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Vol. 1, No. 3
Director: Virginia Armstrong, Ph.D.
March 2009
Texas Teen Eagle Defends Academic Freedom
In Texas Science Education
Note: Texas Teen Eagle AnnaGrace Sloan of Abilene, Texas, defended Texas’s current science
education policy requiring that classes consider both “strengths and weaknesses of scientific
theories [including evolutionism]” in a March 27 meeting of the Texas State Board of
Education (“SBOE”). AnnaGrace and numerous other witnesses had to present their
testimony in writing because there were too many witnesses for everyone to give oral
testimony. The SBOE ultimately decided 13-2 to change the policy, but the new policy actually
constitutes a major victory for our forces in the relentless battle with evolutionism over truth
and fairness. AnnaGrace drew her testimony largely from the material she had learned in Dr.
Armstrong’s “Reviving the Constitution” course. AnnaGrace’s testimony is reprinted below.
“Let’s Keep Academic Freedom Alive in Texas!”
By AnnaGrace Sloan, Texas Teen Eagle, Blackstone Barrister, Member, Truth
Triathlon Team; Age 19 from Abilene, Texas
“My name is Anna Grace Sloan, and I am a registered voter from Taylor County. I stand
before you today requesting that you reconsider your recent decision on changing the
‘strength and weaknesses’ clause in our public education policy. And I implore you to retain
the current policy.
In 1987, the U. S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, which is
still the final law against which public education must measure its policies on the teaching of
origins. The High Court ruled in Aguillard that, ‘We do not imply that a legislature could never
require that scientific critiques of prevailing scientific theories be taught.’ ‘In a similar way,
teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children
might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science
instruction.’
The current Texas policy is clearly consistent with the Aguillard decision.
Furthermore, teaching ‘a variety of scientific theories’ promotes genuine academic freedom,
while changing Texas’s current policies would promote anti-constitutional censorship.
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If Charles Darwin were here today, what would he say? In his book, On the Origin of
Species. Darwin declared that, ‘A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing
the facts on both sides of the question.’
Eliminating the teaching of weaknesses leaves students with only a fraction of the
information on a critical subject. And a recent Zogby poll released in January of this year
states that 80%-- 80%--of Americans agree that strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian
evolutionary theory should be taught. That’s 80%.
Defying the will of the people in this decision can only be described as censorship. So I
plead with you today, ‘Let’s Keep Academic Freedom Alive in Texas.’”
Apes and Academic Freedom: Edwards vs. Aguillard
By Tucker McCormick, Texas Teen Eagle; Blackstone Barrister; Member,
Truth Triathlon Team; Age 16 from Haskell, Texas
In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in favor of doing away with the mandatory
teaching of creation science in the public school system in the case of Edwards vs. Aguillard.
When the Supreme Court made the decision to outlaw the teaching of creation science in
public schools it threw out Louisiana’s balanced treatment or dual model law, even though a
strong majority of Americans wanted creation science to be taught in the schools. (The law
required that both theories of origins be taught if either were taught. Creation science might
conceivably be taught under certain circumstances.) The Supreme Court claimed that its
decision was based on the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the academic
freedom guarantee.
Although the Supreme Court based its decision on the Establishment Clause, the
Supreme Court in fact violated it, because the Clause prohibits government action that
“inhibits” or “advances” religion. If creation science is in fact “religious,” then the
government’s prohibiting the teaching of creation science is an unconstitutional inhibition of
“religion”—a violation of the Establishment Clause. Likewise, with evolutionism’s being a
central belief of Humanism, and Humanism’s having been declared a “religion” in the case of
Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), the Aguillard Court violated the Establishment Clause because the
Justices were favoring a state teaching of Humanism/evolutionism.
The Supreme Court also claimed that if schools were required to teach creation
science, it would violate the teacher’s academic freedom. However, if a teacher truly believes
in evolution then he/she believes that we are merely animals. Since we are just animals, we
have no academic freedom because the Constitution protects the rights of “persons,” not
animals. In addition, if teaching creation science violates the evolutionist teacher’s academic
freedom, then what about the academic freedom of creationist teachers?
