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Turned off science
Students may be the real victims of the evolution wars

By Sandra Lilley
News planning editor
NBC News
Updated: 3:35 p.m. ET June 3, 2005

The battle over teaching evolution is raging in communities across the
country, but the headlines rarely focus on the "quiet" impact of this
controversy.
Science is becoming a political "hot potato" for some students -
transforming what should be a dynamic, fascinating topic into a total
turn-off. And some students are choosing silence over losing a prom date.

"Children are very much worried about their place in the world. Some
students only ask me about evolution privately, after class," said Wes
McCoy, PhD, who teaches Genetics, Biology and Astronomy at North Cobb High
School in Kennessaw, Ga.

McCoy, who has won the Georgia "Outstanding Biology Teacher" award, is
active in his Presbyterian church and also serves on the National Executive
Board of the Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the
Christian faith, is saddened by what he has seen in his classroom.

"Students face consequences if they choose to accept evolution in a family
or a church or a community that patently rejects evolution ... It might
affect whether you get a date to the prom, or whether you get that summer
job or not," McCoy said. "You may even anger close family members.
Conversations about evolution can make family reunions very tense."

And at a time when the National Science Foundation projects that the number
of scientists and engineers reaching retirement age is expected to triple in
the next 10 years, McCoy and others argue that the "evolution wars" are
taking time away from their life's work - making these children excited and
prepared - to become the next Jonas Salk or Bill Gates.

Science politicized
The town of Kennessaw, where McCoy teaches, is part of Cobb County, Ga. It
was in Cobb County that a U.S. district judge recently ruled against the
"evolution is just a theory" disclaimer sticker, which had been placed on
science textbooks by the local school board.

So is this a "victory" for the educators, who argued against the stickers in
federal court?

"The decision to place stickers on the books already reflects an unfortunate
politicization of science," said Brown University professor Kenneth Miller,
the co-author of"Biology," the textbook that had the stickers removed.

"Clearly the right thing to do was to remove those stickers and treat
evolution as any other subject. But in a sense it has already done damage to
science teaching by implying that evolution is especially weak and
especially shaky, when it reality it is neither," Miller said.

Clare McKinney teaches biology and zoology at Jefferson High School in
Lafayette, Indiana. She is also a Christian who has been on national news
defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom.

McKinney explained why the debate over evolution versus creationism is
appealing - and important - to children in her classes.

"For kids this age, fairness is a real issue. Many children, who are not
even familiar with the sound evidence surrounding evolution, signed
petitions to 'include' intelligent design because it seemed 'fair,'" said
McKinney. That said, she also understands the pressure these children feel
to "reconcile" their beliefs with science - she went through it herself.

According to McKinney, interested students have waited until they are
outside the classroom to discuss what they perceive as "conflicting" views.
"I have flat out told students that the more I know about science, the more
glorious God seems," said McKinney.

She stresses in her classroom that "science is not out to prove the presence
or absence of God - whatever you believe, it's OK," adding, "You can almost
see the anxiety level diminish when I say that."

A unified theory
But what concerns educators like Miller is whether this politicization of
basic science dissuades children from going into the field.

Miller, an enthusiastic Catholic who wrote the book "Finding Darwin's God: A
Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution," finds this
troubling.

"Science is the one thing that is universal across cultures.and yet [after
the evolution debates] some children in this country are seeing science as a
potential minefield," explained Miller.

"We are at a disadvantage if we don't teach kids evolution, because it's the
one unified theory that can explain everything from antibiotic resistance to
pesticide resistance over time," Miller said. "If a child becomes a
pharmacist and someone develops a resistance to a drug, that is evolution.
We have to be able to teach it well."

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

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