Letter from another teacher...
I have a parent of a 7th grader who is Jehovah Witness and won't let their son sit in class while we are learning about evolution.
She asked me for an alternate assignment and I explained to her that there was no alternate assignment to learning about evolution.
She told me that she would prefer that her kid take the 0 over the assignments in evolution. I met with my principal and lead curriculum superintendent about the 0's and they feel that the student shouldn't be punished for not taking the evolution assignments. I am not going to give him credit for something that is not evolution.
He is going to sit in the library and read science magazines and then summarize the articles in his science notebook. And, I will not put in any grades for him in our evolution unit.
Can others give me ideas about how you might have handled a similar experience?
Do you agree with what we are doing? disagree? have a better plan?
Thank you so much.
The student has the ultimate decision here. Students in biology class are accountable for the material their classes cover, regardless of their personal religious beliefs. If the student is willing to take a zero on the entire unit of evolution then that is their decision. To hide behind a religious doctrine against learning an idea is morally outrageous and demonstrates incredible naivety. To neglect an idea of biology as significant as evolution is similar to trying to learn the English language without vowels.
I agree with this teacher's position that she will not give or award credit for any explanation that does not embrace evolution as a likely cause. Writing "God did it" is not a biological nor scientific explanation for the origin of man and to accept such explanations are a mockery of science.
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