Exquisite New York Times piece on teaching evolution

The New York Times ran an article (website link, PDF version) this past Sunday profiling a Florida teacher grappling with the new science curriculum standards he helped create. Florida now requires teaching evolution as part of the biology curriculum.

The article illustrates how tough it is to teach evolution. Even teachers who strongly believe in evolution can’t just teach their students that “Evolution is science and the Bible is not.” All teachers must do what they can to have their students understand the material. This is harder than it sounds, as those students who are very religious may not only choose not to believe in evolution but also choose not to learn anything about it.

The teacher who is profiled in the article (David Campbell of Orange Park, FL) believes in evolution and truly cares that his students at least bring an open mind to the subject. As someone who has taught several classes, his story is inspiring. The content of my classes (cognitive psychology and introductory psychology) is certainly not as controversial as biology class is, but both classes do touch on evolution. I always wonder if anyone is rolling their eyes at me when I talk about it.

But Mr. Campbell truly epitomizes what teaching should be all about: even if students don’t believe in something, the goal is to get them to open their minds and try to understand it. Students should critically think about the material and integrate it into how they see the world.

That kind of thinking about teaching is music to my ears.

“Faith is not based on science,” Mr. Campbell said. “And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks.”
“But I do,” he added, “expect you to understand it.”