The solution: Gould, Gould, Gould, and more Gould. Augment (or even replace) the dry, insipid, boring poorly-written textbooks with:
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
Dinosaur in a Haystack : Reflections in Natural History
Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History
Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History
Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History
Just to name a few.
Many of these books contain lively discussions of the points brought up by Creation Scientists and proponents of Intelligent Design, while continuing to teach extremely interesting details of biology.
If teachers have the right material, the challenges brought into the classroom by doubters-of-evolution can be fun, interesting, and rewarding for all students.
But teachers for the most part lack imagination and the textbooks are leaden, heavy, boring, poorly-written and dull.
He [Richard Feynman] was asked to participate on a California textbook selection committee that was charged with evaluating textbooks for use in California public schools. He agreed, thinking it was a worthwhile use of his time.When the book depository called and asked where to send the 300 pounds of books, they told him not to worry, they could send over someone to help him read the books. Feynman said he wasn't quite sure how that would work and declined the offer of an assistant.
During the weeks that he was reading texts, he kept getting calls from the publishers. They wanted to take him out to dinner, lunch, wherever he wanted. They wanted to talk over the advantages of their textbook. He kept fending them off, saying he was confident he would be able to read the texts. Moreover, he knew that the teachers wouldn't be receiving this kind of attention so he felt the books should be judged on their own merits.
One book in particular drew his attention. It was one out of a three book series. During a meeting he was asked by some of the other committee members what he thought of the book. He responded that he really couldn't say, that he hadn't received it. One of the members continued to press for an answer. After Feynman repeated himself a second time, a book depository employee piped up and explained that he had elected not to send the book on to the committee members. The publisher had missed the deadline and substituted a book with blank pages instead. They had included a note explaining that the book would be ready in time and hoped it could still be considered.
The amazing part of this story is that several of the committee members had nominated the book for inclusion on the approved list!
Feynman went on to talk about the unsolicited gifts he received from the publishers. He kept sending them back but one incident took him completely by surprise. He had arrived in San Francisco the evening before a committee meeting. He left his hotel room, intending to wander the streets to find a place to eat. As he walked into the lobby, two men popped up, greeted him by name and asked him if they could help him in any way. He explained that he was just going out and no thank you. They persisted. He said, "Look, I'm just going out to get into a bit of trouble." They responded, "Maybe we can help you with that too." He demurred and then later kicked himself for not seeing just how far they would go and documenting the evening.
The source for this story is Feynman's autobiography, "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman..."
Which is another reason (besides violence in schools) why so many teacher leave. There is little intellectual simulation from their fellow teachers.
Sidney Sheldon -- now there's a pop artist whose works are timeless.
Well samtheman You have it correct. The problem is that books must be read and students don't read, at least the students with the problem don't read.
They've been force fed Creationist dogma and developed a thick rind around their brains.
I think that's the problem with much of the public school text books and cirriculums. Nothing there to interest students. And then we have a situation where colleges are filled with liberla arts majors and few American kids want to go into any science or engineering program.
"The problem: dry, poorly written textbooks that are an easy target for the pseudo-science crowd."
Spot on. THe same could be said for almost any subject. Textbooks are the bane of good learning: A good textbook is a reference book, which a student refers to only seldomly. Teaching should be done from books with arguments!
You should read this about the textbook process:
http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1195&issue=nov_04
Out of curiosity, being a creationist, if you were to pick one of those books for me to read, which would it be?