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Claims students should question argued theory 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is maintaining its distinction as the only state where biology textbooks include a sticker warning students that evolution is a “controversial theory” they should question. 

The State Board of Education voted without dissent Thursday to place the disclaimer on the front of 40,000 new biology textbooks to be used in the state’s public schools. 

The statement says in part that evolution is “a controversial theory. ... Instructional material associated with controversy should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” 

The board included the same statement in course guidelines for science teachers. 

The state first put stickers on biology textbooks in 1996, but those books are being replaced with new editions next year. The new books will be used for the next six years. 

The school board’s vote came without any debate, far different from the initial decision to use the stickers. 

“Boy, that was a surprise,” board vice chairman Ethel Hall said. 

The decision was actively supported by the Christian Coalition and the Eagle Forum, groups that seek more religious activity in public schools. 

Joan Kendall, state education chairman for Eagle Forum, said the sticker is needed because biology textbooks contain outdated and disputed information about evolution. 

John Giles, state president of the Christian Coalition, said the board’s new sticker is not as strong as the old one, but he had been concerned the board was going to drop the sticker entirely. 

“The insert they approved does provoke the child to think through the process,” he said. 

At a 1995 board meeting to approve the original disclaimer, then-Gov. Fob James impersonated an ape to poke fun at Charles Darwin, whose works are the basis of evolutionary theory. 

That sticker contained questions students should ask about evolution, such as: “Why do major groups of plants and animals have no transitional forms in the fossil record?” 

Alabama’s use of the sticker to discredit evolution causes scientists to question the quality of its biology education, said Eric Meikle, outreach director of the National Center of Science Education. 

“It’s definitely a negative in people’s view of education in the state,” he said. 

The teaching of evolution, the theory that humans and other living beings evolved into their present form over millions of years, has been an issue in several states. But no other state has used a disclaimer sticker in textbooks statewide, Meikle said. 

The Alabama school board has approved several biology textbooks from different publishers, and local school boards select the books that are used in schools. The course is taught mostly in 10th grade.