I got this from my daughter's online school. Score one for science.
And this is a school run by evil Pearson who controls all the textbooks, so that's a bit of a comfort even as America's educational standards slip down the tubes.
Love their phrasing. Really makes it difficult for anyone to object without sounding like a complete asshole.
And it's just a little bit passive-aggressive, which I appreciate.
It's well written message. What they did there was to not be an asshole in the first place. Respect pays off.
Yeah it's not a point for science if the science teacher has to apologize for teaching science
Hell, when I was in Catholic high school, there was a world religions class, and we learned all sorts of stuff about all sorts of religions, without any snark or derision or sense of superiority. I still remember that there's an eightfold path to union with Buddha, though I don't remember any of the steps on that path.
I was even the "resident non-believer" in class discussions, and I only felt a little twinge of weirdness from other students (but not the teacher). I was already an outsider so I didn't care. I suppose Catholic school isn't as bad as generic Christian (read: evangelical) school.
Extremely case by case
Yup, I also went through Catholic grade school and received my first F in anything in the third grade. It was because I had a grievance with the way my ancient nun of a teacher explained heaven. I kept asking her about how the other ideas of heaven (nirvana/valhalla/ whatever else I had heard of be age 8) couldn't all be the same place just viewed through other languages/cultures. She ended up slapping me and giving me a failing grade in religion.
I have continued to fail at religion as a lifelong practice. She helped cement some contrarianism in me to the point where I actually read the whole bible by 6th grade so as to be better prepared for debates.
Yeah. My grandmother sent my father to a Catholic school in part for the cult indoctrination... at least she has enough sense to be appalled about that specific school being one of the Catholic facilities involved in their child rape scandals at the time he was attending.
Christian school kid here. It was so cringey.
"OK kids, let's all have a giggle about how silly all the kids at public schools are because they think their ancestors were monkeys. We know the truth is that magical rainbow sky fairies created us and if we all believe this hard enough the sky faires will make sure nothing bad happens to anyone we care about but fuck those other cunts."
In civilized countries there's no need for all the pussyfooting about "cultural and religious beliefs" and reassuring sky-fairly-believers that the Theory Of Evolution module is merelly "introducing what the scientific standpoint is".
Merely that such an intro was needed is itself an indication of how fast the US is regressing away from XXI century Developed Nation.
Nice try. Romanes eunt domus!
Romans are not buildings?!
The bar is so fucking low.
'Last Thursdayism' is the key to ending the squabble on evolution vs creation.
Sure, Earth is a thousand years old or some shit; but you see, god is super sneaky, and made billions+ year long backstory for his fresh creation, so on day 1 the earth has topsoil, fossils, oil, critters in all stages of life including old cranky ones that still remember their childhood (which never took place, you see - that was pre-existence, but to the individual critter, pre and post creation of everything are indistinguishable.
Boom. Evolution is now compatible with creationism, we can stop bashing heads over that one now.
god is super sneaky, and made billions+ year long backstory for his fresh creation,
Now I can't get this mental image of God sitting there with a typewriter writing incredibly detailed Earth fanfics long before he actually made anything.
Not the Christian God, he just filled out a DND character sheet. Under the character info he wrote "Looks old as fuck, but is actually really young". And then in a different color pencil, kind of squeezed in sideways along the edge with an arrow that points back to the original sentence in a second line, "Full of random shit that could only be there if actually super super old!"
He will then use that sentence to explain away why he always seems to "know" something that could only be known if he was truly ancient.
Edit: Chatgpt was actually able to make an image I asked for without telling me it violated its rules, and at the same time looking something like what I asked for, what a miracle...
It would be easier just to set the rules and let everything play out. It's a shame he wasn't smart enough to think of that one.
we understand this is a very sensitive topic
Ya wot m8?
In the American Dystopia factual things are upsetting to some people on the basis of conflicting with their preferred fictions. They are, unfortunately, numerous enough that the sane people here don't always have the time or energy to argue with those who actively refuse to see reason.
They could snark it up a bit by adding a disclaimer that some of the geology evidence will require teaching the earth is globe-shaped.
It's only a sensitive topic if you're on that gamma bronze age peasant whineset
Raised in a religious community, the closest we got in our high school was Earth Science and Biology (this one was taught by a christian fellow, too). I wasn't exposed to Evolutionary discussion until college.
I had an anti-science argument with my counselor and tried to opt out of Earth Science in my first year. She said "you just have to take it". I was at that stage where I was afraid to challenge my beliefs.
Within the next 4 years, I was agnostic. During college, and through an anthropology class, it was clear I was ill-informed.
At this point, I also wouldn't consider my self "atheist", because the community around it (on Reddit) became it's own sort of religion that spent their days bashing on (primarily) christians. Religion, to me, is no more than parables that teach good morals.
Religion, to me, is no more than parables that teach
goodquestionable morals.
Ftfy.
The people on /r/Atheism are coming at things as getting away from oppression and abuse at the hands of religious communities. And they're a small portion of atheists, not really representative of "the community"...which doesn't really exist
What's neat is some US states and/or school districts strictly enforce the teacher's right to pick the study materials, for better or for worse. Which is weird to think about because they don't even pay them fairly.
I'd like to see endosymbiosis covered. At this grade level they should have the structure of a cell down, and at least be able to define both chloroplasts and mitochondria. Mitochondrial evolution has continued within our cells and offers some of the strongest evidence, as well a form of evidence they are more likely to experience (23 and me, etc), in the form of genomic testing.
This is obviously a curriculum based on the historical way in which we established the theory of evolution, and while a traditional approach to science (to effectively teach it as historical anecdote), I don't think it's the most engaging. Students in this age range have their eyes roll like giant boulders off a cliff when confronted with the highly dynamic concepts of finches and peas. At the end of the day it's the story of a dude who married his cousin and was fond of plant tropisms. Maybe more interesting when you are a bit more mature.
If you take it from the perspective of endosymbiosis, you get to tell a story of cells attacking or invading other cells, but how evolution didn't stop there. And because evolution didn't stop, that's why and how we know everyone on the planet is related.
It's probably a bit much for eight graders but I've also seen HIV being used as the central teaching element for evolution, about specifically how the virus evades the human immune response system by constantly evolving.
Just because there was some specific order white Europeans discovered some particular concept in, doesn't make it necessarily the best way to teach a concept, nor is it a presentation of the strongest forms of evidence for that concept.
Religion doesn't necessarily need to disprove evolution, most religious people just do.
How long until this teacher ends up either behind bars or dangling from a branch?
Well it's an online school, so it would be the former more likely than the latter, but who knows in Trump's America?
Deeply depressing that this email even has to be written.
Yeah, it is only a sensitive topic because bigots overreact.
And why are we coddling bigots again