The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Supt. Cox now faces local history uprising

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Superintendent Kathy Cox will make a formal recommendation to the state Board of Education on Thursday that it adopt a new biology curriculum for the entire state that not only includes the word “evolution,” but also restores lessons on the scientific theory omitted from earlier versions of the new Georgia Performance Standards.

Her presentation will mark the symbolic end of the political firestorm she created nearly a month ago when she casually referred to evolution as a “buzzword” that would be better served if it were not to be found in state science books.

After nearly a week of standing her ground, the Peachtree City resident and former McIntosh High political science teacher finally relented, convening a panel of biology teachers to reformulate the curriculum.

The draft report from those teacher teams is what the appointed state board will consider Thursday.

“I have reviewed the work of the teacher teams on the biology curriculum, and have accepted their recommendations,” Cox said on Friday. “I truly appreciate that these teachers came back early to address this important issue and ensure that the proposed curriculum meets the needs of Georgia’s schools, teachers, and students.”

Pending board approval, an updated draft that includes both the word “evolution” and the AAAS benchmarks will be placed online for additional public review and comment, Cox said.

“We are confident that the document not only meets national standards, but will deliver the world-class curriculum that our Board has requested and that our students and teachers deserve.”

But quieting the furor over “evolution” may be just the start of a series of wildfires Cox will have to stomp out before the entire revised curriculum for grades K-12 can be officially adopted in June.

Particularly, concerns about both the math and history curriculums were being made known before the evolution debate stole the thunder. And one of the loudest critics of Cox’s proposal to skim over studies of the Civil War in high school American history classes is a former colleague at McIntosh High.

Joseph Jarrell, who teaches American history at McIntosh and described his relationship with Cox as friendly and professional, nonetheless has been the lightning rod of criticism aimed at the proposed changes in his subject area, particularly in regards to the Civil War.

“We’ve been friends for seven years, and I contributed $200 to her campaign,” said the Coweta County resident recently. “For six years I was the Republican Party chairman in Coweta and actively campaigned for her.”

That just points up the difficulties local teachers are having in reconciling such dramatic change coming from one of their own, Jarrell suggested. [See Sandy Creek High School teacher Tony Pattiz’s letter on Page A7 in this issue.]

A conference call of McIntosh teachers was arranged last fall with Cox when rumors of the changes in the history curriculum first began leaking out.

“We went through them point by point telling Kathy why this isn’t going to work,” he recalled.

The effort was futile, he said.

Since penning an essay on the subject that ran in The Citizen as well as other papers around the state, Jarrell has picked up support from all over, not just within Fayette County.

He’s still hoping a compromise, like the one with evolution, can be reached.

Meanwhile, changes proposed to the math texts are nearly as dramatic, but not quite so criticized.

The changes in math would do away with traditional class titles such as algebra I, algebra II or geometry in favor of Foundations of Math, Math I, Math II and so on.

Many math teachers support that move, because it blends various types of math into a more real-world application.

The resulting high school math curriculum, if the state Board of Education approves it in May, would incorporate elements of different maths each year.

If approved, curriculum changes would be phased in over several years. Changes to high school math would begin in 2007-08, when teachers would be trained to use the new standards. The next year, students would be tested according to the new standards.