A blog I had read a few times had an interesting post. It's from the Friendly Atheist: "Science Teachers Under Fire for Saying Creationists Are “Trying to Mislead” Students". A middle school in Florida sent home a reading assignment that included this paragraph:
"Next time someone tries to tell you that evolution is just a theory, as a way of dismissing it, as if it’s just something someone guessed at, remember that they’re using the non-scientific meaning of the word. If that person is a teacher, or minister, or some other figure of authority, they should know better. In fact, they probably do, and are trying to mislead you."Apparently some folks got uptight about the last line, angry at the implication that ministers and parents were purposely deceiving kids:
When parents such as Jennifer Flinchum first read those lines, “the hair on the back of my neck stood up,” she said.Three thingsome to my mind:
“It’s not so much the evolution aspect of it, it’s just the way they phrased those few sentences how they were kind of taking the rights away from the parents,” said parent, Lisa McNeil.
- Isn't that exactly what they are doing? Deceiving children! While some may be doing it out of ignorance, the reality is they are in fact deceiving children.
- Do parents and ministers have the right to deceive children? I don't think so! I guess pointing that out isn't very politically correct, regardless of how accurate it is.
- So instead of putting it in a reading assignment, parents will be up in arms when a student asks the teacher about it in class and the teacher gets to inform the child that parents and ministers who say 'evolution is only a theory' are lying. No, the teacher won't use those words, but that is the lesson kids will pick up. Can't you see it? "Teacher says this, Mom says this, Teacher says that's not factual. Mom isn't telling me the truth!" Oh yea, that won't get anyone uptight, now would it?
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