SPECIAL FEATURES:
Email
Teacher suspended for article on gay animals
High school teacher assigns scientific article on homosexuality in the animal kingdom and is suspended. People ... science might be inconvenient but it is true.
Wed, Nov 04 2009 at 9:20 PM
Related Topics:
Image: Toby Turner
Science illiteracy, it seems, has worked its way up to the administrative level at one public high school in Illinois.
Dan Delong, a teacher at Southwestern High School, offered an optional reading assignment last week for his students — an article written by well-known science blogger Jonah Lehrer entitled the "The Gay Animal Kingdom" published in Seed Magazine.
The article discusses the challenges facing Darwin's theory of sexual selection, as more and more research is documenting the prevalence of homosexuality in over 450 vertebrate species. In some cases, like male big horn sheep, homosexuality is the norm.
The teacher was suspended without pay.
This is one more example of the growing epidemic of scientific illiteracy in U.S. public schools. The topics of evolution and climate change have also faced similar challenges. In some cases, especially in the rural South, teachers are literally afraid of teaching "science as truth" for fear of parental retribution.
Religion belongs in church, not in school, but somehow it has crept its way in, taking advantage of the giant fissures left in the cracking edifice of an underfunded public education system.
The only way to fix it is public outcry and fortunately for Dan Delong, that is exactly what happened. The school administrators were bombarded by e-mails from the scientific community and parents concerned that the school's otherwise great academic standing would be threatened by such medieval administrative policies.
Dan just got his job back. In this case, science won out. But be forewarned ... science illiteracy is on the rise in the U.S.
So in the event you are faced with someone who doesn't "believe" in science, just remind them that the big difference between science and religion is that one requires peer-reviewed empirical evidence. The other does not.
If they don't know what the word "empirical" means just point them to this YouTube video:
Also on MNN: We're Deer. We're Queer. Get Used to it.
The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.
You might also like:
Sign in with one of these accounts to add your comment.
EDITORS' PICKS
Earn 100 points for signing up for a free iMeet trial now.
Sponsored by
Advertisement
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR ON
- Watch: Sir David Attenborough deals with a band of cannibals the British way
- 10 uses for Parmesan cheese rinds
- 15 famous people who mysteriously disappeared
- Too beautiful to be real? 16 surreal landscapes found on Earth
- 13 natural remedies for the ant invasion
- 8 hair care treatments you can make yourself
- 9 habits that may do more harm than good
- 7 surprising things Pope Francis has done in his first 100 days
- A mother like no other
- 11 ways to open a stuck jar lid
From our sponsor
Follow us:
NEWSLETTER
Advertisement
I couldn't care less if someone wants to have sex with another of their gender but let's be careful how we construe "facts". Animals engage in misplaced mating behaviour but that hardly can be construed as the sex act. Somehow I doubt you'll find many animals engaged in anal sex or oral sex.
Sorry, pacific-waters, fruit bats do oral sex for the fun of it, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33587754/ns/technology_and_science-science/
It is terrible and completely unjustified what happened to the teacher but I must object to the classification of the article assigned. A blogger is not necessarily a peer-reviewed scientist, a blog is definitely not a peer reviewed article, and a scientific magazine is completely different from a peer-review journal. Please do not give credit where it is not due.