Phoenixville statement addresses evolution alternatives

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - New wording in the Phoenixville Area School District&#39;s mission statement is already accomplishing its purpose: provoking discussion of hot-button issues such as evolution alternatives. <br> <br> Superintendent David R. Noyes said he doubts the new language will have a major impact on how evolution is taught in the suburban Philadelphia district. <br> <br> But Noyes said he does expect teachers to encourage ``critical thinking and divergent thought and higher order thinking. If we can promote that in our students, we will be educating them fully.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The mission statement was altered at the urging of school board vice president, David M. Langdon. <br> <br> Langdon had sought a more detailed statement, urging the teaching of ``intelligent design&#39;&#39; as an alternative to evolution. <br> <br> The board instead added to the mission statement in November a line that says ``critical thinking, along with objective and thorough investigation of data and theories in all areas of study is necessary to ensure the success of the educational program.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Controversy has sprung up elsewhere recently over the teaching of intelligent design, which backers advocate as a scientific alternative to the theory of evolution. <br> <br> Intelligent-design opponents view it as an attempt to evade court rulings striking down requirements to include religious views of creation in the science curriculum. <br> <br> Intelligent design advocates say the complexity of the biological world can be explained better by an intelligent cause than by Charles Darwin&#39;s theory of evolution, which they view as a mechanism of chance. They don&#39;t claim that science can identify who or what the designer is. <br> <br> Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, said intelligent-design ideas would be more suited for a religion class, and disputed that Darwin&#39;s theories were incompatible with complexity, or with the idea of a creator. <br> <br> ``Darwin said natural selection can produce complexity without the hand of God being directly involved. Darwin never said God had nothing to do with it. He just said God didn&#39;t have to be designing the human knee,&#39;&#39; Scott said. <br> <br> Langdon&#39;s original proposal was modeled after a resolution adopted by the Cobb County School District in Georgia. While denying it intended to promote religion, that board said ``discussion of disputed views of academic subjects is a necessary element of providing a balanced education, including the study of the origin of species.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Elsewhere, intelligent-design proponents had mixed results from a lengthy battle to get the Ohio Board of Education to include similar provisions in science standards that guide public school curricula and testing across the state. <br> <br> Standards the Ohio board adopted Dec. 10 include the concept of evolution and call for critical analysis of the theory, but say the stance ``does not mandate the teaching or testing of intelligent design.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Langdon, a software quality-control manager who earned a bachelor&#39;s degree in biochemistry at Lehigh University, is a devout Christian and said he believes the Biblical account of creation is literally true. He criticized the way evolution is taught. <br> <br> ``My opinion is that evolution has some problems with it that the scientific community doesn&#39;t want to talk about,&#39;&#39; Langdon said. <br> <br> Langdon also said he didn&#39;t expect a big change in classroom material. <br> <br> ``I expect it to be a general statement across the district,&#39;&#39; he said, describing the goal as ``to provide the ability to ensure that our kids can look at all sides of a discussion, whether it&#39;s about evolution, intelligent design, or different forms of marriage or whatever it is, and make a good informed decision based on all the facts.&#39;&#39;