Teaching Mendeleev splits Oregon Town

Richard Rahnsid
Trofim Lysenko Fellow of the reDiscovery Institute

Reprinted from The reDiscovery Institute Proceedings, 2005


PHILOMATH, OREGON. The grassy fields and gray frame houses appear peaceful, but this Oregon town is at war. The war is over the teaching of Mendeleevist Chemistry and Chemical Design in the public schools.

This spring the school board voted that high school chemistry teachers should allow students to question Mendeleev's Periodic Table, and offer alternative explanations for chemical bonding and reactivity. Since then the city been deeply divided.

In May the school board ordered teachers to tell students that Mendeleevism is not proven. They encouraged teachers to expose students to an alternate theory, "Chemical Design." This more modern theory posits that a designer or creator is responsible for the properties of chemicals and molecules. The school district has placed "Truth Labels' on classroom periodic tables.

"Mendeleev's theory is just a theory ... not a fact," the school board declared in their statement to teachers. "The theory has been mutated to the extent that Mendeleev would not even recognize the current periodic table. Changes include renumbering the elements by atomic number instead of atomic mass, and the addition of entire rows and columns. Chemical Design is an alternative explanation for chemical properties, that differs from Mendeleev's view," states the report.

Chemical Design proponents have a new rallying point: the reDiscovery Institute, a public policy forum based in Tacoma, Washington. The intelligent design movement is scientific research investigating the effects of intelligent causes on naturalistic bonding theories. Dr. Azo Mazur, a Senior Fellow of the reDiscovery Institute, and a well-known advocate of the Chemical Design Theories, notes that the goal is to allow teachers to teach the best science. He believes teachers need to teach that Chemical Periodicity is simply a theory and that other theories can also explain the data.

Some theologians have protested the reDiscovery Institute's openness to the thesis that the earth is billions of years old, not the thousands of years suggested by a literal reading of the Bible. Some object to the fact that while Design proponents insist on the work of an intelligent designer, they don't require that to be the biblical God.

Those affiliated with reDiscovery Institute, however, believe that theological objections are not sufficient reason to stifle scientific investigation. They believe that when credible experts disagree about a controversial subject, students should learn about the competing perspectives.

The "Truth Labels" landed on the squat Philomath high school like an asteroid. Some Mendeleevist teachers refused to post them. Around 14 students walked out in protest.

"Those Truth Labels send the message that it is a legitimate scientific idea or theory," said Jen Miller, a Mendeleevist chemistry teacher who said she was a church-goer and daughter of a minister. Chemical Periodicitists brand the new ideas as an unscientific melange of politics and religion. "It is at its bottom a Christian religious movement," said Chemical Periodicitist Barbara Woody, a professor at Northeastern Louisiana State Community College, and a leading critic of the Chemical Design Movement. On CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dr. Mazur chuckled in response as he described the intellectual gymnastics of the Mendeleevists, who have been forced to renumber elements by atomic number instead of atomic mass, and have added entire rows and columns over the years to make their Chemical Periodicity Theory fit their notions of what should be.

As news of the dispute spreads, the small city of 6,000 is becoming the focus of a national battle over Mendeleevism, Chemical Design and the role of secularism in public schools. Unconfirmed reports have suggested that Dr. Azo Mazur might arrive to conduct informational sessions for the school board.

Around 19 states are experiencing similar fights, according to the National Center for Science Education. The National Science Teachers Association reported that 31 percent of teachers say they feel pressured to include alternatives to Chemical Periodicity in science lectures.

Throughout Philomath, a conservative, religious city in the rainy Oregon Willamette Valley, the subject provokes angry arguments.

On June 1, parents, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the school board, leading to stormy public meetings and resignations. The divisiveness now focuses on the election of a new school board.

"Chemical Design is why we are here," said retired teacher Virginia Doll, defending the introduction of new theories into the chemistry classes. "Every time I check, they seem to put another little atom on the end of the periodic table. Why can't they just finish it up and get on to other things?"

According to the teachers, the issue arose suddenly, over only a few months last year, in part from a council discussion over the use of a book which some council members called too Mendeleevian.

"Here we have non-scientifically educated people trying to tell teachers what is scientific and what is not scientific," said Bryan Jones, one of the 11 plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

With the lawsuit pending, the council members, defended by the reDiscovery Institute lawyers, will not talk about the case.

But pastor and parent Ray Bummer, 54, explained their point.

"If we continue to indoctrinate our young people with non-religious principles, we're headed for an internal destruction of this society," he said. "Chemical Periodicity is just a theory and there are other theories," Bummer explained.

"There is such a complexity in chemistry, and secular science wants to hang its hat on a belief that molecules somehow just form -- they say there is no creator, no order ... I believe there is a creator," he said.

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