Should Evolution be Taught in High School?? Pageant contestant answers...

[liveonearth]

This video is a composite of answers to this question by candidates for the Miss USA Crown. The vast majority don't believe in evolution, but most seem to think that both evolution and creationism should be taught in school. The California girl that got the crown is a science nerd! Yeay!! Miss Kentucky (~5:30ish) represents the south painfully well.

Comments

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Time to turn on the lights! Everything about anatomy and physiology is the way it is because of evolution. EVERYTHING. Biology and evolution are inseparable, IF you are to go beyond memorization of factoids and come to understand why and how things got that way, what they are doing now, and what they are likely to do and be in the future given the changing environmental pressures on them..... You can teach a biology class without directly addressing evolution, but even if you never once say the word it is staring you in the face. It is unavoidable in the sense that gravity is unavoidable. To avoid gravity you must avoid large masses. To avoid evolution you must avoid life. Biology is the study of life.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

I think that there is a confusion between how biology is taught *now*, with the complete inseparability of evolution, based at least in part on the desire of the "educated" to rub the noses of the religious in it, and how biology *must* be taught. The thing is here, we're not talking about your medical degree, we're talking about 9th grade biology, a course that exists as a very basic intro course to the concepts underlying biology. Yes, one of those concepts is evolution, and if they are to study biology over geological epochs evolution would be unaviodable. But there isn't a compelling reason to do that in a mandatory course. The course could just as well spend it's time introducing the other concepts such as what osmotic pressures *are*, how bone structures differ between humans and avians, the various systems common to all animals and their functions, etcetera.

Alternatively, making it an elective course would solve the issue.

I should note here that A) I am an athiest, B) I really enjoy evolutionary biology. I am not defending *my* beliefs here, I am defending the right of others to their beliefs.


Here's my main issue, I don't want the school system to be a "re-education camp". I don't want the primary responsibility of raising children transferred to the state. This particular issue, evolution, is a lightning-rod on parents rights, the *right* of parents to teach their children as they see fit, and that is more important than whether 9-th graders get a good complete understanding of biology. Much more. What exactly is *lost* in making the class elective? As compared to the loss that is guaranteed in having parents lose control of the teaching of beliefs to their children?

The ends do not justify the means.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Are you saying not that not only do we not need to teach evolution, we don't need to teach biology? Really, back the the RRR's and let students sort out the rest? I'm contemplating this idea.

As for an evolution elective, I think it's a great idea. So far as I know evolution has just been one chapter in a standard overview biology text, along with cell biology/histology, population biology/genetics, ecology, a grand overview of animal and plant kingdoms, and so on. Evolution has and should be immersed in, not singled out from biology. Up to now it has been accepted as a part of a standard biology curriculum. Simply part of the language of biology. To remove it now because disinformation and ignorance are rampant in our culture is to downgrade the value of education. Better to cause riots than to allow education to become worthless. People who understand that bird bones are lighter the dog bones but not why are missing out.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Whose children are they? Are they yours? Why do you get to make the decision on what they get taught(over the objections of their parents and themselves)? Do you have to have the arguments with them when you are trying to teach them moral behavior and they keep insisting that because the school says one thing and you say another that your word is meaningless? Do you have to drag them kicking and screaming to community functions because they reject your religion because their school said that humans evolved? What gives you the right to make these decisions not just for your own children, but for mine as well? Whose responsibility is it to raise your children?

You *do* realize that if you surrender to the state the power to teach a specified subject over the objections of the parents, that that *absolutely will* one day be used for something you *don't* agree with? It may be that christians will take the majority of the elected positions, and they will *insist* that all public schools *must* teach creationism to all students. Don't laugh, these things happen, and they always happen based on what has been mandated in the past. Say "it's better to have riots than remain ignorant" now and you open the door for all future people with *any* agenda to push. How sure are you that evolution is worth it?

Yes, I am suggesting that biology could be clipped from the "core curriculum". I am saying that it's better to permit the ignorant to remain ignorant than to trample parents rights, degrade the overall culture, and create yet another division in this country to no particular gain. I am saying that if biology were made an elective course (and taught with evolution as integral) that the problem would be irrelovent.


Now, you also realize that you've contradicted yourself. You said before that evolution is inseparable, but here you said that it is a mere chapter in the course. If it's a mere chapter, then it could easily be dropped from the *core* course (the mandatory one) without significant damage to the knowledge imparted, if it's integral, inseparable part then in order to not teach evolution the only possible way would be to not teach biology. Care to clear up the confusion?


As I said, I love evolutionary biology, it does make a lot of things make much more sense, but necessary? That's questionable at best.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

You remind me so much of someone I hold dear. There is no need to carry on this discussion any further. You win. =-]

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

You know another abrasive, paranoid, hyper-logical know-it-all? Cool, I was worried that I might be the only one!

I do like that you can have these discussions and not take offense.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Funny you should describe yourself that way. My sweetie might get offended. =-] It's all cool, my friend. I appreciate that you are willing to take a position and defend it. Far better than all the wishywashiness out there.