/cry

[pylduck]

Testing Darwin's Teachers:

Daniel Read, for instance, considers it his Christian duty to expose his classmates to the truths he finds in the Bible, starting with the six days of creation. It's his way, he said, of counterbalancing the textbook, which devotes three chapters to evolution but just one paragraph to creationism. A soft-spoken teen with shaggy hair and baggy pants, Daniel prepares carefully for his mission in this well-educated, affluent and conservative suburb of 28,000, just outside Kansas City, Mo. He studies DVDs distributed by Answers in Genesis, a "creation evangelism" ministry devoted to training children to question evolution.

In some ways, this kid is like a dream student, right? He's out there, learning stuff, thinking about how to teach things he's learned to other students.... Sigh.

And then there are people like this:

Liberty High School senior Sarah Hopkins was proud of her response when a botany teacher brought up evolution last year: "I asked, 'Have you ever read the Bible? Have you ever gone to church?' "

I think teachers should be allowed to smack students when they do this.

Comments

[kristy-chan.livejournal.com]

I know this is old stuff, but are you for the mixing of evolution/science and creation/faith?

Pedagogy of my nightmares.

[pylduck.livejournal.com]

I'm frankly just totally confused about religion because I wasn't brought up in a religious household. I don't even position myself as an atheist or an agnostic. It's all just a big question mark to me.

What frustrates me is how Christian fundamentalists are so narrow-minded about what is knowledge. Blind science and positivist epistemologies are troubling to me, too, but given the choice, I'd totally take science over literalist Christian doctrine.

As for the classroom, I think science classes should focus exlusively on the scientific method and that particular way of knowing the world. This is not to say that a tiny portion of class time can be devoted to a meta-commentary about how scientific knowing fits with other ways of knowing (including faith-based...).

AUGH!

I'm starting at job at a Catholic university in September. Not sure how that'll be.....