Senator calls for more innovation in schools, clarifies his statement on teaching creationism

This from CN/2:

Sen. David Givens, a Republican from Greensburg, said he was surprised by the reaction from Kentuckians when he was quoted earlier this year expressing his preference for creationism to be taught in science classes alongside evolution.

“At no point in any conversation have I denied evolution. Now in my faith model, God can certainly work through evolution to achieve his outcomes. And I’m comfortable with that. Part of the beauty of our democratic system and our democracy is that we can have different faith models arrive in the same classroom,” Givens said on Pure Politics last week.

Givens said he wants students to hear different theories as to how the evolutionary process began and let them discuss and debate that. (At 7:30 in the interview.)

“My Christian faith believes in a divine spark … My response to that reporter was, if that is creationism, then I’m very comfortable with creationism being taught along side evolution in a science classroom as part of a critical thinking approach,” Givens said.

As for the backlash he received, Givens said “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could be that passionate about education in a broader sense?” he said (4:30).