An atheist Parent asks: Should Creationism be Examined in the Science Class?
In the midst of all the Darwin celebrations, many questions are being raised, once again, about creationism, Darwinism and what to tell the children. 
Wo King, father of an 11-year-old, is one of those wondering what's best. Here he explains how he feels, and wonders why his son is not being taught more about Darwin's theories:
"I am an atheist father of a bright and beautiful 11-year-old boy. My son goes to a South London secondary school which has just opened and for now only has a year 7 and 8.
I am intimately involved in his education and upbringing and been impressed with the commitment and quality of the teachers. However, being a new school they have not yet formulated policy on some contentious issues.
One of those is evolution and creationism. Due to the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and 150 years since the publication of The Origin of the Species I have been asking for nearly a year now for the school to mark this occasion and for them to tell me how they deal with Creationism and Intelligent Design. They have revealed that they are only going to mark it during science week in assembly and pointed to where it is taught in the curriculum.
Wo King, father of an 11-year-old, is one of those wondering what's best. Here he explains how he feels, and wonders why his son is not being taught more about Darwin's theories:
"I am an atheist father of a bright and beautiful 11-year-old boy. My son goes to a South London secondary school which has just opened and for now only has a year 7 and 8.
I am intimately involved in his education and upbringing and been impressed with the commitment and quality of the teachers. However, being a new school they have not yet formulated policy on some contentious issues.
One of those is evolution and creationism. Due to the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and 150 years since the publication of The Origin of the Species I have been asking for nearly a year now for the school to mark this occasion and for them to tell me how they deal with Creationism and Intelligent Design. They have revealed that they are only going to mark it during science week in assembly and pointed to where it is taught in the curriculum.
Considering the host of other extra-curricular activities and projects that he has to do, the fact that this anniversary of the birth of the author of this most groundbreaking theory was being hardly mentioned, made me wonder if some schools are trying to avoid this issue and why.
As an atheist, my automatic reaction was of indignation when Michael Reiss of the Royal Society suggested that the issue of creationism in the science class should be addressed. Now though I am not totally sure. I still think it has no scientific basis, but am concerned for another reason.
In schools, especially in South London, there is a sizeable minority of children who come from families which believe in creationism. It has got to be hard for a science teacher to tell them that their parents, and an important part of their upbringing, is wrong. To say that science and religion can remain separate when one stipulates that people can come back to life and both explain how life around us came to be, is naive and confusing to children.
I do not believe that religion has an automatic right of respect, but I do believe that a child, who is being taught what can be fundamentally contradictory to his upbringing, has to be dealt with sensitively and intelligently. Otherwise some children will ignore the teaching, keep it quite from their families or get into bitter arguments. In America, they are having bitter battles about the teaching of ID and evolution. At least it is being debated there. What we seem to be doing is a very English trait of compromising while trying to respect others' beliefs. This is not helping anyone, especially not the children, or the theory of evolution.
Opinion amongst educators is deeply divided on how to address ID. There is no proper guidance from government which just says that ID should not be taught in the science class but in RE. But the children have questions which cover both disciplines and we are leaving the parents and others to fill the gaps. The argument that you should bring it in to be debated is a fallacy as debates should be proportionate. Not every argument should have a for or against, as there is no evidence that ID has any basis to it. Debating it would give it undue prominence and weight.
While online forums and debates rage between the two sides, the child's feelings and sense of confusion and the teaching of evolution seem to be ignored. If we are to increase the acceptance of evolutionary thinking we should not be so worried about respecting the beliefs of the parents no matter what side they are on, but better understand the needs of the child. The school is now wondering how it is going to deal with Creationism if the subjects is brought up by a pupil or parent.
As an atheist, my automatic reaction was of indignation when Michael Reiss of the Royal Society suggested that the issue of creationism in the science class should be addressed. Now though I am not totally sure. I still think it has no scientific basis, but am concerned for another reason.
In schools, especially in South London, there is a sizeable minority of children who come from families which believe in creationism. It has got to be hard for a science teacher to tell them that their parents, and an important part of their upbringing, is wrong. To say that science and religion can remain separate when one stipulates that people can come back to life and both explain how life around us came to be, is naive and confusing to children.
I do not believe that religion has an automatic right of respect, but I do believe that a child, who is being taught what can be fundamentally contradictory to his upbringing, has to be dealt with sensitively and intelligently. Otherwise some children will ignore the teaching, keep it quite from their families or get into bitter arguments. In America, they are having bitter battles about the teaching of ID and evolution. At least it is being debated there. What we seem to be doing is a very English trait of compromising while trying to respect others' beliefs. This is not helping anyone, especially not the children, or the theory of evolution.
Opinion amongst educators is deeply divided on how to address ID. There is no proper guidance from government which just says that ID should not be taught in the science class but in RE. But the children have questions which cover both disciplines and we are leaving the parents and others to fill the gaps. The argument that you should bring it in to be debated is a fallacy as debates should be proportionate. Not every argument should have a for or against, as there is no evidence that ID has any basis to it. Debating it would give it undue prominence and weight.
While online forums and debates rage between the two sides, the child's feelings and sense of confusion and the teaching of evolution seem to be ignored. If we are to increase the acceptance of evolutionary thinking we should not be so worried about respecting the beliefs of the parents no matter what side they are on, but better understand the needs of the child. The school is now wondering how it is going to deal with Creationism if the subjects is brought up by a pupil or parent.
So I can give some input to the school as they ponder this subject, my questions are:How should a teacher handle a child's questions that have been brought up with creationist beliefs?
Should there be clearer guidance as to how this should be addressed? I would like to know what to say to my school instead of the silence, anger or avoidance that usually follows this issue. The children and Charles Darwin's theory deserve better."
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