Friday, September 22, 2006
An Embarrassment to All
According to The Advance Titan, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh a former UW-Oshkosh physics professor is trying to introduce intelligent design into biology classes in the Oshkosh Area School District.
Sandra Gade submitted three papers to the teachers of the two high schools demanding a change in biology the curriculum. All three were rejected by the teachers.
“Until these teachers who are the curriculum experts tell us the curriculum should be taught another way, we will keep doing things the way we are now,” said Karen Bowen, OASD Board of Education clerk and student academic affairs officer for the College of Letters and Science at UW-Oshkosh. “A school board should be looking at the big picture.”
According to The Advance Titan, Gade said the board’s response to her paper was that it was “a paper on intelligent design. They have been so effectively brainwashed by their college experience that they are unaware of the existence of contrary evidence.”
In response, Gade circulated a petition calling for a referendum on November’s ballot. The referendum reads, “Be it resolved that when evolution is taught in the Oshkosh public schools, it shall not be taught as fact but rather with pro and con evidence and with an analysis of its testability.”
“There is no evidence against evolution. What there is, is we haven’t filled in all the blanks yet,” said biology professor Tom Lammers.
“Fossilization is a billion to one chance, it happens only in limited areas of the earth’s strata under very unusual circumstances. Only a fool would expect the fossil record to give us all the pieces.”
Lammers said Gade “has demonstrated that she doesn’t understand what science is and how it operates, and that is very, very embarrassing for someone that is a retired professor from this institution. It’s an embarrassment to all of us.”
Gade earned her doctorate in physics from the University of Pittsburgh. She taught physics at UW-Oshkosh from 1996-1999.
Sandra Gade submitted three papers to the teachers of the two high schools demanding a change in biology the curriculum. All three were rejected by the teachers.
“Until these teachers who are the curriculum experts tell us the curriculum should be taught another way, we will keep doing things the way we are now,” said Karen Bowen, OASD Board of Education clerk and student academic affairs officer for the College of Letters and Science at UW-Oshkosh. “A school board should be looking at the big picture.”
According to The Advance Titan, Gade said the board’s response to her paper was that it was “a paper on intelligent design. They have been so effectively brainwashed by their college experience that they are unaware of the existence of contrary evidence.”
In response, Gade circulated a petition calling for a referendum on November’s ballot. The referendum reads, “Be it resolved that when evolution is taught in the Oshkosh public schools, it shall not be taught as fact but rather with pro and con evidence and with an analysis of its testability.”
“There is no evidence against evolution. What there is, is we haven’t filled in all the blanks yet,” said biology professor Tom Lammers.
“Fossilization is a billion to one chance, it happens only in limited areas of the earth’s strata under very unusual circumstances. Only a fool would expect the fossil record to give us all the pieces.”
Lammers said Gade “has demonstrated that she doesn’t understand what science is and how it operates, and that is very, very embarrassing for someone that is a retired professor from this institution. It’s an embarrassment to all of us.”
Gade earned her doctorate in physics from the University of Pittsburgh. She taught physics at UW-Oshkosh from 1996-1999.
