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Subject:
From:
Colin Purrington <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informal Science Education Network <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:02:28 -0500
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ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Since we're on the topic of evolution and creationism, I've be  
interested in any views on the influence of homeschooling parents at  
your institution.  I know that my local institutes (Franklin  
Institute, Academy of Natural Sciences, and Philadelphia Zoo) all  
have education offerings for the home school crowd.  If (if) this  
crowd is predominantly averse to teaching their kids evolution, the  
institutions get pressured to omit both classes and signage that  
might discuss descent with modification and natural selection.  This  
pressure might be purely indirect and economic -- classes like  
"Darwin goes to the zoo" during the day might not be hugely popular  
with fundamentalist parents, I suspect.  Furthermore, I have been  
told that many zoos have volunteers that seem to be predominantly pro- 
creationism, which might further encourage science institutions to  
avoid evolution.  Zoos in particular seem like THE place to discuss  
evolution, so it seems like there has to be SOME explanation for the  
general lack of evolution coverage.

Any experiences out there to share?

Colin Purrington
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/

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