This is what I like to see: high school science teachers blogging. Particularly when, in this new blog, Beautiful Biology, the teacher stands up for good science.
That’s exactly how it should work. Biology teachers should teach evolution unapologetically, and when clueless parents protest, they should be politely told that they are wrong. Repeat that every day in every school district, and creationism will slink back into the shadows.
That’s not particularly impressive. Now, standing up for good science when the district is being sued and the administration is breathing down your neck…
Caledonian — sure, it’s impressive! The cultural issues are all around us. Things need to start somewhere. This teacher, as Phil notes, is setting an example, and hopefully it may have some small effect to make other teachers in perhaps more controversial regions to be more confident in their own position.
-Rob
If any of her students, or her student’s parents get uppity with her science, I say she should assign the offending party to write a report comparing and contrasting the rise and decline of trilobites with the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
I am a biology teacher in Texas. Today I am showing Darwins Dangerous idea which I find an excellent overview. This following a discussion and a few activities over the last several days.
I always start with the history of the theory which segways into the difference between how we know what is true from what we believe is true, science vs. pseudoscience, etc. We make a list of superstitions and odd things people may believe such as bigfoot, witches, ghosts, psychics, etc and then discuss how these ideas can be believed but there is no evidence of their existence.
All of which is then contrasted with evolution. After all this————They get it!
“Segues.” OK, sorry, this is my high-blood-pressure-inducing pet peeve. There is a correct way to spell the word. :)
Dean Kamen has forever tainted the word ‘segue’ with his abominably smarmy vehicle. If that thing didn’t scream ‘Pretension!!’ every time you stood on it, I could get over it.
The actual technology in the thing is pretty bitchin’, though.
oops-hand slapped for my word.
I guess I have seen the vehicle one to many times over the last week.:-)
That seems like a fun blog to watch. Unfortunately, along with the link from Pharyngula, she’s already gotten one of the trolls.
It’s like a virus! Doesn’t McAfee or someone make troll-blocking software?
PZ–maybe you should pass along the secret of disemvowelling?
It’s impossible to screen out trolls, though, I think it would be possible to make a goat-based vaccine against Jason.
Hear hear!!
All we’ve got to do is inject him into a goat.
And I mean ALL of him, so you can stop thinking he’d enjoy it.
Or even better: we can just feed him, piece by piece, to a goat.
Why are you people so unkind to goats?
I wouldn’t worry about the goats. My understanding is that they’ll eat almost anything, but even they have limits.
Apikoros: Unfortunately, troll-blocking is almost “AI-complete” in the sense McCarthy (or was it Hofstadter) once used. Almost, because surely trolls are sufficiently moronic to not require a full AI.
If there isn’t actually a parent-teacher conference going on, and no parent even mentions evolution, and I don’t actually defend the teaching of evolution, but for a brief time I think of possibly doing so if the issue ever comes up — is that still impressive?
Read the account. What brought on the testimonial for evolution was that she is plainly listing a great deal of evolutionary material in her syllabus…and it was obvious enough that a parent objected.
That was a pretty pathetic objection, and the parent seemed to back down quite rapidly.
When this woman begins pressuring the administration to silence the teacher, when the teacher’s job is at stake, then I’ll be impressed. Facing down a bumbling coward just isn’t an accomplishment of note.
You must be loads of fun at parties Caledonian.
Goats can be picky some times. Now pigs – they’ll eat just about anything.
Interesting that someone has to meet specific criteria for being persecuted enough to be seen as “impressive”.
Many “impressive” people become so simply by doing their jobs fully, to the best of their ability, and without fear of criticism for years and years.
Since that is what this teacher is doing, I would say that IS impressive.
The only place I’ve heard people brag about how beat up they get for their beliefes (like the worse it is, the better they are) are evangelical Christians. You should stand around in one of those churches and listen to them brag about how “impressive” the early Christians were, with their getting eaten alive by lions, and getting crucified upside down. They also love “impressive” modern day missionaries, with the beheddings and imprisonments and stuff like that.
We don’t need some sort of weird victim/persecution fetish. All PZ was trying to do was recognize someone out there doing good and fighting the good fight.
It made me, as a parent of a child in public school, feel good to know that there are teachers who won’t let some pushy parent pressure them.
“Segues.” OK, sorry, this is my high-blood-pressure-inducing pet peeve. There is a correct way to spell the word. :)
That would be “Segways”, but I hear that many of them have been recalled….
:)
-Rob
Many “impressive” people become so simply by doing their jobs fully, to the best of their ability, and without fear of criticism for years and years.
Hear, hear. One need not be media worthy or truly excpetional to be impressive.
-Rob
Interesting that you reject the idea of having criteria for being persecuted enough to be seen as “impressive”.
Again: if I imagine that persecution might happen in the future, and I imagine myself standing up to it, is this “impressive”?
I teach 5th/6th grade science and find that is an excellent age to introduce evolution. Kids love adventure, animals, and history; Darwin has it all. They can discuss the most amazing things when you start talking about common descent and the Tree/Bush of Life. Add in some basic genetics/cell biology and they are primed to really take off in high school. So far, I haven’t had any complaints, but I’m in the more liberal areas near Seattle (Kitsap Peninsula in particular).
“Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very often the accident of glory” – Theodore Roosevelt
Shorter Caledonian: Standing up to religious stupidity is only worthy of praise if the religious are welding pitchforks and torches.
PUH-lease.
I followed the link over to Beautiful Biology and liked how the biology teacher faced down the creationist mom. From the creationist’s point of view, of course, the biology teacher is a real danger because good biology teaching undermines creationist dogma. Younger people seldom have their minds closed as tightly as their creationist parents and may even (gasp!) become evolutionists when taught what science actually says and shows. Martin Gardner had an epiphany as a young man in a geology class when his teacher carefully demolished “flood geology”. He inserted the episode in a work of fiction and I’ve posted the relevant passage.
Zeno,
Thanks for reminding of Gardner‘s novel FLIGHT OF PETER FROMM, which can be quite the salutary read especially for some borderline believers. I enjoyed it and sometimes recommend it to others. (Note of local interest – it was apparently published out of Los Altos.)
A caveat, though: while it’s true many species display dominance and bound their territories by use of markings, I wish Gardner had set up this novel’s ending as less of a pisser. Recommending it thus runs a risk of offense despite all its other value.
And Gardner has few peers for conveying his first-hand insights into the attitudes of the uncritical believer.
At issue is impressiveness, not praiseworthiness. This is worthy of praise, albeit only of the quick-pat-on-the-head sort. It is most certainly not impressive.
By necessity, being impressed should only happen with exceptions, not the norm.
“At issue is impressiveness, not praiseworthiness. This is worthy of praise, albeit only of the quick-pat-on-the-head sort. It is most certainly not impressive.”
Caledonian splitting his own hair. HE brings up the word “impressive” in this context, and then is dismissive of it…then, allows the it is maybe, kinda, a little bit “praiseworthy” (to show he’s being “reasonable”, and then reasserts that it is not “impressive”).
It is actually quite well done; to manufacture an argument out of whole cloth, and split a hair so fine, yet still maintain an illusion of being reasonable. AS the “impressivness” in question is his own issue, he is free to define it however he chooses.
I guess I’m just going to allow that I am much more easily impressed than Caledonian, and leave it at that. I guess I’ve come to expect that people doing their jobs well, with passion and conviction is not the norm, and people who do it in the face of resistance, and commit themselves to do so are impressive. Further, that comittment is impressive, independant of wether it is put to the test (since so few people even make it to the point of thoughtfully deciding what they believe and deciding to commit to it.)