...for a couple reasons. Here is one of the main ones:
I dont know that I have a ton to offer as an educator, or even a love of helping/teaching kids to learn, but this sh*t drives me nuts. Frankly, I think one of the biggest issues is that people only become science teachers because it's easier to get a job that way, than to teach history.
In fact, I have a friend with an English degree who teaches high school biology, because they couldn't find anyone who was actually qualified, and she's a pretty good teacher so they let her do it.
Point is, people who are educated in, and understand science well enough, generally become scientists because they like research and it's more interesting than teaching, and probably overall pays better. That or they become professors at universities instead of public school teachers. Thing is, topics like evolution aren't "easy" to fully understand, let alone get across well to a bunch of still-forming minds. Throw into that mix a bunch of religious nonsense, and it's obvious why these people dont do a good job. They don't know any better. Even at the graduate level, I have been in classes where somebody said something like "How does a plant know it needs to evolve though? It's not like they have a brain."
Solution? No idea. But Im thinking of taking one for the team (America) here and getting a job at one of these redneck schools out here and riling up some meth-head parents with my ape-man talk. And joker can still give me sh*t for living off the government teat, although not for saving worthless rare fish.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/01/evolution-teaching-poor-/1Evolution teaching poor in U.S. high schools
Most U.S. high school biology teachers "fail to forthrightly explain evolutionary biology," finds an educator survey. And at least 13% "strongly support" teaching creationism.
Evolution, the inheritance of changed characteristics across generations, is the fundamental unifying concept underlying biology, as a National Research Council science education standards released in 1996 noted. That report said, "... 'biological evolution' cannot be eliminated from the life science standards."
But only 28% of the 926 teachers surveyed, "unabashedly introduce evidence that evolution has occurred and craft lesson plans so that evolution is a theme that unifies disparate topics in biology," according to the Science report by Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer of Penn State. Most biology teachers belong to the "cautious 60%," who are "neither strong advocates for evolutionary biology nor explicit endorsers of nonscientific alternatives," the study says. As mentioned, 13% of respondents advocated biblical creationism or "intelligent design" creationism in biology class.
I dont know that I have a ton to offer as an educator, or even a love of helping/teaching kids to learn, but this sh*t drives me nuts. Frankly, I think one of the biggest issues is that people only become science teachers because it's easier to get a job that way, than to teach history.
In fact, I have a friend with an English degree who teaches high school biology, because they couldn't find anyone who was actually qualified, and she's a pretty good teacher so they let her do it.
Point is, people who are educated in, and understand science well enough, generally become scientists because they like research and it's more interesting than teaching, and probably overall pays better. That or they become professors at universities instead of public school teachers. Thing is, topics like evolution aren't "easy" to fully understand, let alone get across well to a bunch of still-forming minds. Throw into that mix a bunch of religious nonsense, and it's obvious why these people dont do a good job. They don't know any better. Even at the graduate level, I have been in classes where somebody said something like "How does a plant know it needs to evolve though? It's not like they have a brain."
Solution? No idea. But Im thinking of taking one for the team (America) here and getting a job at one of these redneck schools out here and riling up some meth-head parents with my ape-man talk. And joker can still give me sh*t for living off the government teat, although not for saving worthless rare fish.