Breaking! Kansans celebrate evolution!
By CJ Janovy in Do It
Fri., Nov. 6 2009 @ 12:00PM
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| Josh Rosenau |
Among the celebrities expected to show up: Josh Rosenau, the science blogger who distinguished himself as one of the nation's best (even more impressive: He was our Best Blogger) while writing Thoughts from Kansas during the 2005 "debate" about evolution. He's now the Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California.
Tonight at Johnson County Community College, Rosenau joins biology professor Paul Decelles and retired economics professor David Burress for a panel called "150 Years On, What's All the Fuss About Evolution, Science Education and Church and State?" It's moderated by Harry McDonald, a former Blue Valley biology teacher.
Tomorrow, Rosenau's homecoming tour continues when he helps the Kansas Citizens for Science throw a party in honor of their ten years promoting decent education.
We got Rosenau on the phone to reminisce.
What were some high and low points for Kansas Citizens for Science during the last decade?
I got to Kansas and started grad school in 2000 -- right after the first bout on the school board [in 1999, the Kansas Board of Education approved state science standards that included no mention of evolution]. Everyone was really embarrassed. I'd be looking at apartments in Lawrence, and I'd say, "I'm here to study ecology and human biology," or I'd say I was in the biology department, and people would say, "Oh, we're so sorry. That'll never happen again" -- and five years later it did.
In 2000, people had gotten very fired up and involved across the political spectrum. The governor at the time, [Republican] Bill Graves, was opposed to the changes, and when the science standards [reinstating evolution] passed the school board, everyone sort of said, OK, we're done, we don't have to worry about it. In 2004, Kansas Citizens for Science still existed, but its membership wasn't as engaged as it had been. People had stopped paying attention.
What's exciting now is we have Kansas Families United for Education, the Mainstream Coalition and other groups including the Kansas Citizens for Science and the Kansas Alliance for Education -- groups who've given themselves a mission so they don't have to go through all of that again.
My sense is that moderate Republicans are feeling a lot more energized, they feel like they let their party get away from them. In some ways the party was being stolen from them -- elected Republican officials were more or less ousted. You had [now Democratic Gov.] Mark Parkinson, the former chair of the Republican Party, who felt like it wasn't his party anymore. And the lamented attorney general [Paul Morrison]. Mainstream can now stay focused on engaging those moderates on the Republican and Democratic sides, while Kansas Citizens for Science can focus on its one issue.
It seems like what's been going on in Kansas for decades now -- the moderate versus conservative split in the Republican Party -- is now starting to play out in the rest of the country. Like with that recent election in the 23rd Congressional District of New York.
I've definitely gotten that sense. You also see it with Olympia Snowe -- people say she's not really a Republican if she votes for a public option. People were saying similar things about Republican candidates for office in Kansas -- if they're pro-choice they might as well not be Republicans. There's a very similar dynamic moving to a national level.
What lessons can the rest of the country learn from Kansas?
In terms of science: It was great that Kansas Citizens for Science was formed when it was, but it's hard to sustain that constituency for science when there isn't an urgent threat -- but it's really important to have that there. The National Science Teachers Association did a survey of their members and 30 percent reported getting pressure from students or parents not to teach evolution. And 31 percent reported getting pressure to teach creationism. Which is huge.
If every year they're getting complaints, administrators might say, "Look, this is controversial, so can you dial it back?" Or teachers will save that section until the end of the course and then run out of time. So kids aren't getting the foundation of modern biology.
The easiest thing people can do is to make sure that those 30 percent of teachers are also hearing from parents who want them to teach evolution. And citizens' groups like Kansas Citizens for Science can be at teachers' conventions, supporting teachers who want to do the right thing but are afraid of getting in trouble.
Creating a constituency for science -- Kansas Citizens for Science really pioneered that. You can see that now in other states. Since 2004, and after moderates retook the majority on the school board in 2006, KCFS has done a lot to build the organization outside of a controversy. They have events like the Science Cafe in Hays. In Hays, [KCFS member] Cheryl Shepherd-Adams wrote to Chris Mooney, one of the other people who blogged with me at Science Blogs, who is the author of the Republican War on Science and Storm World and Unscientific America, and asked if he'd be willing to give a talk at Fort Hays State University as part of the book promotion. In Hays, Kansas, as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get, 150 people showed up to hear him talk about global warming and the effects of global warming on hurricanes. They continue to meet every month. They can get 50 people out to hear scientists talk about science.
Kansas Citizens for Science can feed that, build it, turn it into a real force for something good in society.
Tonight's panel at Johnson County Community College is free, from 7-9 p.m. in room 234 in the Carlsen Center. Tomorrow's party is from 7 to 9 p.m. at -- where else? -- the KU Natural History Museum. It's free, too, and open to the public; RSVP here.
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