Scopes Weeps: Evolution Still Struggling in Public Schools
Posted: January 29, 2011.
Print: Wired
excerpt:
There are three popular strategies for evading controversy in the biology classroom, Berkman and Plutzer say. Some teachers focus on evolution at the molecular level, ignoring the idea that whole species of animals can evolve.
Some hide behind rigid state science tests, telling students “it does not matter if they actually ‘believe’ in evolution, so long as they know it for the test,” Berkman and Plutzer wrote.
Others present both sides and let students decide for themselves. This strategy respects high schoolers’ critical reasoning skills, but undervalues the scientific method.
“These teachers fail to explain the nature of scientific inquiry, undermine the authority of established experts, and legitimize creationist arguments, even if unintentionally,” Berkman and Plutzer wrote.
“While vocal advocates of intelligent design and similar non-scientific alternatives to evolution are a minority, more than half the teachers in a nationwide poll avoided taking a strong stance for evolution. Such teachers “may play a far more important role in hindering scientific literacy in the United States than the smaller number of explicit creationists,”
The Moderate Effect illustrated. I’m going to use this example the next time someone tells me most Christians aren’t fundamentalists and should be exempted from atheist criticism.
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