Friday, November 20, 2009 | Reason : Education | print version

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Evolution and history compulsory

by BBC

Thanks to JennyTaylier for the link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/uk_news/education/8369172.stm#navigation

Schools Minister Vernon Coaker says the subjects will be compulsory elements of a new primary school curriculum being introduced in 2011.

Scientists and humanists had lobbied ministers for the inclusion of evolution in the theme-based timetable.

History is already compulsory, but there were fears it would be sidelined.

Schools will not be told which parts of British history to teach.

Earlier this year, when the curriculum changes were announced, critics complained that children would learn more about the internet than history.

Ministers say they want to "reinforce" history by making it a statutory element of the new primary curriculum.

Campaign

The curriculum is set out in a new education Bill just introduced to Parliament.

It was drawn up after a review by Sir Jim Rose, which called for distinct subjects to be replaced by six new "areas of learning".

Mr Coaker said: "What and how our children learn lies at the heart of our policies to raise standards.

"We've seen that an inspiring and rigorous curriculum can transform failing schools, which is why these plans are based on the very best practice from this country's top-class teachers."

He added: "Teachers will have more freedom to use their professional judgement and creativity to make links between subjects that make sense to their pupils: from linking history to the arts, or science to PE."

The British Humanist Association (BHA) had led a campaign to have Darwin's theory of how life evolved through natural selection made a compulsory element of the new primary curriculum.

It organised a public letter signed by more than 500 from scientists and supporters.

Andrew Copson of the BHA said: "This is excellent news. Evolution is arguably the most important concept underlying the life sciences.

"Providing children with an understanding of it an early age will help lay the foundations for a surer scientific understanding later on."
...
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Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009 | Permalink

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1. Comment #433436 by theolgit on November 20, 2009 at 1:00 pm

About time too.

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2. Comment #433441 by InYourFaceNewYorker on November 20, 2009 at 1:07 pm

Yeah! Come on everybody! Break out the champagne (well I don't drink, so I'll get something else), and let's have a toast!!!!

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3. Comment #433454 by phasmagigas on November 20, 2009 at 1:31 pm

creationists must be foaming over this.

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4. Comment #433457 by Ivan The Not So Bad on November 20, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Not so fast.

According to the article below, there is a get-out.

Faith schools (currently well over a third of state funded primary schools and rising), will be able to teach evolution in a context that reflects the school's (religious) ethos after taking into account the views of the school's (religious) governors.

http://tinyurl.com/ycjgmy5

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5. Comment #433463 by Peacebeuponme on November 20, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Ivan

Faith schools...will be able to teach evolution in a context that reflects the school's (religious) ethos

What are the teachers going to do? Wink at the children while they recite evolutionary text in a sarcastic fashion, perhaps? Cross their fingers behind their backs?

Another clumsily worded edict from the powers that be which will give faith schools carte blanch to carry on their nonsense.

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6. Comment #433483 by Sandra S on November 20, 2009 at 2:48 pm

5. Comment #433463 by Peacebeuponme

In Sweden I know at least how one faith school goes about the teaching of evolution. They make a point of informing the students that it's all bullshit and that they're only teaching it because they have to to get state funding.

It is probably the most fundamentalist of schools in Sweden, though. Most of us consider it a cult. It's called Livets Ord incase anyone is interested.

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7. Comment #433500 by rod-the-farmer on November 20, 2009 at 3:32 pm

On another forum I wondered why the reporter() did not go straight to the faith schools, to ask how they plan to implement this ruling, and could they please sit in on a class where the subject will be discussed.

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8. Comment #433509 by mixmastergaz on November 20, 2009 at 3:52 pm

The Headline is misleading. When I was at school, at the height of HIV/AIDS paranoia, lessons in "safe sex" were "compulsory", but this didn't stop one R.E. teacher from reminding us that using condoms was a grave sin and only those who "deserved it" caught the virus anyway. I can still see this same fool prancing around with a limp wrist in an appallingly homophobic parody of a gay man. It's not as if Catholic teenagers need to have their homophobic prejudices encouraged and endorsed by the school, but they get it anyway, presumably as a precaution against their behaving towards their fellow human beings with courtesy, decency and respect.

This "compulsion" seems absolutely pointless,and no kind of compulsion at all, if we're just going grant special privileges to the chronically unreasonable.

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9. Comment #433524 by DocWebster on November 20, 2009 at 4:38 pm

I was lucky in my education. Even the most religious parents of my schoolmates had an interest in seeing that their children got a good education and not get their little heads filled with mush. It probably helped that the parents were Doctors, lawyers, a judge, and numerous loggers and woodworkers, all of whom were educated in a time when religion held more sway in primary schools so they got to see first-hand how bankrupt such a system of learning was. I'll never forget my mom telling me about class prayers and getting an F for the day if you didn't participate in a manner pleasing to the teacher, Consequently she failed many students.

