In the “first nationally representative survey of teachers concerning the teaching of evolution,” the authors show that one in eight high school biology teachers present creationism as a scientifically valid alternative to Darwinian evolution. While this number does not reflect public demand–38% of Americans would prefer that creationism to be taught instead of evolution–it does represent a disconnect between legal rulings, scientific consensus, and classroom education.
Via Pharyngula
Ned Raggett
I pretty much figure the next hundred years of gene therapy research is going to make a lot of scientifically ignorant people whimper and/or scream loudly. Me, I’ll laugh.
cleek
Crazy People:
we need to build more asylums
Apsaras
Can we get Alchemy taught alongside Chemistry as another viable alternative? I know I want my kid exposed to all theories.
Equal time for The Emerald Tablet and Hermes Trismegistus!
Jeff
Can we please get a breakdown by state or municipality. I really need to find out where to stay away from when my kids are in high school.
r€nato
What about the FSM theory of ID?
b. hussein canuckistani
Now is the time to call on Psycheout with his attack on heliocentrism, as long as we’re replacing science with – uhh.. whatever it is we’re going to be using. Magic? Superstition? Blinkered philistine pig-ignorance?
Dreggas
A pity that Natural selection doesn’t work faster.
David Hunt
Actually, the insertion of blatantly Christian dogma is just an intermediary step. After they’ve managed that, they’ll replace Jesus with Ronald Reagan. It will take a full generation beyond that before they can just change Ronnie’s name to Big Brother.
Hmmm…I think I laid the hyperbole on a little thick, but I’ll leave it as it is, anyway.
Krista
I have no words…
/goes and bangs head against wall a few dozen times.
sparky
ummmm…natural selection doesn’t have a bias for intelligence, only for reproduction. idiocracy, anyone?
Raenelle
I’d like to know why we don’t have more public opinion polls are things like Planck’s constant, the Uncertainty Principle, quantum mechanics generally. In fact, tell the public that atomic theory is just a theory, and ask them if atoms really exist and if alternative theories should be mentioned. I mean, who’s ever seen an atom, let alone neutrinos, quarks and strings. We need more public input here, that’s what I say.
RSA
Okay, so I don’t know anything about high school or grade school science education, beyond what I remember from my own days in school. But it strikes me that if science is taught well enough (and I don’t even know if this is possible below the college level), it should be obvious to students that there’s a disconnect when God is introduced in biology classes but not in physics, chemistry, and whatever other science classes there are. “I don’t understand how these subatomic particles interact–is God doing it?” “Does God make sure that when you add heat to a gas in a fixed-size container, pressure increases?” If students aren’t asking about why Creationism is presented in science classes, then they don’t understand science.
Zifnab
Hey, one in eight? I honestly like those odds. This gives me a greater respect for our nation’s educational professionals than I once possessed.
Zifnab
Does God Play Dice With The Universe?
We report, you decide.
Julie
To be fair, what does “present creationism as a scientifically valid alternative” actually mean in this context? The article doesn’t really specify. Just about every science teacher I had from junior high on acknowledged that there were religious considerations of the issue in a lot of people’s belief systems and that we should respect that… and then moved right on to teach evolutionary biology, etc. If they are only talking of a tacit (CYA) mention of “Some people believe X and we should respect that…” then I don’t think it’s as big a deal as the “one in eight” would imply otherwise.
Incertus
It’s the “if” that’s such a fucker in that phrase there. Frankly, given the quality of the students who pass through my classes who are education majors, I’m surprised that the percentage is that low. Group for group, the education majors in my classes are the worst students, and have been since I started teaching ten years ago as a grad student.
Punchy
I’d love to see the raw data. I’m guessing that the “average” is very misleading. Specfically, that it’s more like 40-50% of schoolteachers in the deep South, and about 0.1% north of Mason-Dixon. Somehow, that averages to about 12.5%, but if you’re in Minnesota, you’re fine.
Dreggas
I know, but I can dream…
RSA
Yup. To be honest, though, I don’t think I understood science beyond “Here’s a bunch of facts about the world,” and “Here’s a cookbook procedure that we call the scientific method,” until I took a couple of philosophy of science classes in college. Maybe this is an example of a little learning being a dangerous thing in my case, but I don’t think very many people understand what science is about, and that includes working scientists.
Genine
Hear, hear! That, in addition to, Quantum physics would really be cool. In addition to conventional science as well.
Creationism… well, that just crosses a line.
Tom in Texas
Only elitists send their kids to schools in the South. Homeschooled is the way to go. On the plus side, there’s no way on earth the percentage of homeschooled kids learning “God did it. ‘Nuff said” is 1 in 8 right?
