If you want your children to have a REAL education, then evolution is one of many topics to learn about.  Just teaching about the concept does NOT make children feel that they MUST believe in evolution.  There is nothing wrong with learning a little about all topics as long as those topics are for educational purposes and are age-appropriate.

There is nothing wrong with teaching the Bible for learning purposes either --- at least the Old Testament.  The new testament is more for teaching Christianity, which is for religous not secular reasons.

You should be a little more open-minded and receptive to your children learning about all things in life.  It's a big world out there and slowly they will become a part of it.  Nothing wrong with learning stuff.  Teach your children to be open-minded to all topics.  It will help them throughout their lives.  There is enough censorship all around us, including the media and our government.

Learning is special.  We should help our children learn about many things that we may not believe in, but it is out there and part of our existence.

I don't think this case is about creationism versus evolution (although we're going to be talking about that quite a bit in the next week or two as I slog through the Texas BOE audio from November 19) as it is about freedom of speech and expression within school. Looks to me like the court drew the line between someone, rightly, wearing a religious expression on their clothing (like a cross pin), and seeking to prosletyze, not just generally as far as any kind of home teaching is concerned but with regard to religion. I remember the outcry last year in Friendswood when CAIR conducted a seminar in Muslim teachings (that's simplistic and there were other issues involved but the point I'm making here is that a lot of parents didn't want their children exposed to muslim teachings which would be, presumably, contrary to their religious teachings at home.). So, to me, it's a matter of respect when it comes to religion, that, while one might wear a symbol of one's religion at school, the line is crossed when prosletyzing takes place. And, of course, were it any other way, then the schools would also have to allow any and all other religious or philosophical realms to have equal say. Better to keep religious prosletyzing out of public schools.

My point in posting what I did was to say, they (the powers that be) are not giving my children the "equal opportunity" to learn ALL things.  Evolution is taught (and not as a theory), but no other beliefs are taught.  What if I wanted my child to learn about christianity (and I don't mean about a single concept, I mean from ALL points of view).  My mind is open, but if you are going to teach ONE theory, why not teach ALL theories (and I mean ALL) and allow the children to decide what they believe?  I do not demand that my kids believe as I believe, but encourage them to find their place and where they are most comfortable.  If that's being close minded, then so be it.

I don't have a problem with schools teaching religious history. In fact, I think courses like The Bible as Literature are essential, particularly when there are so many allusions to the bible in a variety of sources. Now, IF we were going to teach religion as theology, then the door is opened, as it should be, to teach all varieties of religion. My point is that many people don't want that, but it wouldn't be fair to only teach christianity as theology.

Although I still don't think the candy cane lawsuit has anything to do with evolution, and I intend to go listen to that whole dang 10 hours of audio  from the TSBOE, I believe that the word *theory* is not defined as well as it should be.