A Few of the Findings:
20% of Florida’s biology teachers are NOT COMFORTABLE with even INCLUDING evolution as a required science standard
17% of the teachers felt that biology COULD be taught and understood WITHOUT teaching evolution
17% DISAGREED that the earth is at least 4 billion years old (34% of those that disagreed believed that the earth is only between 4,000 and 40,000 years old)
34% felt that believing in God MEANS rejecting evolution
72% of the respondents reported that they HAD NEVER BEEN criticized by other teachers or school administrators in regards to HOW they taught evolution
44% of the teachers indicated that their teaching of evolution HAS BEEN criticized by students or parents

cakrit wrote:
How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution? Is anyone fighting to get laws passed against this? Creationists are using all their might to make creationism accepted in schools and - thankfully - have not succeeded yet. Isn't it time someone fought back so that these ignorant fools can be relieved of duty?

cakrit wrote:
How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution? Is anyone fighting to get laws passed against this? Creationists are using all their might to make creationism accepted in schools and - thankfully - have not succeeded yet. Isn't it time someone fought back so that these ignorant fools can be relieved of duty?

katja z wrote:

cakrit wrote:
How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution? Is anyone fighting to get laws passed against this? Creationists are using all their might to make creationism accepted in schools and - thankfully - have not succeeded yet. Isn't it time someone fought back so that these ignorant fools can be relieved of duty?

While I fully share your sentiments on those teachers, I wonder how you could ensure that someone "believes" in evolution. Would there be some sort of creed to recite?

On a more serious note, there probably could be a binding statement about teaching evolution in class they'd have to sign. It's sad though that this should even be a question. IMO, it's completely irrelevant whether a teacher thinks the theory of evolution is valid or whether they think the world is a ball of phlegm coughed up yesterday by a deity with a bad case of common cold. As long as they do their job and tell kids what science has to say about the whole thing, I really don't care.

cakrit wrote:http://ecographica.blogspot.com/2010/03/views-of-biology-teachers-towards.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ResearchBloggingAllEnglish+(Research+Blogging+-+English+-+All+Topics)&utm_content=Google+Reader

A Few of the Findings:
20% of Florida’s biology teachers are NOT COMFORTABLE with even INCLUDING evolution as a required science standard
17% of the teachers felt that biology COULD be taught and understood WITHOUT teaching evolution
17% DISAGREED that the earth is at least 4 billion years old (34% of those that disagreed believed that the earth is only between 4,000 and 40,000 years old)
34% felt that believing in God MEANS rejecting evolution
72% of the respondents reported that they HAD NEVER BEEN criticized by other teachers or school administrators in regards to HOW they taught evolution
44% of the teachers indicated that their teaching of evolution HAS BEEN criticized by students or parents

How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution? Is anyone fighting to get laws passed against this? Creationists are using all their might to make creationism accepted in schools and - thankfully - have not succeeded yet. Isn't it time someone fought back so that these ignorant fools can be relieved of duty?

cakrit wrote:
On the other point though, we're not talking about believing in Voodoo or ghosts. We are talking about understanding the material that it is your job to teach. It is impossible for someone with doubts about evolution to refrain from making an idiotic comment like that it is 'just a theory'.

cakrit wrote:How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution?

mmmcheezy wrote:It's still wrong.

Michael Markham wrote:

mmmcheezy wrote:It's still wrong.

If he were right..........would anybody be better off?

mmmcheezy wrote:

Michael Markham wrote:

mmmcheezy wrote:It's still wrong.

If he were right..........would anybody be better off?

All I'm saying is that nobody should take a career that they can't do correctly.

Michael Markham wrote:





Perhaps.................you could tell tell that to our President.

mmmcheezy wrote:All I'm saying is that nobody should take a career that they can't do correctly. If you're a biology teacher, your job is to teach biology, which includes evolution [and has for many many years now].

Warren Dew wrote:

mmmcheezy wrote:All I'm saying is that nobody should take a career that they can't do correctly. If you're a biology teacher, your job is to teach biology, which includes evolution [and has for many many years now].

If they are education majors, how are they supposed to realize that they can't teach biology correctly? They may never have been exposed to any real science, let alone evolution, so they don't have any basis to know just how critical evolution is to biology.

katja z wrote:

cakrit wrote:
How can someone be allowed to be a biology teacher when they don't believe in evolution? Is anyone fighting to get laws passed against this? Creationists are using all their might to make creationism accepted in schools and - thankfully - have not succeeded yet. Isn't it time someone fought back so that these ignorant fools can be relieved of duty?

While I fully share your sentiments on those teachers, I wonder how you could ensure that someone "believes" in evolution. Would there be some sort of creed to recite?

On a more serious note, there probably could be a binding statement about teaching evolution in class they'd have to sign. It's sad though that this should even be a question. IMO, it's completely irrelevant whether a teacher thinks the theory of evolution is valid or whether they think the world is a ball of phlegm coughed up yesterday by a deity with a bad case of common cold. As long as they do their job and tell kids what science has to say about the whole thing, I really don't care.

mmmcheezy wrote:

Warren Dew wrote:

mmmcheezy wrote:All I'm saying is that nobody should take a career that they can't do correctly. If you're a biology teacher, your job is to teach biology, which includes evolution [and has for many many years now].

If they are education majors, how are they supposed to realize that they can't teach biology correctly? They may never have been exposed to any real science, let alone evolution, so they don't have any basis to know just how critical evolution is to biology.

Well, it's things like this [and many others] that make it so OBVIOUS that our education system needs a major overhaul.