Comments on: Back To School: Your Letter to you Child’s Life Science Teacher

By: shoes

shoes — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:40:47 +0000

Hi! I’ve been following your web site for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from New Mexico. Just wanted to tell you keep up the good job!

By: Alan F

Alan F — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:02:39 +0000

I actually came from a school system that didn’t do much on either one. And as it did then, Arizona’s public school system still ranks in the bottom 10 of all States. One organization ranked Arizona 44th worst in my grad year, and 3 years later they were number 50. I am inclined to agree, none of the curriculum was ever taught, more-so recited and graded out of the Teacher’s Edition. I can only hope that in the schools where evolution is taught, that this is not the case. And a difference not often considered in the debate on what should be taught in biology class on the origins of life, is that whatever they choose should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other topic in any class. There are aspects of American history that are too ambiguous about their accuracy and those that the experts, defined here as those who are educated in and hold degrees in history, can not agree on to a point where it would be an accepted fact, thus it is not taught in schools. As believers in both creationism and intelligent design have considerable disagreements in specific facets of the topic and with much conflict on how literally the one source of the topic should be taken, it should not be ever taught in schools until there is a considerable consensus on what it even is. And should this ever happen, that all the creationists agree on, say, 90% of their story, then they can argue for it to be taught in schools. As for teaching the controversy, no student could possibly benefit from being told it might be this or it might be that. And my quick opinion on the rest, the one time creationism should be taught in a science class is in a context similar too “Ok students, people used to think humans and animals were just created, but now we know that….”

By: dean

dean — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:46:20 +0000

the public schools here (Portage MI) are also very good. I have no problems with the science education (or education in any discipline) the schools offer.
I do know, on the other hand, that the local charter schools are a mix: several are not very good, some are reasonable, a few are (apparently) quite good. Not surprisingly, the quite good ones are packed. There are some private schools – they are quite picky about who they take. From a poor family? Have physical or other problems? Good luck getting in.
One telling thing: because of some state law, whenever Portage schools has certain professional development opportunities for public school teachers, it must hold x seats for teachers from charter and private schools who want to attend. uniformly (not almost, uniformly) the teachers from those other schools never attend.
Kalamazoo public schools are a mixed bag, but they are on an upturn and are not nearly as bad as they were ten years ago.
So, the universal (as I took Steve’s comment) statement that all public education sucks is, in my opinion, not worth a sack of wet fertilizer.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:37:36 +0000

Great article. 150 years after Darwin’s death, the Theory of Evolution has been studied and revised in facinating and important ways. Sadly, scientists have been intimidated out of spreading this information around because of politics and extreme religous fanatics. It’s a shame, because the new understanding of Darwin’s theory is vital to understanding how life on Earth works.

Look up Lynn Margulis’ contribution to the Gaia Hypothesis for more (no, it’s not a new age idea; Gaia simply states that our planet may be self-sustaining and that biota react and change to environmental conditons and vice versa for reasons unrelated to “survival of the fittest”). It has also been shown that some mutations, even ones that do not benefit species, can remain in the gene population without dying out from natural selection.

So which one of these ideas proves Intelligent Design? None, of course. Graviational Theory is also being revised. Does this mean that the Creationsists will propose that flying unicorns cause gravity and that Einstein was wrong? Probably.

By: Vince whirlwind

Vince whirlwind — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:33:28 +0000

The main problem with my local public school is a lack of discipline – children get away with telling the teachers to ****-off if the teachers try to tell them what to do or not do (smoking on school grounds, plaing music in class), and there is effectively zero discipline. The result is that even those children who would be condusive to do some actual learning are distracted from doing so.

As a result, enrolments have dwindled, children from very low socio-economic backgrounds are concentrated there, the academic performance at the school has plummeted, so enrolments dwindle further, and it will shortly follow the great many other of our town’s public schools in shutting its doors.

I seem to recall that last year, our local police recorded attending over 500 incidents at public schools. I’d be surprised if the catholic schools recorded a single incident, unless you count the persistent weekend-break-ins and arsons.

Meanwhile, the non-public school system here now enrols almost 45% of the town’s children. The Catholic system is the major provider in this space.
Perversely, however, if you send your disabled child to a non-public school, the government funding for that child is only a fraction of what it would be if the child were in a public school.

So if you are a parent of a child with learning difficulties, you have the choice of sending it to a school where it will be surrounded by retarded delinquents, or you send it to a catholic school (the non-catholic non-public schools avoid charity cases like the plague) where the teachers will struggle to provide the support it needs.

So, I don’t know where Steve comes from, but in my neck of the woods public schooling is a vicious cycle of failing anti-educational knee-jerk politically-correct policy-making. Which is to say – it’s a joke.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:49:12 +0000

Too bad, because I kinda liked the idea of tweeting High School!

By: Raging Bee

Raging Bee — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:43:05 +0000

Quite frankly, I don’t think Steve’s opinion is based on anything; it’s just something he heard as a kid and learned to parrot without any thought simply because it made him feel good. I’ll be VERY surprised if he musters up enough energy to even read our comments, let alone cobble up a response.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:27:34 +0000

Steve, I’d love to know what your connection with the education system is. That’s a mighty strong opinion with a fair amount of detail. Are you a teacher? Student? Administrator? Parent of kids in school?

I’m a trainer of teachers, husband of a teacher, parent of a kid in school and education related activist. I don’t exactly have a shining stellar opinion of the education system, but I don’t see it as a joke either. So, I’d like to know what your opinion is based on.

By: ECC

ECC — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:06:49 +0000

Back in the day (about a million years ago) in an Italian Middle School, our religion teacher told us that it serves no purpose to ask religion “how the world was created” (as it is the result
of natural processes-including EVOLUTION) as much as it doesn’t to ask science “who” created it (God in her opinion): they are two different domains that don’t intermix…And God would be ok
with it!
Forward to the present, I am a life science teacher today and I would never think evolution isn’t real; the God part “of it” is nobody’s business-least the schools where I might teach! That’s why I leave my religious beliefs at home…Where they belong (whatever those may be)!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:25:43 +0000

Sorry to inform you Greg, but public education is a joke! By the time they water down the curriculum enough for today’s average student, it doesn’t matter what is being taught…nothing is being learned! Ultimately the schools will have to reduce the lessons down to a series of tweets…so much for your real science.