INTEGRITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

WHEREAS, it is the responsibility of the American Federation of Teachers to help preserve the integrity of science education; and

WHEREAS, science is a systematic method of investigation based on continuous experimentation, observation and measurement leading to evolving explanations of natural phenomena, explanations that are continuously open to further testing; and

WHEREAS, evolution fully satisfies these criteria, irrespective of remaining debates concerning its detailed mechanisms; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers respects the rights of people to hold diverse beliefs about creation that do not come within the definitions of science; and

WHEREAS, some state boards and state legislatures have attempted to require the inclusion of creationism as an alternative to evolutionary theory in the discussions of the origins and development of life:

RESOLVED, that the AFT urge citizens, educational authorities and legislators to oppose the elimination of evolution from public science education standards and to oppose the compulsory inclusion in science education curricula of beliefs that are not amenable to the process of scrutiny, testing and revision that is indispensable to science.