Sometimes people ask, and sometimes I ask myself, what difference it makes if kids learn "creation science" or other falsehoods in school. It's very likely 95% of the kids will never use the knowledge in their work, and those who do decide to pursue a career in science can learn the real stuff in high school or college.
What does it hurt if kids go to schools where they're taught things their parents are comfortable having them know, even if they're not exactly true?
Mike Dunford gave a presentation to a class of second-graders where his daughter attends school. He found out, as I have, how much fun it can be to give presentations to grade school kids. (I love doing career days for the DWP.)
After all of the time that we have spent exposed to students at the university level, what we found there came as a complete shock. These elementary school kids were actually enthusiastic and eager to learn. They were attentive, and they even asked creative, thoughtful questions. Over the course of what was scheduled as a 30 minute presentation, and which actually lasted more like an hour, we were asked things that most of the undergrads taking intro classes don’t think to. For example, after we discussed the symbiosis between coral and the photosynthetic algae known as zooxanthellae, we were asked, “what happens if the little plants don’t want to live in the coral?” When we used the sea anemones from Finding Nemo as a basis for our description of a coral polyp, we were asked if they are so similar because they are related. Then we were asked if related meant “like family, or just kinda like each other?” The curiosity that these kids displayed was nothing short of amazing, and it reminded me of just how much of an intellectual crime we are committing if we do not reward curiosity with honest answers.
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If we evade children’s questions because the answers aren’t easy to give, or because we are worried about how other adults might react to our answers, we are sending the wrong message. We are saying that our comfort level is more important than their need for an honest answer. If we avoid answering them because we are afraid of how the answer will affect their beliefs about other things, we are telling them that reality is relative. If we fail to answer their questions because we are afraid of how it will impact their understanding of other things, then we say, as Jack Nicholson so memorably put it, “You can’t handle the truth!”
Not only that, but how about that assumption that kids won't need science until later, when they decide on a career?
...another reason that this is important. Children start to think about what they want to be when they grow up, and sometimes those early ideas actually result in later careers. (Of course, sometimes they don’t. I wanted to be a farmer when I was in second grade.) Interests are developed during childhood that can last a lifetime. When we show children just how awesome the world around them really is, and how much fun it can be to try and learn more about it, we might just be helping to develop the next generation of great scientists.
Abortion foes are happy to make their point with the story whose punch line is, "Congratulations, you just killed Beethoven". If you teach kids garbage because it makes their parents feel more comfortable, some day, you may find out that "Congratulations, you just killed Einstein's curiosity."
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