The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Wednesday, November 09, 2005  

MONKEY BUSINESS
In Pennsylvania and in Kansas

There is remarkable news out of Dover, Pa., where voters yesterday threw out eight school board members who had advocated the introduction of elements of “intelligent design” to the local high-school biology curriculum -- an ill-advised and transparently religiously motivated decision now under review by a federal judge in Harrisburg. I’m surprised this election didn’t get much attention before Tuesday, unless it did and I missed it.

Meanwhile, in (What’s the Matter With) Kansas, the state Board of Education voted 6-4 to adopt standards for teaching science can only be described as bizarre. Jodi Wilgoren of the New York Times quotes Janet Waugh, a dissenting board member: “This is a sad day, not just for Kansas kids, but for Kansas. We’re becoming a laughingstock not only of the nation but of the world.”

Becoming, she said. Her word.

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