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10. Comment #433536 by mitch_486 on November 20, 2009 at 5:08 pm

6. Comment #433483 by Sandra S on November 20, 2009 at 2:48 pm

In my experience, as a former CofE school child, it was simply the abundance of scripture related activities. Children are swept into the vast room of mirrors that is religion so early, and so much, that a bit of evo wouldn't phase them one bit. I'd say that (again, in my experience) for every one hour devoted to evolution per day, there would be two to three devoted to scripture. It's a case of majority rules I suppose, but obviously, it does spark interest. A shame that so much time is wasted.

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11. Comment #433564 by godlezz on November 20, 2009 at 6:22 pm

About time! Another step in Reason...

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12. Comment #433572 by sillygirl on November 20, 2009 at 7:05 pm

I wonder what will be sacrificed in order to include actual education in the curriculum. I'm betting that religious studies is not being removed.

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13. Comment #433587 by twistedgizzard on November 20, 2009 at 8:06 pm

My 6 year old daughter attends a C of E primary school and her reception year was pretty much religion free.
Now she has started year 1 the hard sell is underway with every thing from reciting the lords payer, attending mock christenings and being expected to pray before she can get her hands on her lunch.
The picture bible was a stomach churning touch too.
However im delighted to say that as she is an intelligent young lady she thinks its all a load of old bollocks! (not exactly her words but she would do her dad proud if they were)
Im not sure if very many of the kids at her school will be convinced by it and remain so through into adulthood, but its the shocking waste of valuable education time that seems to be the biggest tragedy.

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14. Comment #433588 by Gruff Mckenzie on November 20, 2009 at 8:14 pm

As a teacher you can get away with not teaching something or in your own way fairly easily, but this will increase the amount of teachers overtly teaching natural selection and evolution, getting the message through to more kids at an earlier age.
A great thing.

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15. Comment #433589 by twistedgizzard on November 20, 2009 at 8:25 pm

I have recently been trying to teach my 6 year old about evolution but she just seems incredulous to most of what i have to say.
Does anybody think i'm jumping the gun a bit and think I should leave it another year or two?
I would greatly appreciate any tips on how to present the information in a way that engages such an easily distracted mind :)

Dan

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16. Comment #433592 by esuther on November 20, 2009 at 8:40 pm

I would greatly appreciate any tips on how to present the information in a way that engages such an easily distracted mind

It sounds like you are more intelligently engaged in her education than than the average person, so I am sure she will learn science and evolution as her brain becomes able to comprehend them.
For starters, no child can resist loving baby chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, and I am sure she would be delighted to know that they are in fact her distant cousins.
If she goes through a dinosaur-loving phase, that might be a good time to inform her that big scary old dinosaurs evolved into lots of nifty smaller things, like chameleons and birds.
Have fun. Teaching children about nature is a joy.

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17. Comment #433604 by prolibertas on November 20, 2009 at 9:37 pm

Dan- 'I would greatly appreciate any tips on how to present the information in a way that engages such an easily distracted mind :)'

I find the Tree of Life image to be the most useful for teaching kids evolution. The Tree gives a poetic yet concrete image that is recognizable and memorable, and which easily demonstrates the concept of one species branching into two or more species, which in turn branch into two or more, with the reason they're branching being because they have to change to suit the different environments in which they find themselves. (The Tree image also prevents the common misconception of evolution as a ladder, of the type that makes people ask 'so why aren't all the monkeys evolving into humans?).

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18. Comment #433606 by hiraethog on November 20, 2009 at 10:04 pm

Comment 433592 by Esuther: 'big scary old dinosaurs evolved into lots of nifty smaller things, like chameleons and birds.'

Actually those big old scary things were wiped out 65 million years ago. It's the little nifty small scary things that survived then went on to evolve into things like Chamelaons and birds.

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19. Comment #433610 by Gruff Mckenzie on November 20, 2009 at 10:46 pm

Dan,

I've been doing the same with my 6 and 4 year old. I think it's just the culmination of lots of little bits at a time. A fact here or there.

looking at/talking about body plans and bones. Talking about chimps behaviour or whatever.

I have explained the process as simply as I can and the eldest has asked who the first human was and that was great for talking about a common ancestor.

We've also talked about the peppered moths and the camouflage issue. Just the art of conversation and not patronising them too much I'm hoping is moving them in the right direction. They get stuff.

After learning about Noah's ark at school we chatted and she soon realised when I pointed out all the different species there are that it's baloney!

Good luck, it's great fun...especially those times when you think of a great point but they'd rather talk about a pretty hair band or something!

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20. Comment #433611 by Kiwi on November 20, 2009 at 10:52 pm

"Faith schools (currently well over a third of state funded primary schools and rising), will be able to teach evolution in a context that reflects the school's (religious) ethos after taking into account the views of the school's (religious) governors"

I wonder if they will also be able to teach history in the same fashion ? So no, there was no holocaust, the Spanish didn't massacre the Incas, the earth wasn't created by gravity billions of years ago etc etc...

Other Comments by Kiwi

21. Comment #433616 by The Hogfather on November 21, 2009 at 12:01 am

I am as pleased as punch by this announcement, and it has come as a big surprise. I really didn't expect the campaign to succeed. A body blow to those Creationists, and that means good news for us.

I do have some concerns about exactly how evolution will be taught at the primary school level, but I will leave them to one side for now.

