christianity. Creationism is a minority reading of Genesis one. It should be noted that ever since the publication of The Origins of Species in 1859, the majority of Christians have accepted the science of evolution. Most of those Christians who opposed evolutionary theory in the late 1800s and the early 1900s did so because of Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism and not Charles Darwin’s science. If taught, let us teach our children the breath of Christian thought and not some selected bigotry!

Notes

• 
  SA Non-Government School's Registration Board have removed the 9 December 2009

Polices. Hence, I cannot provide an internet reference to it. The hard copy reference is Non-Government School’s Registration Board,
Polices Adelaide: South Australian Government, 2009), p.4

The Christian Schools Association page

SA Policy on “hold” contains links to the CSA letter and the four fundamentalist school associations protesting Policy B.4 and the Board’s reply to those letters.