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Should creationism and intelligent design be taught in schools
Evolution in the public schools
Evolution in the public schools
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Teaching Creationism or Intelligent Design to our youth can be done in a way that is neither opinion based nor completely fact based, but may hold some risk of personal interpretation. The first thing needed to be considered is how can children of the middle school age range grasp such a deep subject and have the capacity to reach their own conclusion. Information found regarding the development of children in this developmental range was found in the book titled "Characteristics of Middle Grade Students,” Caught in the Middle by the Sacramento Department of Education. It was found that students of this age hold a variety of learning attributes that support the belief that children can handle both sides of this controversial issue. Some of those attributes include, propositional thought, consideration of ideas contrary to fact and, reasoning with hypotheses involving two or more variables. While the majority of this essay will focus on the pros of being diverse in these teachings it will also represent the opposite side of opinion.
Children between the ages of 11-13 hold an immense amount of personal identity issues. Discovering who they are and what they believe. During this time, a teacher has the unique opportunity to present all the facts surrounding the traditional theory of evolution and introduce facts of Creationism as well. In offering both sides to this idea of how the world began, it gives the students a great opportunity to find their own answers. What a wonderful experience for a teacher to see his or her students operating on fact-finding, discussions, and learning to appreciate differences of opinion.
Teachers of middle school students strive to enrich our children with all of the knowledge and facts of the The...
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... creation from him was all that was known and accepted. While we continue to live in a world of unknowns it is important that our children are taught that there is some truth in most theory’s or it would not be received as believable at all. It is only “opinion” after all. We should teach our children to research their own ideas, thoughts, and find their own truth.
Works Cited
Goodtein, Laurie. "Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey ." The New York Times (2005): web.
Parker, Gary. Creation Facts of Life. Green Forest: Master Books, (revised) 2006.(pg19)Google Books. web.
Sacremento California Department of Education. "Characteristics of Middle Grade Students,” Caught in the Middle. 1989.web.
The Pew Forum. pewforum.org. 4 February 2009. .
Robert Root-Bernstein and Donald L. McEachron, “Teaching Theories: The Evolution-Creation Controversy,” The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 44, No. 7 (Oct…1982). This article, written by Robert Root-Bernstein and Donald L. McEachron sheds light on the controversy of evolution vs creationism in schools and the validity of each being called a scientific theory. The work was created to answer the questions, “Which of these theories is truly scientific and which is a religious belief? Which should be taught in schools?” The article concluded in favor of evolution as a valid scientific theory that should be taught rather than creationism, but also mentioned the worth of understanding the latter.
The Dover Area School District of Dover, Pennsylvania is seeking approval from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania House to include the theory of intelligent design in the instruction of biology. Intelligent design, also known as I.D., is a theory that seeks to refute the widely-accepted and scientifically-supported evolution theory. It proposes that the complexity of living things and all of their functioning parts hints at the role of an unspecified source of intelligence in their creation (Orr). For all intents and purposes, the evidence cited by I.D. supporters consists only of the holes or missing links in evolutionary theory; it is a widely-debate proposal, not because ?of the significant weight of its evidence,? but because ?of the implications of its evidence? (IDnet).
Evolution and Creationism are both fact and theory but the question is which one should be taught in schools? Only a few school distracts have approved the teaching of evolution because it has more senitific evidence than creationism to prove that it is true. According to a new Gallup poll, just 39% of Americans believe in evolution. The Gallup polls also show that those Americans with higher education believe in the theory of evolution as opposed to those with only high school diplomas. The polls found that 74% Americans with post-graduate degrees believe in evolution theory compared to 21% of Americans with only high school diplomas. The Gallup polls suggest that the belief in the theory of evolution is associated with education. Evolution should be taught in schools because it has more scientific evidence to support it than creationism does. Also, public schools should not teach things that have to do with God, such as creationism, because the Constitution requires the separation of church and state. Finally, if we do not allow schools to teach evolution it would be a form censo...
These days, most of the textbook only presents evolution theory as a fact to interpret the origin of life and the earth. More and more people get to reject creation unconsciously because they had no opportunity to compare and evaluate both worldview in same degree. I interviewed my three close acquaintances and heard a various responses from many people including my interviewees. Some of them had same belief with me, but some people had significantly different opinion with me. As a consequence of evolution theory’s monopoly in education, non-believers and Christians are unconsciously influenced by this secular worldview.
