Atheism

Deeply depressing that this email even has to be written.

Love their phrasing. Really makes it difficult for anyone to object without sounding like a complete asshole.

Yeah it's not a point for science if the science teacher has to apologize for teaching science

Hell, when I was in Catholic high school, there was a world religions class, and we learned all sorts of stuff about all sorts of religions, without any snark or derision or sense of superiority. I still remember that there's an eightfold path to union with Buddha, though I don't remember any of the steps on that path.

I was even the "resident non-believer" in class discussions, and I only felt a little twinge of weirdness from other students (but not the teacher). I was already an outsider so I didn't care. I suppose Catholic school isn't as bad as generic Christian (read: evangelical) school.

In civilized countries there's no need for all the pussyfooting about "cultural and religious beliefs" and reassuring sky-fairly-believers that the Theory Of Evolution module is merelly "introducing what the scientific standpoint is".

Merely that such an intro was needed is itself an indication of how fast the US is regressing away from XXI century Developed Nation.

The bar is so fucking low.

'Last Thursdayism' is the key to ending the squabble on evolution vs creation.

Sure, Earth is a thousand years old or some shit; but you see, god is super sneaky, and made billions+ year long backstory for his fresh creation, so on day 1 the earth has topsoil, fossils, oil, critters in all stages of life including old cranky ones that still remember their childhood (which never took place, you see - that was pre-existence, but to the individual critter, pre and post creation of everything are indistinguishable.

Boom. Evolution is now compatible with creationism, we can stop bashing heads over that one now.

we understand this is a very sensitive topic

Ya wot m8?

They could snark it up a bit by adding a disclaimer that some of the geology evidence will require teaching the earth is globe-shaped.

It's only a sensitive topic if you're on that gamma bronze age peasant whineset

Looks like a pretty bog-standard notice whenever evolution gets taught, at least in all my classes. Really shouldn't have anything to do with religion vs atheism.

Raised in a religious community, the closest we got in our high school was Earth Science and Biology (this one was taught by a christian fellow, too). I wasn't exposed to Evolutionary discussion until college.

I had an anti-science argument with my counselor and tried to opt out of Earth Science in my first year. She said "you just have to take it". I was at that stage where I was afraid to challenge my beliefs.

Within the next 4 years, I was agnostic. During college, and through an anthropology class, it was clear I was ill-informed.

At this point, I also wouldn't consider my self "atheist", because the community around it (on Reddit) became it's own sort of religion that spent their days bashing on (primarily) christians. Religion, to me, is no more than parables that teach good morals.

What's neat is some US states and/or school districts strictly enforce the teacher's right to pick the study materials, for better or for worse. Which is weird to think about because they don't even pay them fairly.

I'd like to see endosymbiosis covered. At this grade level they should have the structure of a cell down, and at least be able to define both chloroplasts and mitochondria. Mitochondrial evolution has continued within our cells and offers some of the strongest evidence, as well a form of evidence they are more likely to experience (23 and me, etc), in the form of genomic testing.

This is obviously a curriculum based on the historical way in which we established the theory of evolution, and while a traditional approach to science (to effectively teach it as historical anecdote), I don't think it's the most engaging. Students in this age range have their eyes roll like giant boulders off a cliff when confronted with the highly dynamic concepts of finches and peas. At the end of the day it's the story of a dude who married his cousin and was fond of plant tropisms. Maybe more interesting when you are a bit more mature.

If you take it from the perspective of endosymbiosis, you get to tell a story of cells attacking or invading other cells, but how evolution didn't stop there. And because evolution didn't stop, that's why and how we know everyone on the planet is related.

It's probably a bit much for eight graders but I've also seen HIV being used as the central teaching element for evolution, about specifically how the virus evades the human immune response system by constantly evolving.

Just because there was some specific order white Europeans discovered some particular concept in, doesn't make it necessarily the best way to teach a concept, nor is it a presentation of the strongest forms of evidence for that concept.

Religion doesn't necessarily need to disprove evolution, most religious people just do.