The argument started in 1859 when Charles Darwin published a book, named The Origin of Species. This book gave birth to the idea of Evolution. Evolution is defined by Webster as “a theory that the difference between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time.” Before Darwin had published his book most people believed in Creationism. Webster Dictionary as “the belief that God created all things out of nothing as described in the Bible.” Creationism was a huge part of children’s lives. Schools across the country were teaching Creationism to children without a complaint from parents. Our students are slowly losing their voices in the classroom, teachers are enforcing opinions on students …show more content…
54% of students stated that Creationism was taught as a scientific equivalent to Evolution. 52% of teachers stated they taught only Evolution, while only 3% only teach Creationism. 24% of teachers say they teach both Evolution and Creationism and 25% teach neither Creationism nor Evolution (Moored). Many teachers skillfully placed Evolution on their syllabuses toward the end of the year and coincidentally ran out of time to teach the subject. Other teachers decided to teach Evolution strictly to their high-leveled courses. These teachers wanted to avoid confrontation with parents. Many teachers either lack the knowledge to teach Evolution or they are still afraid of confrontation of angry parents. Teachers do not want to teach anything they are not comfortable with. Many teachers have religious beliefs and it is really hard to teach students what they personally do not believe or comfortable discussing. It is hard for students to learn and study something that they do no believe. Many students have parents that teach them from a young age about religion. They do not care about Evolution because they do not believe in this idea. So teachers take out this part of science to make the grades look better and in turn make the teacher look better …show more content…
A debate began in Louisiana because of a textbook that was up for approval that teaches neo-Darwinian model (evolution) as an established truth. These textbooks do not allow students to evaluate both sides of the argument and decide their own opinions. Biology: Concepts and Connections, a textbook that is up for question, has a practice question that insist the students give confirmation for evolution. The book does not have an exercise for students to give evidence for the other side of the debate, which is not in the book all. If Charles Darwin’s theory is an established truth, textbooks should be confident enough in teaching evolution and be able to teach the counterargument as a “comprehensive approach.” Students are only shown one side that scientists think is correct (Luskin). In 2013, textbooks started teaching Evolution as a theory. The books state things like “some scientist believe,” “many scientist think,” or “the majority of scientist believes” (Jonas). This shows students that Evolution is not a proven fact, which opens the gateway for them to believe whatever they would