No evolution theory in US kids’ science curriculum

Cox said the curriculum changes were aimed to take pressure off teachers ‘‘on the front lines’’ in Georgia classrooms. The state’s curriculum specialist, Stephen Pruitt, said the word ‘‘evolution’’ would not be banned in the classroom. ‘‘I believe we are dissecting the Theory of Evolution to look at its pieces,’’ Pruitt said.

On Thursday, 1,000 people had signed an online petition demanding the restoration of the omitted sections. A handful of states avoid using the word ‘‘evolution’’ in teaching plans, replacing it with euphemisms like ‘‘biological adaptation’’ or ‘‘change over time.’’

Georgia, however, would be the first state to remove the word ‘‘evolution’’ from teaching plans after including it for years. The revised curriculum was a major initiative for Cox, a Republican who was elected to the school post in 2002. For six months, panels of educators met to fine-tune the new curriculum. But the final version eliminated large swaths of information about the origin of life, including Gregor Mendel’s identification of genes, the appearance of primitive life forms four billion years ago, and the long-term dynamics of evolution. —LAT-WP