Re: Student perceptions re evolution

From: Sarah Berel-Harrop (sec@hal-pc.org)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 18:52:37 EDT

  • Next message: Alexanian, Moorad: "RE: Student perceptions re evolution"

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "John W Burgeson" <jwburgeson@juno.com>
    To: <hvantill@chartermi.net>
    Cc: <ASA@calvin.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 5:02 PM
    Subject: Re: Student perceptions re evolution

    > Howard asked: "So, for list discussion, what do you make of this poll
    > result? "

    Howard, does this gentleman ask the biology majors
    as well? What do the majors say?

    >
    > What it says to me is that the ASA and like organizations have failed
    > miserably in getting the ideas of faith/science across to our children
    > and that ICR, AIG and the like are winning the race going away.

    I am not sure this is the obvious conclusion. The
    results do not necissarily reflect an antipathy toward
    evolution, but rather an ignorance of prevailing trends
    in biology.

    Is this surprising? I don't know about all states,
    but I am in Texas and I have grown up here. I
    took freshman biology, where evolution was not
    covered (but my teacher assured us that it was
    *not* true that evolution promotes racism. She
    was dissatisfied with several aspects of our textbooks.
    I will never forget the day she drew the male
    sexual organs on the board because the textbook
    diagram was insufficient. She really didn't care
    about how she wasn't supposed to teach. She
    cared that what she taught was correct) and
    AP biology, where it was. In Texas, then, and
    I think now as well, you only need 2 years of
    science. You can concievably not even take
    biology. In that context, it is not surprising
    that non-majors, who may not have even taken
    the subject, would know very little about any
    aspect of biology.

    It would be interesting as a control to ask the
    same question about other key concepts in
    biology. I don't think of one offhand. But
    you get the idea, is it lack of exposure to
    biology or what? What is really going on?

    > If anyone has a solution to the problem, speak up. Please.

    Here is a review of "Pandas and People" that someone
    sent me today. The author here sees a role for
    evangelicals. It is long and I have not completed it.
    The short story is that he sees a polarized minority,
    a few people speaking up, and a great many who
    either don't know what to do or don't realize the
    significance of anti-evolutionism. He specifically
    critiques ID, as Pandas is an ID supplemental biology
    text.

    http://www.nabt.org/sub/evolution/panda1.asp

    Additionally, and I apologize in advance if this
    breaks the list protocol in any way, tomorrow
    is the deadline to submit written comments to
    the Texas State Board of Education on the
    biology textbooks or to sign up to speak at the
    meeting on 09/10/03. There was an earlier
    meeting in July and Discovery Institute participated.

    Predictably, DI did not critique AP texts, however
    they "graded" the basic texts for their coverage
    of evolution using an "Icons of Evolution" -type
    rubric.

    Contact me off the list if you want more info
    about this.

    >
    > John Burgeson (Burgy)
    >
    > www.burgy.50megs.com
    >
    >
    > ________________________________________________________________
    > The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
    > Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
    > Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

    ---
    Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
    Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
    Version: 6.0.505 / Virus Database: 302 - Release Date: 07/30/2003
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Aug 20 2003 - 18:57:25 EDT