I wonder if having an intellectually curious president who accepts the evidence of science will help to reverse this kind of crap.
Some students burst into tears when a high school biology [teacher] told them they’d be studying evolution. Another teacher said some students repeatedly screamed “no” when he began talking about it.
Other teachers said students demanded to know whether they pray and questioned why the had to learn about evolution if it was just a theory.
“I’ve seen churches train students to come to school with specific questions to ask to sabotage my lessons,” said Bonnie Pratt, a biology teacher at Northview High in north Fulton County. “We need parents and the community to understand why and how we teach evolution.”
Probably not.
But at least it will be wonderful not having the leaders of the federal government trying to write “intelligent” design into public policy.
I had the opposite happen in High School. The teacher was the one all stressed out and apologetic about teaching evolution. I remember asking my Mom what the deal was – she wanted to pull me out of that class – but the other biology teacher was a coach that allowed kids to walk on the tables.
We also asked Father Eric what the deal was he rolled his eyes and told us to ignore the teacher’s hysterics and learn the science.
A couple of time I’ve had kids try to spout off religious information in science class. My standard response was “that is a subject for you to discuss with your parents and leaders of your house of worship. You will need to know the science I’m teaching to function as a truly educated person in our society.”
I’ve only had one student push after that point. I wrote him up for “constantly disrupting science discussions with non-scientific information interrupting the learning of other students.” My principal told the parents that he could stop or face a suspension and ticket for disrupting class. The principal added that this was the first time I had written up a student in 2 years. The student made grunting noises and rolled his eyes for the remainder of the unit – but he passed the unit exam.
BTW – I’m just south of the Bible Belt in Texas.
My family moved a lot when I was younger and I ended up in Alabama for high school. In biology kids would just laugh when the teacher said the word evolution. I’d get questions like “You don’t really think your some kind of monkey do you?” That type of thing.
We certainly don’t need any presidential help keeping ignorance and crazy ideas alive in America.
That should be “you’re” rather than “your.” It’s early. :)