Comment by Grady Jean on August 13, 2012 at 11:39am

HOSHIT! She turned on the Capslock!!!!!!! :o

Comment by Emi Fisher on September 9, 2012 at 7:13pm

Wow, -face palm- total idiocy! Humans created gods and put names to them...duh

Comment by John Abramson on January 2, 2014 at 4:33pm

She's glad she' flunking..............says it all!

Comment by David Smith on January 2, 2014 at 4:44pm

way to easy :P

Comment by Facts Before Faith on January 2, 2014 at 5:24pm

A few years ago, as I was just leaving religion, my daughter said, "I wish I didn't go to public school because I don't want to learn evolution next year."

I was ashamed that I had raised her to fear knowledge. We had a talk about being wary of anyone who teaches that kind of fear. I told her I had been raised with a terribly inaccurate view of what evolution was. I'm now doing my best to not tell her what to believe, but to encourage her to learn and think for herself.

Martin

Comment by Nicolas Gauvin on January 2, 2014 at 11:17pm

I’m sorry to ask it but I can’t find a proper answer on google; can someone explain to me a thing about the educative system in USA?

Do all public schools have to teach to kids evolution? Or does it depends on the school?

Do kids (or their parents) chose to learn creationism or evolution, I mean like an option?

What happen in private schools? Can those schools chose what they want to teach?

Comment by Diane on January 3, 2014 at 7:33am

@ IEat - true, true.  I was thinking yesterday how it's hard to believe in someone we haven't seen is hard.  Hardness, as we all should know, is next to godliness.  

Comment by _Robert_ on January 3, 2014 at 7:58am

@ Nicolas,

I attended Catholic High School in the 70's. The chapters in our biology texts about natural selection and evolution were literally cut out of the book. We were not taught calculus or astronomy either. We had special Catholic bibles, but oddly we hardly opened up our bibles because we were too busy studying the idiotic dogma of Catholicism.

I am so glad I attended a public university.

Comment by Pope Beanie on January 3, 2014 at 8:29pm

poor kid must be going through puberty about now...

Comment by Kairan Nierde on January 4, 2014 at 12:13am

@ Nicolas- each state proscribes its own curricula for public schools. If it's on a state curriculum, it should be taught in that state. That's no guarantee. Private schools can teach whatever they like. They set their own standards based on their beliefs and only answer to themselves and, perhaps, the people paying tuition. They generally do teach enough science for their students to get into college, but this does not have to include a good understanding of evolution.

There is a movement to unify what is taught across the nation because we recognize our schools are not teaching children well enough to compete globally. But, anything national is highly controversial among conservatives who exhalt "States Rights" and limited Federal government. There are even more extreme people who want to abolish the public school system entirely. Because our Southern States and/or former Slave States are still butthurt about losing our Civil War and also inordinately proud of their "way of life" (this way of life is highly skeptical of "Northern" ideas and values--all things industrial, scientific, academic, and pro-equality/diversity. These values have historically suffered rejection rather than southern hospitality.), people are very sensitive letting go of any local power.

Now, to bolster one of our two ubiquitous national political parties, these sentiments  (these conservative values--mainly, the hatred of science, nostalgia for "States' Rights," and promotion of creationsim) have been swept up and fused into national conservative propoganda. The creationism/evolution clash is not confined to it's Confederate Christian geographic roots. It's likely to be found anywhere that national conservative party values are embraced.

It's hard to capture the scale of the clash. In some places Evolution is simply not taught in public schools. In other situations, evolution will be "taught" in a dishonest manner that makes evolution seem obsurd so as to promote the "logic" of the Creation Story. In other areas evolution may be taught to a basic standard so that it can be learned and regurgitated by the student in order to meet state testing standards (Testing schemes dominate many school state systems). In these cases, both the student and the teacher may be going through the motions--not an ideal learning environment. In some of the better schools, which possess accurate text books (enough funding), capable science educators, responsible administrators, courageous local politicians, and/or are simply located in an area of the country that has a free intellectual climate, there may be no barriers at all around teaching proper evolution in the classroom.

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