Hi Gavin,
I should point out that the BCSE was formed in reaction to what has been
happening. In particular, Truth in Science sent creationist packs to
every school in England. The academies owned by Vardy, for example,
teach creationism in their science classrooms. The head of the science
dept in Vardy's first school is a young-earth creationist YEC). There is
a chemistry teacher in another academy school named Nick Cowan who
openly teaches YEC alongside the national curriculum and boasts that a
former student of his is a YEC doing a Ph.D. in chemistry at Oxford. The
threat is alive and kicking, as Steve Jones has been pointing out in
vain for a while now.
The thrust is the the vast majority of the British public has not heard
anything about the version of creationism imported from North America;
alerting to the danger posed to the basic science education (amongst
other matters) does not polarise a debate: there is no debate.
Creationism is political. Various organisations like the British
Humanist Association and many others have recognised the real danger,
particularly to the already poor level of science teaching. The NCSE in
America has been monitoring the activity as well over here from a
distance and are assisting us with their technical expertise.
There is a lot of groundwork going on at the moment and I welcome your
stance that if it is a threat then you would be amongst those standing
out to improve the standard of science taught to the children. You and
any other list member are welcome to contact both myself and Roger
Stanyard (also of the BCSE) offlist. Both of us, as two of the heads of
the BCSE, are ready to meet up with interested parties.
Regards,
Mike
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