Students Asking Questions...Very Interesting!

by Darris McNeely

Submitted May 5, 2005

A wise teacher I once had used to describe the modern education process as a teacher pouring knowledge through a funnel into a students head, a static one way process. Things may be changing in some science classrooms with students questioning Darwin's theory of evolution and challenging accepted teachings on evolution. The funnel is coming out.

There is a growing public debate over intelligent design in the public classroom. Today the Science Hearings Committee of the Kansas State Board of Education begins hearings to reopen questions on the teaching of evolution in state schools. This issue has been up and down in Kansas in recent years depending on which faction, pro or anti evolution is in charge. Right now the anti crowd have the ascendancy. Polls show that 48% of people believe in creationism, the idea that life exists on this planet by intelligent design. Kansas biology teachers are getting a lot of feedback from informed students who come to class armed with information from groups who are pushing an anti-Darwin message. The Christian Science Monitor has an good background piece on the Kansas debate.

NPR also has an audio piece here .

The latest issue of our sister publication, The Good News , has a cover article on the subject of DNA in the May-June issue. It includes an exclusive interview with biologist Michael Behe , author of Darwin's Black Box . Behe is on of the foremost proponents of intelligent design. The interview shows how by asking some basic questions an accepted premise can be uprooted and the door opened to understanding a complex subject. That is how one arrives at truth.