Right?
I’m going to go cry now.
Crusty Dem
You know, that’s why I got my PhD in Neuroscience, all the good Phrenology programs dried up years ago.
I honestly can’t describe my horror at hearing this. Of course, I went to catholic high school and had horrible science teachers, but even they weren’t trying to tell me that everything I needed to know about the origin of life is in Genesis. If you have a basic knowledge of science, creationism is just willful ignorance (though the stupidity of the ID people does warm my heart).
Zifnab
Well, that’s the joke. There’s not much Creationism to teach. God made stuff. The end. Now open your text books to page 347 so we discuss the human scrotum. What exactly are they planning on teaching beyond that?
Unless a teacher wants to really dive off the deep end and start lecturing on biblical explanations of spontaneous genesis or the biological mechanics of divine intervention, there’s really no more to say on the subject. It would be like if I began a Physics class with “Gravity may not function in all instances and your priest has an alternate explanation for internal combustion” at the start of a course on Dynamic Solids. Other than raising a great deal of confusion questions about when we should be ready for one of Newton’s Laws to stop working, the disclaimer doesn’t do a damn thing to the curriculum.
sparky
hmmm..perhaps they’ll need to teach the HRC “new math” first, so ID can be uh clearly understood.
Grumpy Code Monkey
In another forum I frequent someone posted a pdf of a brochure pushing geocentrism. It’s like a significant chunk of the country suddenly decided that the Enlightenment was a really bad idea, and that life really was better in the Dark Ages when everything was part of God’s plan and you just didn’t question it. Kid dies of a respiratory infection? God’s plan. Hoof and mouth disease takes out the herd, leaving you destitute? God’s plan. Cancer? God’s plan. Lord of the manor taxes you into oblivion and sends your kids off to be killed in some stupid war? God’s plan.
Which, okay, fine, but in exchange you should have to give up running water, medicine, central air and heat, electricity, the Internet, gossip mags, and agree to live as a 13th century serf.
wvng
My wife teaches science in WV classrooms, and hasn’t had any problems. But she approaches it carefully, starting with the familiar (selection of favorable traits in agriculture) mutating diseases, and takes it from there. She hasn’t had any major problems . . . yet.
On a related stupidity topic, John, have you any sense for how the media in WV has treated the primary results. I saw Don Surber’s piece in the Daily Mail, and he was saying any criticism or statement of objective fact (like saying kids bring the Obama rumors to school) was a smear.
scarshapedstar
Time to order a new passport.
grandpajohn
As A retired science teacher I am in agreement with Julie. I really doubt that 1 in 8 are actively teaching creationism as a valid alternate.I expect that most of them are tossing out a mild reference as she stated just so the can cover their asses with the administration and the school board. And I frankly doubt that the numbers are significantly higher in the south than elsewhere. most of the Biology teachers I had dealings with were just as professional and ethical ,if not more so, than the posters here on this board
jt
I dunno — something doesn’t add up here. I strongly suspect that while there are a few old fashioned fundamentalists out there who seriously want the Bible to be the only sanctioned textbook in science class, the majority of people actually want their kids to learn science, but feel deep down that admitting as much to a pollster makes baby Jesus cry. When they go into a polling booth by themselves, however, more and more the bible-thumpers on the school boards are getting thrown out.
gypsy howell
I’m not as worried about the 1-in-8 high school science teachers as I am about the 38%. I thought we had established the “Keyes Baseline Crazification Factor” in the US at 27%.
Where did this other 11% come from?
HyperIon
Before I fled “the Academy” I witnessed a presentation by a fellow chemist interested in science education. This was at a very average undergrad state school that had a big ed program due to its “teacher’s college” origins. The average science grades the elementary ed majors was C- (1.6 on a 4 point scale) AND those majors were taking the most basic college science offered, e.g., the chemistry dept’s general ed course. This to me explains a lot about pre-college science education. If the teachers are uncomfortable with the subject, guess how the kids will feel about it.
If teaching were a valued activity, maybe more people with a legit science background would be in the classroom
Punchy
Now that’s fuckin funny shit.
gex
Never forget the most important aspect of serfdom – these people should no longer vote. Let your betters who are blessed by God be the “deciders”.
les
Sweet. The…architect’s rant, or some such?
Stimpy
Remember: You try not to pray in my classroom and I’ll try not to think in your church.
I am an atheist, though I try to keep my militancy to a minimum out of respect for my family who go to church but have a pretty liberal theology.
