public schools
Who's that lurking by the back door of the schoolhouse? It's Wendy Leece!
She's put white lab coats on the religious icons from her church and is
trying to sneak them into school disguised as science teachers
(figuratively speaking, of course).
Leece, in her letter ("Educators should be able to challenge evolutionary
theory," Jan. 11), fails to respond to any of the points I made in my
prior letter ("Creationism should not be taught as a science," Jan. 9).
Instead of a reasoned response to my defense of teaching about evolution
in our public schools, Leece has fired off a barrage of unsupported
assertions and incoherent word strings. "Fossils, peppered moths, the
Cambrian explosion" . . . Boom! Take that, Egan!
I started out to respond as though her letter were a rational discussion.
I first wrote an explanation of what the words she used mean and why the
matters she referred to don't lessen the validity of the theory of
evolution and, in the case of fossils, actually are a main support of the
theory. In my response, I also discussed the proper roles of science and
faith, and the confusion that results from attempting to make either one
do the work of the other. I refuted each of her assertions. However, it
took about 2,500 words, too long for a letter to the editor. Then I
realized there's no point in using reason to address ranting.
The question really is not whether our present understanding of the
natural history of today's species is complete. Rather, the question is
whether public school science courses should teach about nature or the
supernatural; should they teach about the scientific method or faith?
Any family who wants their child's school to teach religion is free to
send their child to a religious school. Otherwise, their child can attend
a public school to learn about the world we share with other people and
cultures. For religious instruction, their child can go to a church,
chapel, meeting house, temple, synagogue, mosque or ashram. A public
school is not a proper place to proselytize or indoctrinate children in
religion.
If we take Leece's advice and have our public schools teach religion
instead of science, and then turn our children out into the high-tech
world of the 21st century, God help them!
ELEANOR EGAN
Costa Mesa
I met Wendy Leece in the early 1980s when our children attended the same
elementary school. She impressed me as a woman of veracity, honor and
integrity, then and now.
I feel very comfortable with her viewpoints on education, i.e. teaching a
