In the public school system I tried to ensure that my students were taught a correct understanding of science and how to think logically. However, when first teaching creation in the public schools, my approach was different. I would show the students the problems with evolution and how evidence supported the creationist view. However, when the students went to another class where the teacher was an evolutionist, the teacher would just re-interpret the evidence for them. I had been using what can be called an evidentialist approach trying to use the evidence to convince students that it showed evolution wrong and creation true.

I then changed methods and taught students the true nature of science what science can and cannot do. We looked in detail at the limitations that scientists have in relation to the past. They were told that all scientists have presuppositions (beliefs) which they use in interpreting the evidence. I shared with them my beliefs from the Bible concerning creation, the Fall, Noahs flood and other topics, and how one may build scientific models upon this framework. It was demonstrated how the evidence consistently fitted with the creation framework and not within that of the evolutionists. I had begun teaching from what could be called a "presuppositionalist" approach. The difference was astounding. When students went to the other classes and their teachers tried to re-interpret the evidence, the students were able to identify for the teachers the assumptions behind what the teachers were saying. The students recognized that it was a teachers belief system that determined the way in which he looked at the evidence. The question of origins was outside of direct scientific proof.

This so perplexed some teachers that, on one occasion, a young teacher came to me and abrasively stated that I had destroyed her credibility with the students. She had taught her students that coal formed in swamps over millions of years. I had taught the students that there were different theories as to how coal could be formed. Since this teacher had not indicated the limitation of science and had taught her swamp theory of coal as fact, her credibility was undermined in the eyes of the students. The reason she was so angry was that she had absolutely no comeback and knew it. So did the students.

I would appeal to any who have the opportunity to teach in the area of creation/evolution to research carefully their method of teaching. Ensure that the students understand the whole philosophical area, that is, the presuppositions and assumptions involved. Not only will students understand the issues better but they will also become better scientists and thinkers as a result.