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Apes, Humans, and School Boards…
My 10 yr old daughter has aspirations of becoming a scientist. She’s back and forth on the specific field of study but her heart has always led her to science. As a parent I feel its my job to provide her every opportunity possible to explore her thirst for knowledge.
We often have discussions pertaining to science and how the world and universe work. Lately, we have been discussing evolution. We have discussed the facts of biological evolution and are starting to get into some of the hypotheses as far as species evolutionary paths and relations. I recently suggested asking her teacher when and if they were going to cover evolution this year. As she came off the school bus yesterday the first thing out of her mouth was, “Mom! My teacher said it was against the law to teach evolution!� To say the least I was floored.
I realize that evolution is consistently under attack from the religious right based on their interpretation of biblical accounts regarding the creation of life. I can fully respect ones right to exercise their religious freedoms. However, I do not believe that the educational system needs to omit scientific reasoning, theory and hypotheses from curriculum in order to placate religious doctrine. The study of scientific evidence, fact, and theory are critical elements to understanding how science can be used to research and understand the world and universe around us. To leave out elements due to religious protest not only skews scientific data and understanding, it crosses the separation of church and state as outlined in our Constitution.
Although, I may not agree with some peoples choice to shelter their children from studying evolution, I support their right to practice their religion. If the studying of scientific data interferes with ones religious beliefs opting out of portions of science class that are thought to be contradictory or sac religious, as many do for sex education, is completely acceptable.
Honestly, I have been very happy with our school so I was shocked to hear that evolution would be a banned topic. I have started researching the issue. Web searches were varied and contradictory, as expected. However the names, numbers and addresses of our county board and state board are easily found on the web. This morning I placed several phone calls to members of both state and county school boards. No one was available at the time, so I left messages stating I was curious about some specific curriculum policies. I have received three varied responses. Oddly enough no one has been able to answer my question; Is there a law or policy prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public school?
One lady I spoke with admitted that she didn’t know much about evolution to begin with. She actually said, “its the idea that apes turned into humans or something like that.� I was a bit speechless over the comment. I mean this woman is one our county school board officials. In fact she is the chairman of the Curriculum advisory committee!
So I sit here this evening in a bit of shock and bewilderment. What started out as a quest to find out if evolution is a banned topic in North Carolina schools has turned up not only conflicting information but seems to have scratched the surface of what could be a grossly incompetent school board.
Cross posted on broadstripes.org
on March 28th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Sounds like you have a really bad situation there, Elaine. I think you’re doing the right thing by asking questions and trying to get to the bottom of it. Once you get over the understandable shock, please be sure to pursue this and keep us updated with what happens. I would start by following the “chain of command” and talking first to the principal, then district administration, then the other members of the school board, and take it all the way to the state department of education if you have to. It might also be helpful to get advice from a group like the ACLU, The Freedom From Religion Foundation, or American Atheists. This is an outrage anyone, religious or not, who values science education.
on March 28th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Sorry, the last line should read “This is an outrage to anyone…”
on March 29th, 2007 at 4:00 am
I wouldn’t be that surprised, there’s a worldwide attempt to bring people back to middle age, to bring back religion and fear of God through reinstatement of ignorance and false education. Luckily enough your kid has educated and clever parent who will fill the gap but what about all the others?
You’re doing the right thing tho, keep writing letters, enquiring people and ask why evolution is not part of the scientific program at school.
Good luck.
on April 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I always thought it was the other way around….teaching evolution was okay and not the bible’s version of creation.
on April 3rd, 2007 at 7:04 am
nothing ever changes.
300 years from now, we’ll be hashing out the same junk.
on April 5th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Evolution is fact, and should not be thrown out of a schools teachings. It is like throwing out math, the concept of 2 + 2 = 4.
If anything, the school is putting pressure on you and your daughter from going into science.
on April 6th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Evolution is not a fact. Even as an atheist the theory is unprovable. Macro-Evolution or evolution between kinds is not observable, reproduceable, or verifiable. Transitional kinds are starkly lacking, mutations are never beneficial. At most we have genetic variance (chihuahuas to Great Danes) but always a dog. All attempts to corrobrate transisition have failed. So, while the burden of proof still exists with scientists, it still remains a theory. Maybe one with weight, but at best a theory. Past “proofs” have systematically proven to either fall short or be downright hoaxes.. Piltdown Man, the peppered moth, Lucy represented as a human variant… the list goes on and on. Errors with c14 and other dating methods of the same samples, poly-striate fossils that belie gradual sedimentation for rapid sedimentation… and the oft covered up dinsoaur footprints along side human prints found in Texas.
Scientists are just as biased and lie as often to protect their views as radical religious extremists.
Heck, even “brontosaurus” quietly was admitted to have the wrong head!
Just as with any court case. Once a claim is made, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution.
Leave evolution for the college elective classroom and keep it out of the high school class rooms. Who said that High Schools and elementary schools were obligated to teach on origins at ALL? There is plenty to be taught on readily observed botany/zoology/chemistry/physics/anatomy.
Give these kids a sound neutral construct of the sciences to form their opinions in a college class that they PAY for and can opt out of if their conscience dictates.
