School Courses

In the beginning, members of the Dover Area School District board wrangled over what should be required in their high school biology curriculum. Some were adamant that science teachers should stick with the widely taught theory of evolution and random selection. Others said the teaching of "intelligent design" should also be required, arguing that certain elements of life, like cell structure, are best explained by an intelligent cause. The debate had strong religious overtones.

A biochemistry professor who is a leading advocate of "intelligent design" testified Monday that evolution alone can't explain complex biological processes and he believes God is behind them. Lehigh University professor Michael Behe was the first witness called by a school board that is requiring students to hear a statement about the intelligent design concept in biology class.

The state Board of Education approved curriculum standards Tuesday that question evolution and redefine science to include concepts other than natural explanations. The board, in a 6-4 vote, recommended that schools teach the "considerable scientific and public controversy" surrounding the origin of life -- a dispute most scientists contend exists only among creationists. National science groups opposed the measure, and critics contended it was an effort to inject religion into the classroom.

The hard-fought school election was over, and there was hope that the scars from a nationally watched battle between evolution and intelligent design in public schools would begin to heal at Monday's meeting of the Dover school board. But bitterness persisted over last week's results, in which eight candidates opposed to the teaching of intelligent design in this rural community narrowly defeated eight incumbents, who had included it as part of the science curriculum.

It's 10 p.m. West Coast time, and Animation School is about to begin. The students take their seats all over the world. There's Fabian in Switzerland, Susanna in Italy, Gustavo in Spain. Richard and Rafi are just waking up in England. Then there's the professor, Jason Schleifer, a wisecracking animator at DreamWorks Animation SKG. Instead of standing at a lectern, he plops down in the sun room of his Bay Area home and aims a tiny Web camera at his face. "Do we have everyone here?"

THERE was a time, and not so long ago, that any talk about television at film school was considered crass -- the low road to a higher calling. Film school was for budding auteurs, not TV hacks. "Television has always been the redheaded stepchild of virtually any university's film program," said UCLA professor Tom Nunan, who produced the film "Crash" but spent most of his career as a television executive. "It's a hard medium to come out and just embrace right out of the gate.

A federal judge, saying "intelligent design" is "an interesting theological argument, but ... not science," ruled Tuesday that a school board violated the Constitution by compelling biology teachers to present the concept as an alternative to evolution. The ruling came after U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III heard 21 days of testimony in a closely watched trial that pitted a group of parents against the school board in the town of Dover, Pa.

A Huntington Beach attorney who credits the Bible with helping him become an honor student is pushing for a state ballot measure to put the Scriptures in the hands of public school students as a literary text. Matt McLaughlin received approval last week from the secretary of state's office to begin gathering signatures for the King James Bible as Textbook initiative, which would amend the Constitution to allow teachers to use the Bible in literature classes.

Like many new immigrants to Southern California, Maral Saatjian gravitated toward the familiar. She got a job in a dentist's office in Glendale, where "the whole staff was Armenian. Everything was in Armenian." There was little incentive to learn English. But Saatjian, who studied to be a doctor in her home country, soon decided she needed a better job and a better understanding of life in the United States.

The last of Robert McCarroll's students hustled in a few minutes before 10 a.m. to avoid being late. Valvoline motor oil flags hung from the classroom ceiling and protective eyeglasses dangled around the teenagers' necks. Everyone was wearing a grease-stained jumpsuit. "All right, let's go to work," McCarroll said after checking off the attendance list.