Creationism taught in the classroom could be a tragic lesson

The recent Louisiana legislative session will go down in history as one of the most interesting sessions ever.

Since many new faces went to Baton Rouge because of term limitations, citizens saw this new beginning as an opportunity to “turn things around.” Louisiana has been ranked on the bottom of national lists in areas of education, poverty, household pay, government corruption and pollution. And the list goes on.

With a new governor and a new group of legislators, expectations were high.

Laws concerning proper ethical conduct were passed to uphold a standard for those holding public office.

We hope that these laws are not just window dressing. A law is as good as its enforcement. Only time will tell whether the “anything goes” atmosphere will be replaced by a climate of just, fair, moral and open government.

The biggest disappointment this session was the wish of some lawmakers to increase their salaries threefold.

After debate and reactions from the public, the final form of the law would have doubled their salaries and made them the 14th highest paid state legislators in the country.

Legislators are supposed to be our public “servants.” Government servants are the only group in the world who can raise their own pay.

Business and others household workers get raises according to some objective merit-pay standard or a cost-of-living increase. After pressure from the public, the governor finally vetoed the pay increase bill.

Someone once said, “Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.” If we do not know history, we are condemned to repeat it.

That brings to mind a proposed law would have allowed college students to carry guns on campus. Thank God our educators had enough sense to discourage this poorly conceived idea. Recognizing that it is always a tragedy when someone shoots and kills innocent students on campus, lawmakers decided arming students is not the solution to this problem.

In the Old West, almost everyone wore a gun. When people got drunk, an argument would lead to a gunfight where someone usually got killed. Imagine what would happen on college campuses where much drinking goes on? We would be burying many college students.

My biggest disappointment is with a law allowing teachers to modify what is taught in the classroom textbooks. Louisiana is at the bottom of the list in educational standards.

A law like this helped us keep our low rankings. Education is supposed to make us think, use reason and examine material in an objective way.

Part of this law deals with religious issues.

Science and religion should complement each other, not oppose one another. For example, evolution is a scientific fact. On the surface it seems that evolution would contradict the teaching of Genesis, which tell us that God created the world in six days. However, the Bible is not trying to teach science and science is not trying to teach religion.

The main point of Genesis is that God created everything. It does not tell us “how” God created life. Science tells us “how.”

For a fundamental teacher to get up in the classroom and give a literal understanding of Genesis would be tragic. Yet, this is what the law is open to do. This does not help raise our state’s educational standards.

It’s been suggested that a merit raise be paid to legislators. Maybe we should tie their increase into our ranking as a state. If Louisiana ranks 50th in education standards, their pay should be ranked 50th among state legislators. If we improve, then their pay would rise according. They might think twice about passing emotionally-charged bills that keeps us in the Middle Ages.