The Supreme Court’s decision in this case outlawed the mandatory teaching of
creation science in the public school system. This decision is a danger to our
constitutional rights and freedoms. We must demand true academic freedom in our
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schools, and we desperately need to fight such egregious decisions as Aguillard and the
many other bad decisions that the courts have made!
“As Texas Goes, So Goes the Nation”
This phrase has long been the conventional wisdom in public school textbook and
curriculum designing because the large school population of Texas virtually requires textbook
and curriculum publishers to conform their products to the Texas market—even outside of
Texas. Publishers’ options would be to produce multiple versions of their products, a process
so cumbersome and costly as to be difficult, if not impossible, for the publishers.
Thus, the eyes of the nation have indeed been on Texas in recent weeks as this state
undergoes its legally-mandated process of deciding the state’s policy on science education for
the next ten years. Evolutionist exclusivists (those who demand the teaching of evolutionism
only because creationism/intelligent design are “religion/theology,” not “science”) have been
on a Texas-size rampage before the Texas State Board of Education, whose decisions
regarding science education policy is (except in rare circumstances) final.
After several months of preliminary SBOE activity, the evolutionists’ rampage and the
Board’s process climaxed last week in a series of frenetic, contentious Board meetings, both
before the public and behind the scenes. Evolutionists, represented by the ubiquitous ACLU
and its Texas twin, the “Texas Freedom Network,” appeared to have won when the Board
voted to eliminate from state science education policy the requirement that both “strengths
and weaknesses” of scientific hypotheses and theories be included in Texas classrooms.
The Board consists of ten Republicans and five Democrats. Earlier votes of 8-7 and 7-7
had struck the “strengths and weaknesses” requirement, slapping genuine academic freedom
and fairness in the face (three Republicans voted with Democrats and against good science
education). But overwhelming public pressure, hard work by the seven pro-freedom/fairness
Republicans, and ANSWERED PRAYERS prevailed. The FINAL Board decision was a 13-2 vote
requiring that Texas science students examine “all sides” of scientific evidence, with the new
policy applying specifically to several key elements of evolutionism. The policy was hailed by
numerous credible scientists and publications such as the Wall Street Journal.
Our student-authored articles in this issue have addressed this controversy—
AnnaGrace Sloan’s article expressing her arguments actually made to the SBOE; and Tucker
McCormick’s article explaining the U. S. Supreme Court’s controlling decision on the teaching
of origins in the public schools. Evolutionists may file suit against the new Texas policy,
perhaps opening the door for Reconstructionist judges to engage in their own unique brand of
legal re-writing. And evolutionists seem masochistically committed to continuing to bang
their heads against the rock-solid wall of truth, freedom, and fairness. But for now, all of us
who advocate these values may rejoice that when the line was drawn in the sand again in
Texas, the SBOE had the courage to stand on the right side.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL THESE TOPICS, VISIT
http://www.eagleforum.org/court_watch/alerts/2009/feb09/02-25-09.html
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The Team Challenges You!
One of the Truth Triathlon Team’s three major event arenas is “activism”—where teens
teach teens through activities (often competitive) that engage and explain “Reviving the
Constitution!” Two of our most popular competitions are introduced below, with “teasers” in
which we challenge YOU to engage successfully!
The Constitution Bowl
One such competitive activity is our “Constitution Bowl.” This Bowl is modeled after T.V.
quiz shows and allows students to compete against one another, or a student by
himself/herself to compete against his prior scores or some other appropriate standard. For
“teasers,” we ask you the following questions, which are answered in the articles above—but
YOU have to find the correct article and answer!
Q1: When did the Supreme Court render its decision in Edwards v. Aguillard?
Q2 What percentage of Americans favors teaching both strengths and weaknesses of
Darwinism?
Q.3: Aguillard totally outlawed any teaching of creationism in the public schools. (T or F)
Q4: What was the final vote of the Texas SBOE, changing science education standards?
Q5: Name two groups opposing Texas’s “strengths and weaknesses” standard.
The Vocabulary Bee
This activity is conducted in the manner of a traditional spelling bee, but with the goal
being to correctly pronounce, define, and use the words given participants. The words are of
varying degrees of difficulty to accommodate different knowledge levels. For a “teaser,” we
challenge you to pronounce, define, and construct a sentence about a point made in our
articles above using the following words:
Egregious
Frenetic
Masochistic
Heinous
Ubiquitous
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