When I was in high school (3 yrs ago) we never had any type of explanation of evolution in my science classes. All the stuff I know on evolution, I have learned myself from books, I had to do it all by myself. Is this a common problem in america? I know we are a dumb nation, and this is probably a big part of it. Also, I went to hs in texas, don't know if it differs per region or not.
2007-09-07 01:40:24 · 10 answers · asked by Coma White 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
I think novangelis is too optimistic. This sort of thing has been going on for years; generally the universities take as many paying customers as they can and figure the instructors can do remediation to bring the kids up to speed. The more prosperous unis can afford to be choosier, but the rest take what they can. It's a problem, as you can see by the answers above. Still, remember it was only a few hundred years ago that was 'common knowledge' that the Earth was the center of the Universe because to think otherwise went against religious principles. We can hope that eventually reason will win out against unthinking dogma, even though history doesn't give us too many grounds for optimism in the short run.
2007-09-07 02:42:09 · answer #1 · answered by John R 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Thank you for pointing that out John R - it was the arrogant christian zealots that insisted we were the center of the universe, that all heavenly bodies were perfect, smooth, spheres, that the planets orbited in concentric circles - etc. To argue otherwise was heresy, punishable by death, or home imprisonment like Galileo when he proved all that to be a load of crap.
Eventually the evidence was overwhelming - though I'm sure there are still people out there saying - telescopes are just inventions of the devil, meant to entice children over to the dark side. The things they see are actually just tiny images embedded in the telescope - not the REAL moon!!
Regardless - they taught evolution in my HS in baby bio even, and that, for me.. was oohhh...12 years ago? I can't say for sure what they're teaching now - it wasn't really that in depth back then. Basically a little blurb on hypotheses of the origin of life, followed by a snippet on natural selection in order to explain why giraffes have long necks, or elephants have a long proboscis, etc.
The problem is there are plenty of fundies out there screaming to have ID taught alongside evolution as a scientific theory, which is just nonsense..
2007-09-07 03:14:50 · answer #2 · answered by nixity 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Every attempt at getting evolution out of schools through legislation has failed ... the courts have correctly struck these down as being spurred by religious motives, and therefore a violation of the First Amendment.
The tactic then turned to getting "alternatives" to evolution (like 'creation science' or 'intelligent design') taught *in addition* to it. Again, these efforts have all failed, for the same reasons ... they were all easily shown to be religiously motivated.
However, in many states (like TX) where many teachers are creationists, if a classroom has a creationist teacher, and a principle willing to look the other way, it's easy to just "forget" to cover evolution. And sometimes even if a teacher supports evolution, they just intimidated ... after a few years of getting angry reactions from religious parents, or even indignant students, some teachers will just gloss over it. Or some teachers will slip in little comments like "today we're covering evolution because it's a requirement ... but you can ignore it if you want ... it's not that important." Or even, "this topic of evolution is controversial" ... which it is NOT ... not among scientists. All of these statements undermine the teaching of the topic in ways unimagined for, say cell theory, or the atomic theory of matter, or the germ theory of disease. It doesn't teach anything ... it just leaves students confused.
All of this is a result of religious campaigning by creationists ... such as idiots like trashcan042001, who call you f a g g o t if you mention evolution (although I notice now that his post has been deleted) ... some teachers just don't want to deal with the abuse from these "Christians."
The fact is that evolution is one of the backbone theories of biology ... as important as cell theory ... and just as well established in the science community. To avoid it because of pressure from religious conservatives in this country is a crime ... literally a crime.
And it has consequences beyond just evolution and Biology. For example in TX, a textbook on environmental science had to be changed by the publisher because of pressure from religious conservatives. Why? Because in a discussion of global warming, the book talked about evidence of climate change "millions of years ago" ... and this had to be changed to "in the distant past". How can we have an honest discussion of the scientific evidence for and against global warming, if this all has to be consistent with the ridiculous notion that the earth is only 6,000 years old?!
Creationists are successfully destroying science education in many states.
2007-09-07 03:25:07 · answer #3 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
specific evolution is taught in colleges recently, yet they do no longer answer various questions because of the fact they have not got the solutions because of the fact evolution is bull crap. And no i do no longer have faith it got here approximately and that i do no longer think of they must tutor it. in the event that they are gonna tutor the assumption of evolution so human beings could make up their very own minds, then in addition they ought to furnish the assumption of creation. There are way too many flaws in evolution for it to examine as actuality, so as that they must tutor all the different theories besides. in any different case they shouldn't tutor any of them. the different day in biology, and specific, it particularly is college biology, we've been getting to grasp approximately evolution and that i asked my instructor a query and she or he could no longer answer it because of the fact the stuff she replaced into telling us replaced into crap. She purely kinda blew off my question and moved on. So until those instructors learn each and all the info or settle directly to tutor it as a improper thought, it is going to no longer study. by the way, i stay in GA and that they tutor it, so, specific, southern colleges tutor it too.
2016-10-04 03:39:05 · answer #4 · answered by teresa 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most schools are. As high schools begin to avoid controversy by skipping the biggest critical reasoning portion of biology, you may see universities declare their graduates ineligible for admission.
2007-09-07 02:20:55 · answer #5 · answered by novangelis 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
I know they do here in montana but most parents teach their children that evolution is an idea a dumb one but an idea at best.
2007-09-07 01:49:48 · answer #6 · answered by shreck 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes. It's part of the AP Biology curriculum.
2007-09-07 06:57:21 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nah, they don't really explain it very well, just sort of relay it superficially in narrative form. I'm in Ny
Ofcourse I certainly don't think it is the most critical bit of science, but yes it should be taught.
2007-09-07 01:58:38 · answer #8 · answered by Perceiver 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes, most public schools these days are teaching evolution.
But just because lots of people think that evolution is true, doesn't make it true. Remember, a few hundred years ago, it was 'common knowledge' that the earth was the center of the universe...
2007-09-07 02:12:47 · answer #9 · answered by josh 2 · 0⤊ 7⤋
wow
2007-09-07 01:58:38 · answer #10 · answered by (!)listen 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