It is one thing to be able to explain the idea of evolution, but maturity of ideas cannot be taught, so you really don’t know how the student grasps the point, if he is introspective enough to detect inconsistencies between what he has learnt and what passes for “knowledge” in the vernacular.

After all the essence of science is its method, not its dogmatic adherence to a catalog of truths. Any so-called “science curriculum” that doesn’t teach the method isn’t science, it’s “scientific religion”. And any biologists who can’t explain the principle of evolution in terms a fifth-grader can understand don’t understand it themselves.

I think we can indeed teach the controversy. Take the first introductory hour and and dedicate it to philosophical issues or “pre-scientific ideas”. Mention them. Explain why they are unscientific. For the rest of the semester, whenever someone brings up some objection, refer them to this discussion.

The atom labeled psi (Z) pulsates at the frequency {Nhu=e/h} by cycles of {e=m(c^2)} transformation of nuclear surface mass to forcons with joule values, followed by nuclear force absorption. This radiation process is limited only by spacetime boundaries of {Gravity-Time}, where gravity is the force binding space to psi, forming the GT integral atomic wavefunction. The expression is defined as the series expansion differential of nuclear output rates with quantum symmetry numbers assigned along the progression to give topology to the solutions.

Next, the correlation function for the manifold of internal heat capacity energy particle 3D functions is extracted by rearranging the total internal momentum function to the photon gain rule and integrating it for GT limits. This produces a series of 26 topological waveparticle functions of the five classes; {+Positron, Workon, Thermon, -Electromagneton, Magnemedon}, each the 3D data image of a type of energy intermedon of the 5/2 kT J internal energy cloud, accounting for all of them.

Those 26 energy data values intersect the sizes of the fundamental physical constants: h, h-bar, delta, nuclear magneton, beta magneton, k (series). They quantize nuclear dynamics by acting as fulcrum particles. The result is the picoyoctometric, 3D, interactive video atomic model data point imaging function, responsive to keyboard input of virtual photon gain events by relativistic, quantized shifts of electron, force, and energy field states and positions.

Images of the h-bar magnetic energy waveparticle of ~175 picoyoctometers are available online at http://www.symmecon.com with the complete RQT atomic modeling manual titled The Crystalon Door, copyright TXu1-266-788. TCD conforms to the unopposed motion of disclosure in U.S. District (NM) Court of 04/02/2001 titled The Solution to the Equation of Schrodinger.

More seriously, by a stretch of imagination I could see a teacher using kids fascination with ghosts to teach literature. You could teach Poe, Stevenson (Maybe), Dickens, Shakespeare and there have got to be some modern authors that use ghosts as a device. Unfortunately there are the unfortunate teachers who mistake their class for a fan club and use the opportunity to go on about pet subjects unrelated to their subject.

Lucky Rocks? That is such a missed opportunity. Think of all the ways to teach science through a rock collection. You could bring in interesting rocks you’ve collected from trips around the country and talk about geological features or formations, fossils, etc.

I’ve been asking myself the same question since my daughter started school this year (after homeschooling). I’ve been on the look-out for back-door evangelism (taught in local churches); instead – so far – my daughter has only been exposed to a whole lot of woo. Her science teacher talks a lot about her collection of lucky rocks shaped like hearts; “every time she finds a new one her luck goes way up!” (My daughter is actually horrified that her science teacher believes in lucky rocks, since “she should know better.”) And, her english teacher is obsessed with ghosts and uses ghost stories for examples of everything. The teacher’s “life’s dream” is to be on Ghost Hunters… So, every minute spent on this stuff is time that could have been spent learning something real. It’s frustrating. For me – and, more importantly, for kids like my daughter.

Unfortunately, the moment someone writes a template of what a biology teacher can reasonably explain in a few minutes, creationists will shift strategies to priming vulnerable students with questions designed to suggest plausible loopholes in the explanation – loopholes that preferably take substantial amounts of time and research to refute to a layman. Indeed this is already often done.

This isn’t a battle we can win in the classrooms and minds of students, which is precisely why creationists want to fight it there. The strengths of science lie in the chain of argument from evidence, the bulk of which cannot be easily explained to the layman, so the battle must be contained to curriculum development where planners can understand the relevant issues.

In any case I think Laden was discussing how creationist teachers may subvert existing curricular restrictions. I venture that this is less of a problem than it might initially seem, since the level of self-control needed to absorb classroom creationism and still be able to write non-insane answers to high school biology standardized tests is extraordinarily rare. A few teachers may be able to do so, but their students will give them away the moment test results are returned, which will immediately allow school administrators to identify and legitimately challenge those responsible for incompetence in teaching.

But then, I am not an educator. Perhaps I am wrong.