by Michael Kellichner

Created on: July 19, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

Public school exists to expose children to a wide variety of subjects so that they emerge as well rounded individuals, capable of analysis and thought that will help them function within the real world and make informed decisions. That being said, is there a place for intelligent design in schools? Absolutely. The main concern here is that many proponents of intelligent design want it to be taught in biology classes as an alternative to evolution. However, this is like trying to teach Spanish opposite English, because it's what other people speak.

There's room in a high school's curriculum for almost any class, as long as it is approached in a proper way. What this means for controversial subjects is that it doesn't take the form of a teacher standing in front of the class and saying, "This is what's right." Rather, it needs to be approached in a more detached way, with a teacher saying, "These are the fundamentals of intelligent design, which is believed by . . ." and explain who believes it (e.g., Christian scientists), just like they would describe, say, the ins and outs of Hinduism as believed by Hindus.

So lets leave evolution to biology classrooms since the theory revolves around DNA replication and other things that tie into a biology lesson. If a school does deem intelligent design to be important enough to be included in a student's education, put it in a religion course. If it's a course on Christianity, it would be a subsection of the religion, since there's already a whole slew of subdivisions of Christians that need to be addressed. Or, if the class is on religion in general, intelligent design can be dealt with in much the same way; address it with the lesson(s) on Christianity.

In this way, intelligent design can easily be integrated into a school's curriculum without setting up a "One of these two beliefs is the correct one." Instead, it can be presented as what some people believe, just like Evolution should be taught as, "This is how biologists account for A, B, and C." This allows the students to learn about each subject and judge for themselves which is "right" and which they will choose to believe. This way, if students want to learn about intelligent design, they can take the appropriate religion course; if they want to learn about evolution, the appropriate biology course; and if they want to learn both, the option is there. This way students can round themselves out and, as they grow, be more prepared to make their own decisions about what is right and wrong, rather than just regurgitating facts someone else forced upon them.

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