New standards released last week would require Florida public schools to teach students about evolution beginning in the third grade. The new science standards do not include intelligent design.
The current curriculum uses the phrase “biological changes over time” in place of evolution.
A 45-member committee began revising the science standards in May in response to a failing grade in a 2005 report on Florida’s public school science curriculum, The Ledger of Lakeland, Fla., reported. The state Department of Education will vote in January on whether to adopt the new standards.
Mickey Carter, pastor at Landmark Baptist Church, said there should be a balance between intelligent design and evolution in the curriculum.
"We are denying freedom of ideas, speech and shutting down one side," Carter told The Ledger. "The kids ought to be able to study both sides of it, so we don't just turn out a bunch of rubber-stamped robots in the classroom."
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Urge the Florida Department of Education to include intelligent design in science classes.