I say, take origins out of the schools completely!!!!
on April 6th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Virtually nothing in science is a “fact.” the whole point of science is to learn more about the things we think we know. In fact, the world’s most renowned scientists are the ones that have proven their predecessors wrong. Does that mean we should not teach the things we think we know? Of course not.
As for the legality of teaching of evolution: I think you should have approached the teacher in question directly and found out both sides of the situation before attempting to speak with the school board. It seems very likely to me that there was a miscommunication. Perhaps she was telling your daughter about the push to have evolutionary theories banned and your daughter just misunderstood. If this is the case, speaking to school board members could cause a lot of hysteria and red-tape over nothing.
on April 8th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
In Ohio, we look directly to the Ohio Department of Education and the science standards are right on the website. If I were you, I would check NC’s dept. of education website and also call the NC Dept. of Ed’s community relations or PR folks. Good luck!
on April 10th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
It always shocks me more than a little when someone (likely poorly educated in Ohio or Kansas public schools) asserts that evolution is NOT a fact. It is less shocking, but still disturbing, when someone with access to the internet does not understand the scientific process, but is still willing to display their ignorance.
To paraphrase a great biologist, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution”. Evolution through natural selection is a fact. Evolution simply means ‘change’. Descendents change from their parents. You can see it on your kitchen counter as you select against the 99% of bacteria that are killed by your Lysol Kitchen bacteriocide and leaving 1% of the bacteria to continue to multiply, but harder to kill. You can see it in the evolution of antibiotic-resistant strep and other disease-causing bacteria. You can see evolution among a colony of fruit flies in any genetics lab. You can see it in any agricultural setting in which crops are being selected for specific traits. Evolution is as close to a ‘fact’ that science allows. The issue for this writer and most authors of such nonesense is that despite their ability to believe in a magical entity that can create entire galaxies within hours and complex ecosystems within a day, is that they cannot imagine the time scale necessary for the small gradual changes necessary for new species to emerge.
The other package of irrational statements with which I take exception is the notion that scientists have failed to ‘prove’ evolution exists. As John Platt, Francis Bacon and others have noted, science only advances by disproofs. Freudian and Marxist theories are poor theories because they cannot be disproved. There is no critical experiment that could be conducted that would disprove either of these theories–because they purport to explain everything, they explain nothing. Some like to place the theory of evolution through natural selection in this category. But, Darwin himself pointed out the critical experiment/observation. To paraphrase, he noted that if anyone could find a structure or behavior that evolved to increase the fitness of a competitor while lowering the fitness of the individual in question, then his theory would be rejected. One hundred years later, a group of biologists were troubled by altruistic behaviors which did seem to disprove Darwin’s hypothesis. However, with the minor adjustment of and theory of inclusive fitness, these observations could be incorporated into the theory of evolution through natural selection. These small adjustments and refinements are part of the scientific process. The use of strong inferential logic can help you understand your world without the need to evoke magical beings…
on April 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I have doubts Harvy is an atheist… if he is, then he’s just a very poorly educated person. (There’s no “macro” and “micro” evolution, they’re the same thing, just the time-scale is different…. given enough “micro” changes over a few hundred-thousand years, you get a “macro” evolution. A dog is a canine, but when is a fox, or jackal, a dog?)
As for evolution in schools, it’s not illegal to teach, but many schools won’t touch it with a 10ft pole because they’re afraid the Christians will make a stink about it. If your daughter is interested in science, plug her into PBS (NOVA, Nature, Scientific American Frontiers, etc.) & the Discover channels, and get a membership to your closest science museum (http://www.cosi.org/) or zoo if you can, they often have great day-camps.
It sucks that school won’t cover evolution, but it makes for a good excuse to spend a day with your daughter learning together!
on May 21st, 2007 at 12:16 am
I don’t blame it on common people for a situation like this. I feel it’s the ‘ego’ of scientists that is causing more damage than religion itself. Scientists are developing more and more sophisticated tools/theories/getting proofs but seldom they are able to share them meaningfully with the common people. They are with the ‘ego’ of knowing the truth and totally ignore their responsibility to reach and share them with common people. Only a handful of Scientist (like Richard Dawkins) have understood the importance of the situation and wrote books to organize arguments against religion. Rest of coward scientists are just happy to involve themselves in more and more research and afraid of losing their funding if they come public against religions.
on May 29th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
I don’t think it’s fair to blame this on scientists. After all, what we are asking for are more and more complex proofs, and when they are produced, the general population simply doesn’t understand them.
Micro and Macro evolution are an example of that. They are very specific and separate theories which don’t necessarily relate, and they’re often used by some fence straddling creationists who want to acknowledge that some things do evolve in little ways, but don’t want to admit that one species can give rise to another.
I think a lot of people have covered the idea that evolution is a fact. THEORIES in the lexicon of science, means something quite different than THEORIES in common usage. I’d like to point out that GRAVITATION is also a scientific theory, and no one is challenging that!
I also have to disagree that creationists should be allowed to opt out of part of the science program. Should they opt out of Earth Science because they are taught about the age of the world? Or should they opt out of Social Studies because there may be discussion about the rise of civilization which conflicts with “new earth” beliefs? If it’s the school’s obligation to educate, it darn well better do so, not support ignorance.