Thursday, October 19, 2006
Eugenie Scott at Johnson County Community College
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education will speak on "Politics, Education, and Evolution" on Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Johnson County Community College in the Carlsen Center, Room 211.
Here's the abstract for her talk: Many topics in the curriculum of American schools are controversial, but perhaps the one with the longest tenure is evolution. Politics plays a role in this controversy in a number of ways.
Politicians have keen antennae for cultural values, and the "fairness" argument (i.e., it is only "fair" to "balance" evolution with creationism) regularly is exploited, regardless of the appropriateness of its application to science education.
Variants of the fairness argument such as balancing evolution with "scientific alternatives to evolution" or balancing evolution with "arguments against evolution" have in fact become the current predominant anti-evolutionist strategy.
In addition, legislators and school board members may take advantage of public interest in the creationism/evolution controversy to pander to voting blocks -- whether or not the legislation or policy is ever passed, or even is intended to be seriously considered.
Here's the abstract for her talk: Many topics in the curriculum of American schools are controversial, but perhaps the one with the longest tenure is evolution. Politics plays a role in this controversy in a number of ways.
Politicians have keen antennae for cultural values, and the "fairness" argument (i.e., it is only "fair" to "balance" evolution with creationism) regularly is exploited, regardless of the appropriateness of its application to science education.
Variants of the fairness argument such as balancing evolution with "scientific alternatives to evolution" or balancing evolution with "arguments against evolution" have in fact become the current predominant anti-evolutionist strategy.
In addition, legislators and school board members may take advantage of public interest in the creationism/evolution controversy to pander to voting blocks -- whether or not the legislation or policy is ever passed, or even is intended to be seriously considered.
