Creativity in the Textbooks

The state Board of Education drew applause two months ago when it rejected elementary and junior high school science textbooks because they failed to cover adequately such crucial topics as evolution and human reproduction. Now the issue is back for an encore; the board members should be just as critical the second time around.

Textbook publishers have revised their books; they say that they need approval soon so that they can have the books ready for September. The state’s curriculum panel has approved them, but the board must vote as well. A group of 20 science professors find the books still lacking. They feel that the books still tiptoe around potential controversy with fundamentalists and creationists who question the scientific evidence of evolution. The board should listen carefully when these scientists testify at a hearing in Sacramento today.

As Kevin Padian, professor of paleontology at UC Berkeley, put it, the books “had a lot of garbage in them before, and they still have a lot of garbage. I think it is fair to say that some of them are better now, but many of them still aren’t worth the taxpayers’ money.” The books include sentences such as “most scientists believe” that dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years ago, Padian said. “What is that supposed to mean? If dinosaurs are just a ‘belief,’ what are those bones in the museum?”

As the nation’s biggest buyer of textbooks, California has great influence on their content. It should use its influence to help set high standards in order to advance scientific knowledge among young people.