Posted on 05/22/2006 8:14:10 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist
A high school science teacher vowed yesterday to continue telling his Inuit students about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, despite complaints from parents in the northern Quebec community of Salluit.
Science teacher Alexandre April was given a written reprimand last month by his principal at Ikusik High School for discussing evolution in class.
Parents in the village 1,860 kilometres north of Montreal complained their children had been told they came from apes.
"I am a biologist. ... This is what I'm passionate about," said April, who teaches Grades 7 and 8. "It interests the students. It gets them asking questions.
"They laugh and they call me 'ape,' but I don't mind. If I stopped, they would lose out."
April, who is leaving the town when his contract runs out at the end of the school year, said the principal first told teachers last fall not to talk about evolution.
Debate over the teaching of evolution in Salluit - a village of 1,150 located along the northern coast of Quebec, between Ungava and Hudson bays - is pitting an increasingly religious Inuit population against a Quebec education system that's becoming more and more secular.
Although April, 32, won't be punished, his reprimand has outraged Quebec's scientific community.
"What he's doing is right and it's best for the kids," said Brian Alters, director of the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill University. "Science should not be de-emphasized for non-science."
Over the years, controversy over the teaching of evolution has erupted in Pennsylvania, along with U.S. states in the so-called Bible Belt. In November, the Kansas State Board of Education approved science standards that cast doubt on evolution.
But with heightened religious fervour among the Inuit and Cree in northern communities, some observers suggest Canada might have its own Bible North.
Molly Tayara, a member of the Salluit school's volunteer education committee, said she'd tell her four school-age children to walk out of a lesson on Darwin.
"The minister (of education) may have come from apes, but we're Inuit and we've always been human," she told The Gazette in a phone interview.
"Most of us rely on God's word. ... God made Adam and Eve and they weren't animals."
Legally, Inuit schools in Quebec's north must teach evolution, as it's part of the provincial curriculum. After April's story came out this week in the magazine Quebec Science, Education Department officials immediately called the school to ensure the curriculum was followed.
Topics like reproduction and diversity of species are part of Science and Technology, a course for Grades 7 and 8. Darwin's work, based on the premise that humans and other animals have evolved over time, is further covered in Grade 11 biology - an elective course.
"We want the curriculum to be applied. We're just saying the theory of evolution could be taught more delicately to students," said Gaston Pelletier, director of educational services for the Kativik School Board, which serves northern Quebec's 14 Inuit communities. "We have to respect their view."
The mechanical, or to be more precise, the "hydraulic" part of it, at least. If they didn't, we would be here today to comment on it.
Why does that make me think of the anthropic principle?
What the hell happened to this thread?
Don't look at me, I didn't do it.
I wasn't even here at the time.
I don't even know what you're talking about.
Besides, the statute of limitations has surely run out by now...
And now schools encourage students to tell on parents for suspect drug use or weapon ownership.
There is a Christian view. I think we might not afflict our kids with our own hang-ups.
Parking your brain at the church door was never a requirement for any faith that would have respect. Blind faith in horoscopes, psychics, faith-healers, magnetic bracelets, feng shui, ghosts or satanic demons is not something responsible parents impose on their children.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of irresponsible parents who inculcate cultish notions on their kids.
Since #194 was my post I am confused at your answer. My comment was simply that ancient peoples had some concept of heridity.
The "Blind faith in horoscopes, psychics, faith-healers, magnetic bracelets, feng shui, ghosts or satanic demons is not something responsible parents impose on their children" is appropriate exactly how?
And I can't spell either - sigh....
<< Nobody in Biblical times had the slightest clue as to how human reproduction worked. >>
<< Well ... I suspect they had the essentials down pat. >>
They certainly knew that sexual intercourse could result in pregnancy -- and they knew that the ejaculate form the male had something to do with impregnating the female. But beyond that -- zip.
There is the biblical story about Onan. His brother had died, and he was required by law to marry his widowed sister-in-law and impregnate her, so she could produce offspring as heirs of her dead husband. But Onan "pulled out" and "spilled his seed on the ground," thus incurring condemnation.
This shows they knew that the male seed impregnated the female. But no one knew more than that till recent centuries.
There are differences between legal behavior and illegal. A nation whose citizens resist even reasonable prohibitions enacted in law is doooooomed.
I spent a number of years dealing with child abuse. If anyone is paranoid about the government taking kids from basically good homes, I would like to show them the homes I worked my butt off to keep kids in.
I dunno, but when you start accusing "you have never blah-blah-blah" on your first thread, it's kind of a giveaway.
Although, I swear I'd remember a former Freeper Theosophist posting here...
I think you're being a little too simplistic. They bred animals and crop plants for certain traits (dogs, sheep, etc.) They knew that physical traits of both parents could be passed to the children. OK they didn't know of sperm and eggs, but the concept of "seed" certainly shows some concept of heredity.
BTW - sperm first seen by Anonie van Leeuwenhoek. I can't remember what he said about them, but I'll look it up if anyone but me is interested.
Grrrrrr......
Some folks speculate that humans did not realize the correlation between sex and pregnancy until they began to domesticate animals. If you live in a society where all women have sex -- voluntarily or involuntarily -- it would be difficult to make the connection.
Hmmm, you mean they start out human and then cease? Interrresting. Or else they evolve backwards? More interrresting...
"Every Sperm I Sacred"
DAD:
There are Jews in the world.
There are Buddhists.
There are Hindus and Mormons, and then
There are those that follow Mohammed, but
I've never been one of them.
I'm a Roman Catholic,
And have been since before I was born,
And the one thing they say about Catholics is:
They'll take you as soon as you're warm.
You don't have to be a six-footer.
You don't have to have a great brain.
You don't have to have any clothes on. You're
A Catholic the moment Dad came,
Because
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
CHILDREN:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
GIRL:
Let the heathen spill theirs
On the dusty ground.
God shall make them pay for
Each sperm that can't be found.
CHILDREN:
Every sperm is wanted.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.
MUM:
Hindu, Taoist, Mormon,
Spill theirs just anywhere,
But God loves those who treat their
Semen with more care.
MEN:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
WOMEN:
If a sperm is wasted,...
CHILDREN:
...God get quite irate.
PRIEST:
Every sperm is sacred.
BRIDE and GROOM:
Every sperm is good.
NANNIES:
Every sperm is needed...
CARDINALS:
...In your neighbourhood!
CHILDREN:
Every sperm is useful.
Every sperm is fine.
FUNERAL CORTEGE:
God needs everybody's.
MOURNER #1:
Mine!
MOURNER #2:
And mine!
CORPSE:
And mine!
NUN:
Let the Pagan spill theirs
O'er mountain, hill, and plain.
HOLY STATUES:
God shall strike them down for
Each sperm that's spilt in vain.
EVERYONE:
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is good.
Every sperm is needed
In your neighbourhood.
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite iraaaaaate!
You actually remember this stuff or do you collect them?
Google, cut, and paste.
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