OP - On Evolution

                I’m currently enrolled in a 400 level Biology course called Biological Evolution.  This is a course for Biology major seniors, and it is an elective.  The department does not force students to take this course.  This means, everyone enrolled in this class with me has chosen to take a course on evolution. 

                On the first day of class, we were doing some preliminary clicker questions, things like “What year are you in?” and “Why did you choose to take this course?”  One of these questions was “On a scale of 1-5, how comfortable are you in discussing evolution?”  And of our 25 person class, 7-9 people were at a 3 or lower, with two students in the “not comfortable whatsoever” category.  Our professor immediately changed his direction, and began speaking about how he grew up Christian, and eventually settled on his own derived Christian/evolutionist perspective, and stressed the importance of arriving at one’s own conclusions on the spectrum.  Yet what floored me was this man’s tone of voice.  It softened and slowed down in a manner that reminded me of someone trying to soothe a small child or calm a frightened pet.  He did not want to offend these students (who had voluntarily signed up for a class on evolution), by speaking about evolution as if it were true.  And I couldn’t help thinking, “Why do we still have to do this?”

                As someone who in the future will be educating students on evolution I find the expected controversy that surrounds the subject to be exasperating.  Every unit I’ve ever covered on evolution has been prefaced by “I’m required to teach this, and I won’t give my opinions on it, but this must be done so let’s just do it quickly ok?”

                People differ in opinion, that’s the way the world works.  There are different religions, different countries, different political parties, and individual differences and preferences in food or entertainment.  Yet education goes on.  Children of Democrats are educated about Republicans, and students in English classes are told to read stories that somebody once deemed “classic”.  Yet The Great Gatsby isn’t introduced with the hurried assurance that you don’t have to consider the book a classic to read it.

                So, why then does evolution remain a subject that instills the fear of disagreement and offense?  I’m not saying that the students must believe it; I’m saying they must learn it.  If they want to look at it as an intriguing story instead of fact, that’s fine.  Reading contradictory material doesn’t force someone to change their belief.  If anything, it would likely make it stronger by looking into material to refute the material I have shown them to teach about evolution.

                I know that one of the most controversial points embedded within evolution is that of human evolution, including the inaccurate oversimplification of “man from monkey”.  Never have I been taught such a thing while learning evolution, because that isn’t actually a component of human evolutionary concept.  The way to counteract this ignorance is to teach the current theory about it, which will never occur while science teachers are expected to tiptoe around religious beliefs. 

                In short, people can get offended by many things, but walking into a situation and insisting that you have a right to be closed minded because you disagree is simply not how the world works on other platforms (presidential debate anyone?).  This same concept should apply to the classroom, where the students should see the word “evolution” on a syllabus or course description and know it is coming so as to prepare themselves to listen to the new information, even if they do not take it to heart.