Comments on: Evolution in School: A personal view.

By: Jesus Fish vs. Darwin Fish in the US - Skeptical Monkey

Jesus Fish vs. Darwin Fish in the US - Skeptical Monkey — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:25:58 +0000

[...] You may also find enjoy reading this background on evolution (with video), how Christianity believes it’s right and all other religions are wrong, and this sad account of one person’s childhood experience with creation and ID education. [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:54:32 +0000

I’m sorry to hear about these experiences you guys have had. I once had a Zoology/Botany Teacher who never mentioned evolution, except to say that we had better be careful not to let our college professors persuade us against god!! It’s insane! I’m trying to promote sanity however, via my blog “Answers in Genesis Busted”:

http://aigbusted.blogspot.com

It’s not much, but I think promoting reason is good whether 10 people read it or 10,000 people read it.
Peace Out,
Ryan

By: the chaplain

the chaplain — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:56:04 +0000

It seems to me that, in the mid-1970s, I got through high school biology in a Pennsylvania school without the word evolution ever being spoken. I honestly don’t remember any discussion, debate, or anything about it. I remember doing genetic tables, so I know we discussed inherited traits. I also got through four years at a Christian college without discussing evolution very much. To be fair to the college, I took a basic physical science course to fulfill my science requirement. I would have preferred biology, but didn’t have time for the more demanding labs, etc., so I took the least demanding science course I could fit into my schedule.

By: (((Billy)))

(((Billy))) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:43:57 +0000

Yunshui: The first museum memory I have is from the age of around three: the T-Rex skull at the Smithsonian.

Grung_e_gene: Welcome to my site. Oddly, both bio teachers spent a great deal of time covering Mendellian genetics — they just carefully avoided any mention as to why there might be different flower colours or other traits. It’s only been in the past few years that I have discovered, as you put it, ‘the concerted effort to stultify the teaching of evolution.’

Sabrina: I’ll bet the teacher deeply regretted pitting reason against myth.

Chris: Considering the incredible number of contradictions in the various versions of the Bible, maybe we rationalists should insist that churches and parochial schools ‘teach the controversy.’

By: Christopher Waldrop

Christopher Waldrop — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:09:13 +0000

It sounds like I had it pretty easy, in spite of growing up in the South. Although I had the occasional teacher who questioned evolution, there was never any attempt to cram the so-called controversy down my throat.
What worries me is that I have a friend who has discarded his intelligent beliefs and become, for lack of a better term, a wacko fundamentalist who believes the Bible (or at least the Book of Genesis) should be taken literally. Sadly I don’t know how to respond to this shift, aside from cutting off contact.

By: sabrina

sabrina — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:34:16 +0000

Yikes. My best memory is freshmen biology, my bio teacher wanted to teach the “controversy” (I live in Va. Beach, the home of Pat Robertson) but wanted us kids to debate it. He asked if anyone believed in creationism and just about everyone raised their hand, I was the only one who raised my hand that I believed (is it still a belief if its true?) in evolution. So, I had to debate this one girl who was a “true believer”, and I stumped her with dinosaurs. She said that Satan tried to trick man but God gave us the answer in the bible. I stopped the debate and told the teacher I can’t argue with the insane. Then she asked if I believed in the bible, and I said no, its made up. The teacher ended the debate at that point. The girl never spoke to me again

By: grung_e_gene

grung_e_gene — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:31:39 +0000

I recently had a conversation (along the lines of your post) with a friend of mine concerning the curriculum and teaching of evolution at our High School 20 years ago in the Chicago-land area. Neither of us could recall more than a brief mention of Mendel’s laws of inheritance and Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle. My school self-censored (or neutered) themselves to stave off ‘controversy’.

It wasn’t until I read Berra’s Evolution and the Myth of Creationism in the early 90’s I realized the concerted effort to stultify the teaching of evolution.

By: yunshui

yunshui — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:32:24 +0000

Wow. That was a real eye-opener of a post, and no mistake.

As a kid, my (Baptist but also evolutionary biologist) father had us round the Natural History Museum in London every chance we got. My biology teachers in school taught evolution as though it were the most natural thing in the world – which of course, it is. I grew up in a culture that knew the theory of evolution best explained the phenomena we saw around us, so it comes as a shock to discover just how badly it’s been abused over there.