Evolution has been taught in all public schools for as long as many can recall. Though the process of evolution is not the only theory, schools have been teaching it as if it is the complete truth, ignoring other aspects and only focusing and targeting on Darwin's theory of Evolution. However, there are still many other ideas that the students should be informed of as well because all are theories, all are hypothetic. Teaching of the evolution theory have yet to be proven reliable and confirmed by all scientists, thus it should not be taught in schools and should be left for students to wonder and discover by themselves.
The only theory of creation that teachers are allowed to teach in public schools is the theory of evolution. No other idea is considered and this is not acceptable. Many people think it is closed minded to only teach one religion, but that is a two way street. It is also closed minded to only teach evolution. Someone may argue the reason why they only teach evolution is because if they teach any religion based theory then it forces religion on people. Teaching evolution forces a different belief on religious people. We need to find a way to teach multiple theories.
Since the time that teaching evolution in public schools was banned as heresy and taboo for contradicting the Bible, most public school systems today take an opposite approach in which creationism is seldom ta...
Morris, Henry M., "Recent Creation is a Vital Doctrine." Vital Articles on Science/Creation," 1984. http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-132.htm
In the uncertainty that the modern world is, there is one law that stays petrified in stone no matter what happens: “Things change with age.” No matter if it is in history, science, or even Pokémon, things change as time passes by and this process is called evolution. The theory formulated by Charles Darwin is the belief that all organisms have come from earliest creatures because of external factors (“NSTA…”). School boards everywhere have accepted the theory of Evolution as fact making it essential to be in the curriculums of science classrooms. However, over the years, controversy has arisen as the fact that is evolution is still only a theory with flaws and setbacks, efficiently making other theories (i.e. intelligent design) a viable alternate in the classroom. The law, on the other hand, had a different idea about these other theories with numerous bans them from schools, claiming them to be against the second amendment. Despite the bitter debate of rather or not it is valid and right for teaching (primarily alone) the theory of evolution lies as being the most reliable and accurate way to teach how the modern world came to be.
Monastersky, Richard. (2004). Society Disowns Paper Attacking Darwinism. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 51, Iss. 5, A.16.
When God created the world “by faith is we understand that the world were framed by the word of God, so that the things which we see how did not come into being out of things which had previously appeared” (Athanasius...
Children are our inspiration. They are the reason that educators today need to be more than sufficient in teaching, but remarkable at teaching. Children are little sponges that absorb knowledge quickly and abundantly and with guidance, can achieve great goals in their academic life. Children are the future. As teachers, we need to educate ourselves as much as possible so that we can better educate the future generations. “Piaget, working with children, found that the growth of their ideas is a process spread over years,” (Sawyer, 2003, p.6). Teachers, families and communities must support one another in learning and educating our young children. If we don’t spend the time necessary to learn and broaden our knowledge, our children suffer, our future suffers.
When development happens differently for these kids, it can affect their psychological development if they focus too much on how fast, or slow they are developing in comparison to their peers. Some adolescents may let their peers influence their behaviors, creating a problem with how they interact with others, or how they view themselves as a person. The middle school is a place where students are guided through these developmental experiences with the help of their peers, teachers, administrators, parents, and community. “Middle schools provide 10 to 15-year-olds with developmentally appropriate educational experiences that emphasize the education and overall well-being of the learners,” to address their developmental needs as adolescents (Manning, Bucher, p. 9). Middle school teachers are a big part of providing an environment where their students can grow as the diverse learners that they are, but also an environment that caters to the developmental needs of their students.
We ignore the plain fact that students learn at different rates and in different ways” (3). Furthermore, teachers are the main source of knowledge in the classroom. When teaching, teachers determine almost everything that happens within their classroom. Including what information they have students learn, and how they pass on that information. However, over the years, it has been neglected that every student learns differently. Additionally, it needs to be remembered that it is the students who are learning. A school system is needed that can retain all students’ curiosity, individuality, and creativity. For instance, whether it is the amount of homework given, the type of test, the pace of teaching, or the style of notes required, students should not be confined to only one way of
As educators we wish to have the students gain knowledge, through our efforts, and continue to expand their minds using the basics we have taught them. In an era when so many outside interests often cloud the minds of our impressionable youth, we often wonder how we can accomplish this task.