Should Evolution be Taught in High School?

Resources: http://www.science20.com/dna_and_diversity/should_evolution_be_taught_in_high_school


We all have heard of the word evolution. Yes, people in our society have questioned it due to religious beliefs. But, would you ever think that someone would have different ideas concerning the Tree of Life? Biologist Carl Woese sure does! The Tree of Life has two major categories, prokaryotes, where each organism lacks a cell nucleus. While the eukaryotes includes each organism that has a complete nucleus complex like plants, fungi, and all animals. But Carl suggested that the prokaryotes should be divided into two groups because of the lack of classification. He divided it into bacteria and archaea. Archaea includes similar organisms that live in extreme environments. But what is very interesting is that studies show that the archaea category has more similarities with the eukaryotes than it does with bacteria. This too rocked the science world! Not only has Carl voiced his opinion concerning the tree of life, but has even more thoughts about evolution being taught in school.


“My feeling is that evolution shouldn't be taught at the lower grades. You don't teach quantum mechanics in the grade schools. One has to be quite educated to work with these concepts; what they pass on as evolution in high schools is nothing but repetitious tripe that teachers don't understand.” - Carl Woses

The author of the article that I’m writing this summary on, T. Ryan Gregory, strongly disagrees with Woses. Woses thinks that the subject is just too complex for teens and thinks it would be better taught in college only. T. Ryan Gregory is a university teacher who teaches a class on evolution which is made up of biology majors. Because of this, he expects all his students to process the topics of evolution and biology easier than others. The majority of his class actually goes to clearing up any misunderstandings the students might have about evolution. For instance, many people think humans are descended from chimpanzees, I know I did! Gregory takes the time to do this because the misunderstandings a student might have effects how well he/she will retain the new information. Carl Woses thinks all the misunderstandings come from evolution being taught incorrectly in high school. To fix this problem he thinks evolution should not be taught until college. Now you may think this is a good idea but actually there are many complications with this answer. Not everyone is even going to go to college, and an even smaller amount is not going to be taking a class on evolution. What to do about this issue is still debatable.

In my opinion, I think teens can understand the information regarding evolution pretty well. Some teachers may think they are teaching the topic right when they’re really not. I think we should have teachers undergo a special course to teach the topic of evolution right and make sure the students have a better understanding. If we take the topic out of the high school curriculum there is going to be an even lower percentage of people who don’t understand anything about evolution. One day will almost the whole population not fully understand evolution? Will it be a theory of the past and only the theory of God exists? Maybe that would be a good thing, there would not be so much evil around and sins being committed as there is today.