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Author Topic: High school teacher quits over Darwin
Blondin
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posted 19 May 2006 09:50 AM      Profile for Blondin     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
A big story on "The Current" this morning is about a high school teacher in Saluit, Quebec, who has resigned because the school administration reprimanded him for teaching Darwinian evolution.

I can't find a print story about it yet.


From: North Bay ON | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 19 May 2006 10:11 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Must have been a fundie school, perhaps? This is liberal Quebec, where I would imagine evolution is pretty much standard teaching. As for me, I'm a former lifelong subscriber to Scientific American, and in fact was just commenting on a story in that publication that had to do with Horseshoe Crabs being a contemporary of the dinosaurs (it's a great story, about the HC's annual migration to the New Jersey shores, where northward-migrating birds feed on the HC eggs, in the grand cycle of life, something that has been replicating itself for many hundreds of thousands of years; from 2002).
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
BleedingHeart
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posted 19 May 2006 10:48 AM      Profile for BleedingHeart   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Darwin's theory was not taught in British Columbia high schools in 1975 when I took biology (and the NDP had by then been in power for 3 years).
From: Kickin' and a gougin' in the mud and the blood and the beer | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Blondin
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posted 19 May 2006 10:58 AM      Profile for Blondin     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here is a CBC story:
Darwin's theory not allowed in North Quebec schools
I find it disturbing that school boards are letting a church influence curriculum.

quote:
The Kativik school board says it's just being sensitive to local beliefs. Even Inuit who hold traditional beliefs don't like to be told they're descended from monkeys.

It seems the school board is quite ignorant about the theory of evolution themselves. Nobody should be teaching that we descended from monkeys and, anyway, no matter what the evidence shows, the fact that some people don't "like" it has no relevence to whether it is true or not.

There are those who don't want heliocentricity taught because they don't like to be told that we are not the center of all creation.


From: North Bay ON | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
M. Spector
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posted 19 May 2006 06:31 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is a revolting development. I first heard about it when the teacher was interviewed on As It Happens last night.

The Montreal Gazette had a brief item about it today, but apart from the CBC, both the anglophone and francophone media seem to be ignoring the story.

The story broke originally in the francophone publication Quebec Science, where a much fuller account appears under the title of "Darwin On Ice".

From the Gazette article it appears the (Catholic) school board is now backing the teacher; but their initial position, at least, was to blather on about how the school had to respect the ideas and values of the Inuit population. This was a craven attempt to cover up for the influence of the Pentecostal Church (hardly an Inuit institution) that has spread its creationist nonsense into the far north of Quebec.

It's particularly galling that they try to pass this off as respect for natives, rather than pandering to the purveyors of misinformation. The Inuit deserve better than that.

[ 19 May 2006: Message edited by: M. Spector ]


From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 20 May 2006 11:08 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hmm. My eight year old nephew calls me up on the phone in Ottawa and begins to tell me all about dinosaurs, lizards, monkeys and explaining why he thinks we lost our hair when we descended from the trees. And then a lengthy discussion about Tony Hawk's snow boarding video game. I was lost throughout most of it. Short people, hmm.
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
glasstech
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posted 20 May 2006 12:04 PM      Profile for glasstech     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Do these people ( Inuit, Pentacostals, etc) belive in TVs, automobiles, medicines, eye glasses, etc.
These products EVOLVED from previous equipment and ideas.
No one came along and said let there be satelite TV and verily, all were happy with hockey night in Canada.
The same science that has developed all these products is the same science that supports Darwin. I refuse to use the word theory. That is like saying the theory of automobiles.
If they truely believed in their religeon and really rejected the teachings of science, they would throw away the end result of fashion's evelotion, dress in skins and go back to the garden of Adam and Eve. Sorry, skins not allowed there. But they would have to abandon all the things that EVOLVING science has come up with. Autos, alcohol, pacemakers, dentistry, oil heat in the winter, etc.
Like that is really going to happen.
Fundies just pick and choose what they want to believe and ignore the contradictions in their beliefs.
If you believe in the Bible's ceationism that is fine but don't be a hypocrite and accept all the advantages that science has give you.
Lastly, if you want to teach the Bible's storey of creation why are not all the other religeons stories of creationism not being taught. Since the Fundies want the alternative to fact being taught, should all the alternatives be taught?

From: Whitehorse, Yukon | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 20 May 2006 04:34 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think for the Pentecostal (and other) fundies it's all about power and growth. My experience is that they're really opposed to the Roman Catholics (among others), as opposed to 'live and let live'. By controlling people's faith, you also control their beliefs - in the case of the fundies, usually very right wing conservative agendas. These are the people who support Harpoon, Bush, and Howard.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
reallylongname
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posted 21 May 2006 04:12 PM      Profile for reallylongname     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We didn't evolve from monkeys.
Monkeys evolved from us!

