Easy enough in a science class. Teaching history or literature is more complicated.
This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 20 May 2009, by Clay Burell.
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20 May 09
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Add Sticky NoteI taught science, including evolution, for 26 years. Although I was a college and university professor, I was always careful to never explicitly criticize religious beliefs. I of course believe that Creationism is "religious, superstitious nonsense," but I have never said that to students. I always said that Creationism was not science, but religion, and in this class we are only going to learn about science. The same for Adam and Eve and Noah's Flood: I never said A&E never existed or the Flood never occurred, but only that there is no scientific evidence for their existence. I also frequently said that students were free to believe what they wanted, but are advised to believe the scientific explanation and certainly to know it for the exams. I made it clear that outside of the classroom and especially after the final exam they could believe whatever the hell they wanted. . . and then they had to live with their knowledge.
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I think teacher Corbett was being excessively confrontational in a public school classroom and one student called him on it. That's too bad for the teacher. Of course Creationism is "religious, superstitious nonsense," but it is illegal to say that in a public school classroom. Corbett should have just said that there is no evidence for Creationism, it is religious, not science, and it would be unscientific to accept it as truthful. That would all be perfectly legal. He could also have said that it would also be unwise to not learn about evolution or to believe that Creationism will give you the best exam answers for the purposes of this course.
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