Writing on AL.com (March 31, 2016), Amanda Glaze denounced the recent decision of the Alabama state board of education to retain the "scientifically inaccurate and pedagogically inappropriate" evolution disclaimer affixed to biology textbooks in the state's public schools.
As NCSE previously reported, the decision to retain the disclaimer was taken at the board's March 10, 2016, meeting, even though the new Alabama state science standards describe evolution as "substantiated with much direct and indirect evidence."
"The disclaimer describes evolution by natural selection as scientifically controversial and it suggests that doubt about the importance of natural selection in evolution is scientifically justified. These are simply mistakes," Glaze wrote.
"Just as problematic," she added, "is the implicit message — that evolution is something so horrible that it is necessary to warn students about it. As a science teacher ... in Alabama, I can definitely say that the disclaimer's effect is uniformly negative."
A science educator and teacher educator born and raised in Alabama, Glaze is the author of numerous articles about the acceptance and rejection of evolution and the coeditor of a forthcoming book on evolution education in the American South.