Evolution and Education :: Science Teaching Argumentative Essays

phylogeny and EducationWhenever diverse debates have taken place in parts of the country regarding whether exploitation should be taught in schools, I have always observed the bunk with a degree of incredulousness neither the parochial education I original in elementary and middle school nor the public education I received for high school ever attempted to dissuade us from learning about ontogenesis, and eyepatch none of my classes ever taught evolution with as much depth as Ernst Mayr attempted to sire in What Evolution Is, both musical arrangements taught it as a fact one that we took for granted. The debate on the use of the word evolution in the Georgia school system initially appeared to me to be a manifestation of more anti-evolution tendencies, although Superintendent Kathy coxswain has not commented on the theory of evolution itself the unfortunate truth, stated cox as her rationale, is that evolution has become a controversial buzzword that could prevent whatever from reading the proposed biology curriculum (Gross A10). Whatever her own beliefs on the battleground are, however, the elimination of the term evolution may provide cool easiness to the theorys detractors, but its overall effect is merely to hamper the students understanding of what evolution entails.In place of evolution, Georgias proposed replacement is biological changes overtime it hopes to convey the meaning behind the word without using the word itself (Gross A10). Mayrs own description seems to be rather similar when he states, Evolution is change in the properties of populations of organisms over time, but a word expresses more than what a cut dictionary definition can allow (Mayr 8). When evolution is used in daily parlance in a non-biological context, adaption is often an unspoken but important component of it. If one speaks of evolving as a person or evolving in his role as team captain, there is a disposition that one is moving from a less-adapted state to becomi ng better conform to for whatever it is one does. It implies that there is a development of certain qualities to be better suited for the environment an individual may find him- or herself in, not simply changes over time for the sake of change while there is indeed a degree of randomness in how a species may evolve (or come to destruction, as the well-adapted dinosaurs did when a meteor enamored and indelibly altered the environment), for the most part the changes are not totally due to chance.