The scariest thing I have seen recently was a “science fair” at my wife’s church (Lutheran Missouri Synod). Row upon row of creationist displays. Adam + Eve and their pet dino, lie after standard lie. It was funny, but also sad. I understand Dawkins when he compares childhood religious indoctrination with child abuse.
jrg
All these kids need to know is that spatulas are intelligently designed to fit frozen hamburger patties, and God punishes those who stick their hand in the fryer. Why confuse these rural kids with the “scientific method”? It’s not like you need it to make change for a twenty.
Seriously, though… Why bother even sending kids to a school where “God did it” is a credible scientific theory? Wouldn’t it be more honest for these communities to stop sending their kids to school altogether?
When will these people start claiming that the “coastal elites” are the reason their communities are hemorrhaging jobs? F*ckig morons.
Cain
We are in deep trouble.
cain
w vincentz
My son is a Phd in genetics. His latest research concerning “twist” genes will be published next month in the Journal of Developmental Biology. The implications are finding the triggers that cause several cardio defects, as well as various cancers.
Luckily, I never taught him about “creationism”, nor the Tooth Fairy, nor any other bullshit.
It certainly doesn’t belong in the curricula of our schools.
Does anyone else wonder why the USA ranks so poorly compared to other countries? Of course, disregarding the restrictions on developing new cell lines from embryonic stem cells and the decrease in funding from the NIH due to the costs of “wars”.
Keep mythology out of scientific inquiry! It has no place.
Scott H
Considering that there is a McChristian school on every other street corner I wouldn’t be surprised if the 1 in 8 teachers is right: hires are going to teach people’s kids what the hires are paid to teach – more hands on the deep-fryers, I say.
As for the 38% people figure: 25% of any population has an IQ of 90 or below (Go Team Bush!), plus McDoodle recruiters who have to make sure deep-fryers are never wanting manned.
Conservatively Liberal
Living in a small retirement community on the south Oregon coast, we have a lot of bible thumpers all around. Our daughter found her own way to deflect questions about her religious beliefs. Far too many people around here like to ask questions like that, and our daughter is about as non-religious as it gets.
A couple of weeks ago, a guy approached her at her work, handed her a pamphlet and asked her about her beliefs. Without hesitation, she told him that she is a Pastafarian. She said he gave her a funny look and walked off. She sees him at her job, and every time she looks over at him he refuses to look back.
The FSM strikes fear into the unbelievers.
Krista
That absolutely blows my mind that they would even give it that much credence.
Where I went to school, science was science, and religion was for church, Sunday School and home. Full stop. That makes me feel ill that science teachers are feeling obligated to deviate from established science curricula in order to appease a bunch of ignorant people who have their heads in the sand.
Don’t give them a damn inch, I say. These are people who have shown time and time again that they have absolutely no respect for other people’s belief systems — so why are you tiptoeing around theirs?
Julie
Well, keep in mind that I went to school primarily in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s. So we’re not necessarily just talking about Christianity, we’re talking about about an attempt at broad inclusion (religious, cultural, etc.) and making every student feel ‘valued.’ I don’t know that it worked, but it was present in every subject, not just science.
For a more recent example… My brother is a PhD in molecular genetics. He researches and teaches evolutionary biology at the university level, and happens to teach at a school in the midwest. The majority of his students are from rural communities and fairly conservative/religious. He’s found that the best way to engage them constructively is to acknowledge what they’ve been taught and encourage them to look beyond it, rather than challenging it head-on in an aggressive way. Otherwise, a lot of these kids (and we should keep in mind that they are kids) just shut down. I totally acknowleged that in a perfect world that wouldn’t be necessary, but that hasn’t been his experience so far.
Jon H
Is that 1 in 8 *public* schools?
If it’s 1 in 8 high schools, public and private, then I could easily believe that – all the southern Christian schools would skew the numbers.
grumpy realist
My feeling is that if these bastards are going to argue for creationism to be taught we should insist on “equal time” for a) it’s turtles all the way down, b) Scientology, c) Ancient Astronauts, and d) Holocaust denialists. Oh, and whatever the Christian Scientists believe that makes them not take their kids to doctors even though the poor rugrat has a fever of 104 F.
Xenos
This does not even go into all the home-schooled.
It was a pretty big deal a couple years ago when the U. California Board of Regents refused to accept the high school diplomas from certain Christian high schools, due to the science curriculum being unacceptable. Be nice to see more of that.
Pelikan
Yes! Thank you! That’s what that was from..
“I’ve got a second hand apron..”
TenguPhule
An invasion from Canada can’t come too soon.