The Senate bill included a last-minute, nonbinding 'sense of the Senate' amendment that in part specified, "where biological evolution is taught, the curriculum should help students to understand why the subject generates so much continuing controversy, and should prepare the students to be informed participants in public discussions regarding the subject." Offered by Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.), the amendment received enthusiastic support from the bill's floor manager, Edward M. Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and other key senators. The amendment passed 98-1, but since the House version did not include the Santorum wording, the conference committee had to decide what to do with it.
"To someone not familiar with the rhetoric of the antievolution movement, it looked like a straightforward, 'let's all be critical thinkers' approach," says Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in Oakland, Calif. (See Profile, page 60). But, "the fact that evolution is singled out ...
