The Chronicle of Higher Ed has an interview with Randy Moore, a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (See? The University of Minnesota is a seething hotbed of enlightened, rational thinking. Send your children here!). It's mildly depressing stuff, though—20% of our biology teachers are peddling creationist junk in the classroom?

Why Many Biology Teachers Aren't Teaching Evolution
by Richard Monastersky

Eighty years ago this month, the small town of Dayton, Tenn., played host to an unforgettable fight that captivated the nation: the trial of John Scopes. The affair started as a publicity stunt dreamed up by Dayton businessmen, but quickly exploded into a full-scale cultural war that continues to echo today. In his 2001 book, Evolution in the Courtroom (ABC-CLIO), and in his continuing research, Mr. Moore has investigated the trial and the current battles over evolution in America's classrooms, where he finds that some 20 percent of biology teachers continue to teach creationism in violation of the First Amendment and state standards.

Q. Your work shows that many teachers -- nearly 40 percent -- are not teaching evolution, even if they believe it. Why?

A. It's just simpler for them to avoid it, politically. Their kids are on the same Little League teams as the kids of other parents. ... Biology teachers are pressured to not teach evolution and/or to teach creationism. Almost half of biology teachers report being pressured one way or the other, or both for many.

Yeah, stupidity is self-perpetuating, and all the pressure is from the creationists. I've been guilty of assuming that my kids' teachers are sensible adults who have been well-educated in the subject they are teaching—and sometimes that isn't true.

Q. So what can parents do to get evolution into science classes?

A. Tell the biology teacher that you're very glad they're teaching science. Tell the principal. Tell the school board.

The hard part of that is finding out what your kids are being taught. Teenagers just aren't communicative. I've had this conversation quite a few times: "What did you do in school today?" "Nothin'."

My daughter will be taking life science this year, though. I'm planning to lean on her a bit and squeeze a little bit more information out of her—and if it's good, I'll let the school hear about it. If it's bad, you know the school will hear about it.

Q. What attitudes do the students in your introductory course have?

A. They are overwhelmingly creationist, 75 to 80 percent. It's not so much that my students have an anti-evolution attitude. They just don't know what it is.

That surprises me. Here at our branch campus, I'm sure those numbers are much, much lower…but then, we're kind of the fancy-pants liberal arts campus. We also don't have an evolutionary biology course for non-majors (although I would love to change that someday), and all of our intro students are fairly certain they're going to be biologists or doctors.

Q. You've written that the public "memory" of the Scopes trial is largely wrong -- for instance, with respect to Scopes himself. He wasn't a biology teacher?

A. He was a football coach. He substituted in some science and math classes.

Q. And he didn't teach evolution?

A. Ironically, no. He substituted for 10 days. He assigned the evolution chapters but he was sick himself on the day there was supposed to be a discussion of this.

Q. Eighty years later, is this country moving backward in terms of teaching evolution?

A. No. I just don't think we've moved forward. We have position statements. Most science organizations have very strong position statements. But in fact, when science teachers in public schools teach creationism, there are seldom any consequences. It's just tolerated. Many high-school biology teachers do not teach evolution, either because they're creationists or because it's not worth the political fallout. Despite what the position statements say or what state science standards say, they don't apply.

Ah, the lovely logic of administrators. Coaches need to know a little first aid, so of course they're qualified to teach health. And if they can teach health, then they can teach life sciences—it's just first aid with frogs, right?

There are some good, smart coaches who are competent to teach a more academic class, but thinking back to my high school coaches…<shudder>. They were terrible. We need smart biology teachers who are well versed in the evidence and passionate about the subject…not ignorant jocks with uninformed biases who know how to yell out motivational speeches.

And we definitely need to stop tolerating religious clap-trap (or it's alternative, neglect) in our schools.