The Criminalization of Youth
By William Ayers
Lawmakers and the mass media are spinning horror stories about hordes of young "superpredators"roving our nation's streets, and are using these tales to push draconian new laws that punish more and more children as if they were adults. A look at the current trend, and a plea for more rational approaches to young offenders.

The Evolution of Creationism
By Leon Lynn
The lead article of a Rethinking Schools special report about right-wing efforts to dress up religious dogma as pseudo-science, keep the theory of evolution out of U.S. schools, and wipe away the separation between church and state.

Creationists Push Pseudo-Science Text
By Leon Lynn
It looks like a science textbook, but "Of Pandas and People" is really a creationist treatise masquerading as a legitimate discussion of scientific theories. An examination of "Pandas" and some of the objections to it raised by legitimate scientists and educators.

One Town's Battle Over Creationism
By Leon Lynn
The struggles over evolution and creationism in Louisville, Ohio, where a retired teacher has called in the American Civil Liberties Union to keep a right-wing Christian school board member from injecting his religious beliefs into the school curriculum.

What's a Teacher to Do? An interview with Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, who offers some perspective on why creationism persists and how teachers can cope with it.

There's a lot more inside this issue.