This is Jeremy Smith's blog about life in Tennessee, local science and other topics of interest. Is not endorsed by and does not, of course, represent the opinion of UT, ORNL or any other official entity.
The article in the Knoxville Magazine makes it look like this issue involves reasonable individuals that are respectful of others' point of view. Unfortunately this is not often the case. Those who oppose teaching evolution can be pretty aggressive personally and are very aggressive socially and politically. In addition, evolution, while being in principle part of the high school curriculum, may not be taught at all actually. A UT colleague reported last week that in her freshman biology class this year, a student who took biology Advanced Placement in High School did not study evolution at all since it was not the "Christian way", and could still get advanced placement credit. Another UT colleague gives his freshman biology class a quiz that asks, among other things, the students to give their view/opinions on the origin of life. Every year he gets about one third (!!!!) of the students answering with a evolution-less "creation" and a "young-earth hypothesis". We're talking about the freshman student population of a major research-oriented US University. Think about what it is likely to be in high school.
The article in the Knoxville Magazine makes it look like this issue involves reasonable individuals that are respectful of others' point of view. Unfortunately this is not often the case. Those who oppose teaching evolution can be pretty aggressive personally and are very aggressive socially and politically. In addition, evolution, while being in principle part of the high school curriculum, may not be taught at all actually. A UT colleague reported last week that in her freshman biology class this year, a student who took biology Advanced Placement in High School did not study evolution at all since it was not the "Christian way", and could still get advanced placement credit. Another UT colleague gives his freshman biology class a quiz that asks, among other things, the students to give their view/opinions on the origin of life. Every year he gets about one third (!!!!) of the students answering with a evolution-less "creation" and a "young-earth hypothesis". We're talking about the freshman student population of a major research-oriented US University. Think about what it is likely to be in high school.
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