I have written the principal of LAHS to verify this. She has sent me an initial response that she was contacting the Department chairs for further information. (Not to doubt you Doug...I wrote her immediately after our first exchange.) In addition, I have spoken to a number of LAHS parents and community members who were appalled at the thought of excluding evolution in course curriculum.
Evolution plays an important part in the science at LANL...at least in its computational, biological, and medical research. This should be reflected in the education of the community's children. (Not to say one way or the other that it is.) The changing demographic in Los Alamos county will hopefully be evidenced tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out. Kari > <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> > <html> > <head> > <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> > </head> > <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> > Douglas Roberts wrote: > <blockquote > cite="mid:[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > type="cite">Clarification (I just asked my wife for details): the > (verbal) directive to not teach evolution in Los Alamos High School > science classes was issued three years ago. Some of the teachers > chose > to circumvent this directive by teaching from the historical > perspective of Darwin's life.<br> > <br> > </blockquote> > <br> > I can report on contrasting (but similar) situation where a friend was > teaching Laser Science and Holography in a High School in Missouri a > couple of years ago. It might not surprise us that in Missouri, a > teacher would be told not to teach Evolution. This friend was not > told > not to teach evolution (it wasn't in his curricula anyway), but after > many months of intriguing young minds with the wonders of science and > technology, he managed to make some statement (I can't remember the > particulars) that tied lots of what he'd said to them to the dirtiest > of words - <i>Evolution</i>. After the reactions of most of > his > promising young science students made him aware that he'd stepped in > something messy, he went to the principal to ask what the school policy > was (assuming the worst). The principal simply said "You are > on your > own". The implied message was that the school would not interfere if > he wanted to (needed to) go into such things, but that neither would > they defend him against irate parents (and students) either.<br> > <br> > Being an easy-going but determined sort, he continued (carefully) with > his class to engage them in all things scientific that he could and > when he stumbled into the no-man's land of dogma, he let them blow off > their dogmatic steam against <i>Evolution and whatnot</i>. I suspect > he made some very serious headway into changing "hearts and minds" in > that little Missouri town, simply by showing them how interesting > Science could be but not needing to confront their dogma directly. I > can just see him listening to them spout dogma back at him with a > twinkle in his eye and then go back to whatever clever science > experiment he was into, knowing they had to hear the inanity of their > own line, without him saying a word against it.<br> > <br> > Los Alamos is a different story. My daughters both went > through the > LA school systems and I found the DARE (Drugs Are Really Expensive) > program started when my oldest was in 6th grade every bit as offensive > as banning Evolution from Science. My very strong-willed > daughter > came home one day chanting "I will think for myself, I WILL think for > myself, I will THINK for myself... " and told me all about the DARE > program that one of LA's finest had come to tell them about. She was > really excited. They were all being offered a chance to "think for > themselves!" with a vengeance, what could be better? They were going > to have a club whose motto was "I think for myself!". There > was even > a subtext that part of thinking for themselves was reporting to the > club-meister ( a police officer ) anyone they knew of using illegal > drugs. <br> > <br> > I have my own reasons (beyond security clearances, etc) for rejecting > the pop-drug-culture, but this was patently offensive and > wrong. The > schools (and police) were one step away from creating something like > the "Brown Shirts" of Nazi Germany. Fortunately, I was able to > laugh > it off and steer my 12 year old back onto her old track of *thinking > for herself* and once she realized they were pandering to that part of > her ego and in fact were asking her to do anything but *think for > herself*, she was free of their mesmerization. Unfortunately at > least > half of her peer group ate it up like Doug's proverbial dog-vomit and > proudly. I don't know what their parents told them... but I > suspect > they either didn't want to "rock the boat" or they actually thought > teaching children to "think for themselves" amounted to teaching them > how to recite that line while goose-stepping through the halls in > cadence. Sad for such an educated and presumably enlightened > community. With that backdrop, it is only a small step (in my mind) > to > the same administration and teachers going along with "no Evolution > teaching".<br> > <br> > I am as surprised as most of you that there was not an uprising over > the "banning of Evolution" (even) at LAHS. I can see why Doug might > have developed an acute sense of (what do we call paranoia when it is > well founded?). Do we have others with children or teachers in the LAHS > system here to report? I would expect at the very least, for > the > thespians to write a scathing satire about this and perform it every > semester. Doug? Maybe you can get this started?<br> > <br> > I am not a big fan of public school systems in general, but like > Democracy, find them a lesser of evils, and the LA schools systems > having the blessing of a good budget and some very motivated and > capable teachers. I'm even a lesser fan of elite (often religious) > private schools either BTW, and home-schooling as it is often done > today (usually for elitist and/or religious reasons) sucks even > more! > I just can't be pleased, can I? There is very little that my > daughters > learned in school that I didn't have the opportunity (as with the DARE > program) to provide some perspective. Had they been raised in a time > of "non-Evolution" we would have had long, often hilarious talks about > it, I am sure. As we did around the DARE program and any number of > other popular educational pecadillos. <br> > <br> > - Steve<br> > </body> > </html> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
