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The point - the ENTIRE point - of an education is to push students to think. To challenge them to consider the world in new ways. Which makes this unbelievably depressing:

Even where evolution is taught, teachers may be hesitant to give it full weight. Ron Bier, a biology teacher at Oberlin High School in Oberlin, Ohio, said that evolution underlies many of the central ideas of biology and that it is crucial for students to understand it. But he avoids controversy, he said, by teaching it not as "a unit," but by introducing the concept here and there throughout the year. "I put out my little bits and pieces wherever I can," he said. He noted that his high school, in a college town, has many students whose parents are professors who have no problem with the teaching of evolution. But many other students come from families that may not accept the idea, he said, "and that holds me back to some extent." "I don't force things," Mr. Bier added. "I don't argue with students about it."

And we wonder why we consistently rank well below many of the other leading nations of the world in the math and science aptitude of our children? Our teachers are afraid to argue with students?

You want a good argument for why we need strong unions for teachers? This is just about the best one I can think of: so that they are protected from bullshit like this. Evolution is as much a fact as the knowledge that the Earth orbits the sun, and the fact that religious zealots disbelieve does not make it otherwise. You can, I hate to say, be both religious and wrong. In fact, a vast majority of human history is based on that very concept.

What's next? Not teaching anatomy because some people believe prayer, and not modern medicine, is the only way to heal disease? Not teaching plate tectonics or geology because it might suggest to someone that the Earth is older than the Bible proclaims? Not discussing the possibility of life on other planets because the Bible doesn't discuss it? And if not, why not?

I just don't understand how its possible that we're in the 21st century and arguing about evolution. What is wrong with this country?

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