From: Downtown | Registered: May 2006  |  IP: Logged
otter
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posted 22 May 2006 04:36 PM      Profile for otter        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
I find it disturbing that school boards are letting a church influence curriculum

Then you must really be bummed to find that the whole of the Canadian educational curriculum is focused on making us good little worker drones rather than informed and empowered citizens.


From: agent provocateur inc. | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 23 May 2006 09:44 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by reallylongname:
We didn't evolve from monkeys.
Monkeys evolved from us!

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

Sorry, couldn't help it.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
2 ponies
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posted 25 May 2006 07:16 AM      Profile for 2 ponies   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have to say, as an Aboriginal person, I think it's a double standard to say not teaching evolution is a matter of "respect." If my First Nation community decided that it wasn't acceptable for a science teacher to teach my young cousins about the theory of evolution, I would flip my lid. My community's education board would be doing my relatives and fellow FN members a gross disservice by not teaching children as much as they can possibly learn. Both stories refer to "respect" and I've heard that word thrown around so much in the north (I lived in the Territories for 2 years). Too many people are throwing around the word "respect" without understanding what it really means, it's like an "ace in the hole" being used instead of "Don't tell me what to think, I'll form my own opinion." Instead of saying "I respect your view, and I'll listen to it because I want you to respect my view and listen to it" too many of us say "Respect me" when they're really saying "I don't want to hear what you have to say and you have to agree with me to respect me." For some reason it's not okay to disagree with people in the North. And I'll make that generalization because I heard it at least every other day when I lived in the Territories.

I say if people want their kids to learn religion in schools, then they should set up seperate school boards. Besides, evolution is a generally accepted scientific theory and it should be taught in schools. That doesn't mean I think teachers should ram evolution down students' throats and be told "This is how it is and you're wrong." It seems to me that it could simply be communicated along the lines of "Other people will have differing views, but one significant and widely accepted theory is the theory of evolution. Here's how it compares to creationism, or the Inuit story of creation, etc. You have to understand the concepts of evolution, but you don't have to accept them as the truth."

It seems pretty simple to me, but I've noticed a lot of people will give us (Aboriginals) significant leway because our religions were actually outlawed for a long time. So now we get to outlaw other views...is that it? Is the problem that too many of us (Aboriginals) aren't confident and secure enough in our own views that we have to belittle the views of others and bannish them? I think that is a load of nonsense - listening to different views doesn't mean you take them as truth or as acceptable. I'm not even going to touch on the fact that the religions influencing this decision are probably fundamentalist Christian, not Inuit traditional spirituality.


From: Sask | Registered: Nov 2005  |  IP: Logged
paxamillion
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posted 25 May 2006 07:50 AM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
In many Christian traditions, the importance of both general and special revelation has all but disappeared. As a result, obvious scientific results are pushed aside. It's not just Darwin -- many such churches are still in the back woods about the ordination of women, divorce, LGBT folks and on and on.
From: the process of recovery | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Blondin
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posted 25 May 2006 11:42 AM      Profile for Blondin     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think it's important that our public schools teach scientific consensus in science class.

By that I mean that we must make it clear that the theory of evolution is not a 'view' or an opinion, it is a scientific theory supported by a vast body of evidence. There is no other theory that explains the diversity of life on Earth. There are unsubstantiated claims but nobody has yet advanced an explanation that better fits the observations and experimental data supporting the theory of evolution.

If someone came up with verifiable, incontrovertible evidence that Darwin got it all wrong (or mostly wrong or whatever) then scientific consensus whould change and so should school course material. I can't imagine what kind of revelation could emerge to do this but an honest person has to allow that it could happen - but it hasn't yet.

This whole silly debate about evolution vs something else is divisive and diversionary. Science is about the pursuit of truth and should be an eternally advancing endeavor. It should be stressed in our schools that some parts of what is being taught in science class today will be disproven or modified in some way by the time our children reach our age and they should rejoice in knowing that because it means that we are advancing.

Truth will be discovered by seeking it. You can't vote for it or wish for it or dictate it no matter how much you want something to be true or how many people believe it or how long they have believed it.

There are many venues for children to learn about cultural or religious beliefs and traditions like social studies, religious studies or Sunday school (or even home!), but not in science class.

Sorry if I got on a bit of a rant, there...


From: North Bay ON | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
ceti
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posted 27 May 2006 10:37 AM      Profile for ceti     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The Vatican's astronomer recently labeled creationism a form of paganism.

Wow, talk about throwing another complicated angle into the whole discussion.


From: various musings before the revolution | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged

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