There is hope in this fight of ours after all!

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22. Comment #433617 by Border Collie on November 21, 2009 at 12:10 am

Screw the creationists ... on both sides of the Atlantic.

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23. Comment #433638 by The_Intangible_Fancy on November 21, 2009 at 5:06 am

@twistedgizzard

Maybe you could try telling your child the story of Charles Darwin and his adventures in the Galapagos Islands. It might make the topic more fun by turning it into a story. Personally, I think that teaching children the methods and history of science is just as important as teaching the facts, if not more so.

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24. Comment #433645 by retep57 on November 21, 2009 at 6:20 am

as an ex creationist i applaud this progress

"let look for noahs flood" hmm where did all that water go! an extra amount to cover mt everest?

let us look for thor's hammer, Pooh bear's house and noddy's house while we are at it!

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25. Comment #433650 by blakjack on November 21, 2009 at 8:14 am

My parents were christian (with a small C). From age five to seven I was sent to a Catholic Convent – I never really understood why parents made that choice. Those early school days were full of religious propaganda. The experience didn’t turn me into an instant Atheist but it certainly set the seeds. I was a fully-fledged Atheist some 20 years later.

I have said before that while Faith Schools seem wrong in principle, it would not surprise me if a majority of children - as happened to me – are turned off religion by that school experience. Churches, Mosques, Synagogues are presumably putting some funds into such schools. If they want to waste their money only to turn more people into Atheists than might otherwise have be the case, then why should we complain? Perversely, Faith Schools might be in the interests of non-believers – use their money for our benefit.

Jack

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26. Comment #433652 by russkid on November 21, 2009 at 8:39 am

I vote ditching the history and evolution in favor of somthing like: mechanics, construction, marketing, buisness, communications, computers ect ... things with some shred of practical application. Get rid of all of the esoteric crap and teach applied general education.

Give the kids some skills or at least introduction to areas of the world where jobs exist and careers can be made. Stop wasting their time with subjects that might be true of the world or even interesting but absolutely useless when it comes to applying for a job.

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27. Comment #433672 by Tritovore on November 21, 2009 at 12:36 pm

russkid: While I sympathise with your view that we should teach (or in my case, I suppose, be taught) topics such as the ones you describe, I still think it is vital to teach people such subjects as evolution and history. After all, should history be ditched from the curriculum tomorrow, I am pretty confident that we'd see an overall and massive drop a few years later on of people trying to take up careers as historians. And while that may not seem like a terrible thing to some (especially people who couldn't stand their History lessons at school) I think it would be a great shame. Surely we ought, as a species in general, to remember the past and not make the same mistakes we did last time (think the rise of the Nazis and the current parallel in the UK of the BNP)?
I'm also a bit suprised that anyone here is advocating not teaching the theory of evolution. Are you also in favour of not teaching other basic principles of science such as the germ theory of disease and the wave model of radiation? What, for the record, is your stance on teaching science subjects such as Biology and Chemistry, which are surely useful for anyone wanting to follow a career as a Biologist or Chemist?

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28. Comment #433686 by bendigeidfran on November 21, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Comment #433672 by Tritovore

It's russkid. He's bananas.

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29. Comment #433708 by Quetzalcoatl on November 21, 2009 at 3:25 pm

Give the kids some skills or at least introduction to areas of the world where jobs exist and careers can be made. Stop wasting their time with subjects that might be true of the world or even interesting but absolutely useless when it comes to applying for a job.

Russkid supports the abolition of religious studies classes in schools! You heard it here first, folks!

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30. Comment #433735 by russkid on November 21, 2009 at 5:52 pm

What, for the record, is your stance on teaching science subjects such as Biology and Chemistry, which are surely useful for anyone wanting to follow a career as a Biologist or Chemist?

If the knowledge taught in the subject could be applied to practical tasks that are required by the types of jobs the student stands to land then fine, teach it.

Biologists, Chemists, Teachers, Doctors and the like get the education they need for their jobs by going to college ... somthing that many kids cant do or arent interested in doing. They get out of highschool and are barely qualified to work the drive thru at Burger King.

They spent 4 years of highschool learning about the coeficient of friction and pathagorean theorem, reading Fountainhead and Beowulf ect. Things that are absolutely useless for an 18 year old who doesnt have the chance to go to college and needs a job that pays more than min wage so he can make payments on his car or appartment.

I was just reminded of a funny story, well funny to me anyways. I used to work at a place that did data processing for banks and one morning I got a call from a teller who couldnt get her computer to work ( not my job to fix ). Anyways, long story short after about 20 mins of "I'm pressing the button and the light comes on but the screen is blank bla bla bla" it becomes apparent that she is turning the monitor off and on and completely oblivious to the box underneath desk that is the actual PC, and isnt turned on. Teach that stuff before the vietnam war and darwins finches.

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31. Comment #434004 by Border Collie on November 23, 2009 at 12:06 am

America's future scientists ...http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/35-amazing-science-fair-projects?cb=1257884353011&contribution=false

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32. Comment #434386 by Alternative Carpark on November 24, 2009 at 2:49 am