The National Academy of Sciences has produced a booklet arguing that creationism is not an appropriate subject for study in the science classroom.
The booklet will be distributed free to 44,000 people, including science teachers, all school-district superintendents, heads of all secondary-school science departments, and others.
Work on the booklet began two years ago, when creationism became a national issue because of highly publicized trials over pro-creationism laws in Arkansas and Louisiana. Now, according to anti-creationism groups, much of the debate about creationism occurs at the school-district level.
“People advocating creationism in schools have a lot of literature,’' said Barbara Jorgenson, a spokesman for the nas “One thing that’s been lacking is an authoritative document for people trying to keep creationism out of science classrooms.”
The nas is a nonprofit education association concerned with furthering science in public schools.