Re: Evolutionary psychology

[David Likely]

Tipsters might be interested in the March 02 Scientific American, which carries a report on state educational standards relevant to teaching about evolution. A map shows about 18 states coloured red for "Unsatisfactory, useless or absent." Ten or so are green for "Very good/excellent." Karl Wuench's Carolinas are green, by the way. New York is yellow for "Satisfactory/good" but also marked "inclusion of creationist jargon." "The E-word is avoided" appears to be the Ohio strategy. There aren't any data for Canada (or for Iowa, for some reason). I'd guess that Canada by province would be mostly green, maybe yellow in one or two places. A map of local school board opinion, though, would certainly have red blotches, some of them very close to where I live.

I taught biological and comparative psych for years before I was aware that there was any sort of problem, but when it showed up in my classroom, it was in a rather pleasant way: two students approached me after a lecture on Darwin. They wanted me to know that as a matter of conscience, they could not "believe in evolution," but because it was clear to them that lots of people do, they thought it worthwhile to try to understand that belief -- if only to refute it. I thought that was great, and praised them for their skepticism (regardless of the reasons for it, and without suggesting that they apply it to their own beliefs). I made a point of relating this anecdote when I taught the course again.

-David

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David G. Likely, Department of Psychology

University of New Brunswick

Fredericton, N. B., Canada  E3B 5A3

History of Psychology: http://www.unb.ca/psychology/likely/psyc4053.htm

OALP Login: httpS://www.unb.ca/sweb/psych/likely

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