Friday, April 21, 2006
Emerging Agenda
The Naperville school district near Chicago is discussing textbook adoptions and, as Britt Carson and Tim Waldorf of The Sun report, Darwin's theory of evolution isn't the only target anymore.
One parent who reads the textbooks and provides the board with input is also a board member: Jim Caulfield. In September, he took issue with a biology textbook that he said presented an agenda of contraception, promoted embryonic stem cell research and showed disdain for evolution non-adherents.
The board approved the book against Caulfield's recommendation. But officials did approve a policy he proposed that now puts any teaching materials containing content covered in the sex education component of health classes under greater scrutiny.
But on April 17, Caulfield disapproved of the district's choice of textbooks for an Advanced Placement world history course because it cast Christians in a bad light in some instances.
He also voiced concerns about Advanced Placement environmental science textbooks that present opposing views of controversial environmental issues.
