Quote :

"Whatever happened to the days where you nip this in the bud the first day of class either with a speech or your syllabi?"

that is exactly what most science teachers i know do. (myself included... i've never had a major issue with it.)

Quote :

"I see your point, but it's supposedly a biology class, not a sociology class. but i guess it's worth addressing the "controversy", so as not to offend the creationists."

well not exactly the reason i bring it up... it's a teachable moment. a way to show the differences between science and other ways of "knowing" or "learning" things...

Quote :

"Instead of doing the smart thing, which would be to acknowledge there are different theories and teach some of both"

which is exactly when we learn that a scientific "theory" is not the same as the colloquial "theory" that a lot of people think is the same. Creationism isn't a scientific theory... it hasn't gone through the process of science (scientific method, inquiry, etc) and therefore is not a theory. (and that's when i acknowledge that students can choose to believe whatever they want, but we are here to learn science.

8/13/2013 11:30:34 AM

please don't ever tell your students that it is controversial

one way to discredit things is to create the appearance of controversy, the appearance of disagreement. people overestimate the amount of disagreement that there is because they have been very purposefully told that it is controversial. If you want to descredit something you don't need to show that it is wrong, all you have to do is make people think that there is a debate about it that doesn't really exist. as soon as people accept that there is a debate, then the debate about it becomes real.

this is true about creation, global climate change, fracking, etc...

so please don't ever tell your students that it is controversial. if anything say that some religions have other ways of explaining things, and just leave it at that. because this is not a controversial topic, the only debates are about things way over the head of a high school student. at the high school level of discussion, this is not a controversy.

8/13/2013 11:41:44 AM

Would it be any better if vouchers went to secular private schools? No, people still wouldn't support it. They would say conservatives are trying to privatize public education.

I'm neither for nor against vouchers. Actually I see it turning into another entitlement.

8/13/2013 11:49:30 AM

Quote :

" if anything say that some religions have other ways of explaining things, and just leave it at that. "

pretty much exactly how it is approached.

8/13/2013 11:52:35 AM

Quote :

"They would say conservatives are trying to privatize public education."

and how would "they" be wrong?

seeing as how that's exactly what's going on

8/13/2013 12:18:46 PM