Top school's creationists
preach value of biblical story over evolution
State-funded secondary
teachers do not accept findings of Darwin
Tania Branigan
Guardian Saturday March
9, 2002
Fundamentalist Christians who
do not believe in evolution have taken control of a state-funded secondary
school in England. In a development which will astonish many British parents,
creationist teachers at the city technology college in Gateshead are undermining
the scientific teaching of biology in favour of persuading pupils of the
literal truth of the Bible. Emmanuel College - set up by the Tories -
is designated a beacon school by the Labour government and its backers
are sponsoring a city academy to be built in nearby Middlesbrough.
City technology colleges are
technically independent schools but charge no fees because they are funded
by the government as well as the private sector. City academies are similar
although local education authorities have to agree to their creation.
The school is hosting a creationist
conference this weekend and senior staff have given a series of lectures
at the college urging teachers to promote biblical fundamentalism and
giving tips on techniques to make pupils doubt the theory of evolution.
The creationist lobby has become
increasingly notorious in the US, but until recently it has been relatively
weak in Europe. The Anglican and Catholic hierarchies have accepted evolution
as a fact, with the Pope saying it was "more than just a hypothesis."
Under the national curriculum,
schools must teach evolution but are not banned from teaching creationism
as well. That leaves Emmanuel's teachers free to present evolution merely
as a "theory" no different from the idea that the world was made in six
days.
Nigel McQuoid, the school's
head, told us it was "fascist" to say that schools should not consider
creationist theories.
Mr McQuoid and his predecessor
John Burn wrote in an article in 1997: "To teach children that they are
nothing more than developed mutations who evolved from something akin
to a monkey and that death is the end of everything is hardly going to
engender within them a sense of purpose, self-worth and self-respect."
Emmanuel is a non-denominational
Christian school which achieves consistently outstanding academic results
and received a glowing Ofsted report last year.
Sponsorship
It was built with £2m of sponsorship
from Sir Peter Vardy, the multimillionaire entrepreneur behind the Reg
Vardy car dealerships, who remains chairman of the college's board of
directors.
Another of Emmanuel's directors
is Baroness Cox, the Conservative peer who in 1988 sponsored amendments
to the education reform bill stating that religious education in state
schools should be "in the main Christian". Sir Peter, an evangelical Christian,
has donated a further £2m via his charitable Vardy Foundation to build
a city academy in nearby Middlesbrough, due to open in 2003, and has offered
to fund five more. Mr McQuoid and Mr Burn, the Vardy Foundation's chief
education adviser, are helping to set it up, as no head has yet been appointed.
Mr Burn is one of the founders
of the Newcastle-based Christian Institute, set up in 1991 to promote
fundamentalist Christian beliefs. It now boasts 12 full-time employees,
10,000 supporters and according to its accounts it earned £500,000 last
year, all in donations.
Other founding members of the
institute include the Rev David Holloway, vicar at Jesmond parish church
in Newcastle and the Rev George Curry, who presides at two churches in
the inner city area of Elswick and chairs the council of the Church Society,
the leading evangelist body in the Church of England. Both men are traditionalists
and outspoken opponents of the ordination of women.
Mr Holloway is also a founder
member of Reform, an evangelical pressure group within the Church of England,
and in the 1980s proposed that bishops should face a "heresy test".
The Christian Institute has
no formal links to the school, but senior members of staff have published
papers on education on the organisation's website.
In a lecture co-authored by
Mr Burn and Mr McQuoid, they observe: "Clearly schools are required to
teach evolutionary theory. We agree that they should teach evolution as
a theory and faith position... Clearly also schools should teach the creation
theory as literally depicted in Genesis. Ultimately, both creation and
evolution are faith positions."
Mr McQuoid stresses that the
school teaches alternatives to the Christian faith, discussing other religions
and even atheism, and says that he wants his pupils to learn to make up
their own minds.
He said: "A group of folk have
contacted the press saying it's not legitimate to have a school consider
the scientific case for creation. I think that's fascist.
"The evolution/creation debate
is all about to what extent the scientific evidence is there to support
or undermine the other view... I don't think [evolution] is as proven
as the world being round."
But in lectures several of
his staff members have urged teachers to "show the superiority" of creationist
theories.
In a lecture given at the college
last year, to an adult audience, the vice-principal, Gary Wiecek, commented:
"As Christian teachers it is essential that we are able to counter the
anti-creationist position... It must be our duty as Christian teachers
to counter these false doctrines with well-founded insights."
In another talk, Paul Yeulett,
senior assessment co-ordinator and maths teacher, says that evolutionists
have "a faith which is blind and vain by comparison with the faith of
the Christian... A Christian teacher of biology will not (or should not)
regard the theory of evolution as axiomatic, but will oppose it while
teaching it alongside creation."
The star speaker at today's
conference at Emmanuel is Ken Ham, president of the Answers in Genesis
international ministry, whose lectures include Evolution: The Anti-God
Religion of Death.
Mr McQuoid said the school
had hired itself to Answers in Genesis as a venue; the conference was
not a school event.
Sir Peter, who was knighted
last year, left school at 16 with one O-level, but transformed his father's
business from a single outlet to a network of 80 dealerships around the
country. But he chooses to draw an annual salary of £120,000 and distribute
the entire annual dividend from his private shareholding to educational
and children's causes via the Vardy Foundation. He said: "All we are saying
is that it's up to children to make their own minds up. I haven't had
any complaints... The parents are happy, the students and teachers are
happy; we have them standing in queues waiting to get in."
A spokeswoman for the Department
for Education and Skills said: "What schools need to do is teach the national
curriculum in an impartial way. Personal doctrines should not override
anything that should be taught in the curriculum."
A spokesman for Middlesbrough
council said: "On the evidence we have, the situation [at Emmanuel] is
that evolution is taught there and children are made aware - as we anticipate
them being [in Middlesbrough] - of alternative theories."
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