tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post5967207049759836095..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Created or Evolved? The Teachers DecideLarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-38127228259771139952011-06-03T20:05:22.442+01:002011-06-03T20:05:22.442+01:00I generally agree with what you've said about ...I generally agree with what you've said about how to respond to questions students might raise.<br /><br />My point is that, as far as I can tell from the outside, much of high school bioloyg consists of memorizing a textbook without the students actually understanding or appreciating what they're memorizing.<br /><br />If students were allowed to actually weigh the facts and arguments on competing sides of a debate, they would learn how to think about scientific ideas.Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-74290482596127777262011-06-03T19:08:25.897+01:002011-06-03T19:08:25.897+01:00That's a good question. As a high school teac...That's a good question. As a high school teacher of literature, I get this all the time when I teach my Shakespeare course. Some bright student will say, "I've heard that William Shakespeare didn't really write the plays." (They'll start asserting this in droves after the film Anonymous screens later this year).<br /><br />My response is to point them in the direction of some sources, encourage them to study it if they wish, even give an extra-credit assignment depending on their interests. I'm also willing to discuss the issues with them in my off-time. I try to be supportive of their curiosity.<br /><br />But Shakespeare class is mostly about reading the plays, and I don't have any time to spare if I want them to get 4 or 5 good plays under their belts in my short time with them.<br /><br />I think the same goes for your hypoethtical student. I think, depending on your comfort-level as a teacher, you can encourage a little curiousity, point them to some sources. It would also be important for students, in understanding how science works through a process of experimentation, publication, peer-review, and replication, to understand that creationism doesn't fit into that methodological paradigm. I think that point could be emphasized to your student in order to justify why you aren't going to spend 3 weeks reading Darwin and Behe and debating a "controversy" that isn't really a controversy in the scientific community.<br /><br />You don't have to quash curiosity in order to explain briefly that creationism isn't science, and that the purpose of the biology classroom is to teach science.<br /><br />Let me ask you a question: You're teaching a class on American History, and a kid says, "I've been reading from my Neo-Nazi sources that the Holocaust never happened. How can you prove it did."<br /><br />Is it your responsibility to take 3eeks out to teach kids historiography and to track down all the alternative sources in order to "teach the controversy?" Or is it more important to spend a day talking about credible sources, and then move on so that kids can learn something about WWII and the rest of the 20th century?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-73256308916340833762011-06-03T18:55:30.603+01:002011-06-03T18:55:30.603+01:00Let's say that a student in a high school biol...Let's say that a student in a high school biology class raises his hand. He says, "I've been reading some books and articles by a molecular biologist at Lehigh University--Michael Behe. He surveys a lot of biological science that he says cannot be explained by evolutionary theory. He sounds pretty persuasive to me. I've been looking over our textbook, and I don't see anywhere any clear answers to the points he makes. What about this?"<br /><br />What should the teacher say in response to this?Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-52088975428160810972011-06-03T18:46:01.671+01:002011-06-03T18:46:01.671+01:00I think a few excerpts from Darwin wouldn't hu...I think a few excerpts from Darwin wouldn't hurt anyone, as he co-discovered natural selection. Certainly I would hope that kids would get far more than Darwin in a unit about evolution. Our advances in evolutionary biology over the last 150 years count for a lot.<br /><br />But Biology is not History of Biology 101. It's much more important for kids to know the facts and principles of science and (even more importantly) the methods of thinking scientifically than to understand the history of science.<br /><br />Science, unlike political theory, is not so interested, qua science, in the history of its mistakes.<br /><br />A science classroom should teach science, not history or philosophy or theology.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-1807490055632084492011-06-03T18:41:52.380+01:002011-06-03T18:41:52.380+01:00So would you prohibit biology teachers from allowi...So would you prohibit biology teachers from allowing their students to read Darwin?Larry Arnharthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-53572390410977519732011-06-03T17:58:59.242+01:002011-06-03T17:58:59.242+01:00It's a little disingenuous to argue for "...It's a little disingenuous to argue for "teaching the controversy" when you know full-well that there is no controversy in the scientific community.<br /><br />High school biology classrooms are a place to teach science. Science does not view evolution vs. creation as a controversy. Teachers in American should spend their too-little time showing students the facts of biology, the principles (including evolution), and the methods of thinking scientifically.<br /><br />Your proposition to "teach the controversy" would be better for a philosophy or comparative religion class. Presuming that the teacher were competent (which is a big presumption), the larger societal conflict over evolution and creation could be studied historically and philosophically in that sort of classroom.<br /><br />The public may desire what they perceive to be a teaching of the controversy, true. But first, that's an argument ad populum. Secondly, the American public isn't scientifically literate enough to understand the stakes. And third, again, there are more appropriate venues than the biology classroom.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com