4 ms·

Variation and natural selection is nothing like artistic evolution, and teaching them as though they're the same (or even similar) undermines actual scientific

Variation and natural selection is nothing like artistic evolution, and teaching them as though they're the same (or even similar) undermines actual scientific education. Kids aren't dumb, and 'packaging' education rarely succeeds. (It also, on a side note, gives fodder to anti-evolutionists)

hsmyers 18y ago
Metaphor isn't the map either, but it works. If you read the article a bit more closely, you would read that the problem is to find a bit of traction on students who are primed to walk away. As much as I despise the little rodent, if Mickey makes it, more power to him(or more to the point to a teacher determined enough to make a difference.)
- boredguy8 18y ago
  I read the article quite closely, thankyou. I'd rather have people opposed to a correct understanding of the idea than embracing a caricature of evolution.
  - MJC 18y ago
    I disagree. First of all, we're talking about highschool, so you have to allow for the fact that we're not going to dive arbitrarily deep into the details with this audience. For most of these kids, this is probably the first and only serious conversation about he topic they've ever seen, and many of them starting from an antagonistic point of view (as was clear in the article). But is talking about Mickey incorrect in any substantial sense? No. The notion that there is a replication/inheritance stage and a death/selection stage is essentially correct and forms the core of the idea of evolution by natural selection. That "drawing" is the replication stage and Walt Disney's managerial decisions (and aesthetic appeal based on which Mickey people find more attractive) is the selection stage in place is, of course, artificial selection, but that just makes the lesson more general. If that's all these kids learn about evolution, that's fine. My only worry is that it puts Walt in the role of God, which plays into the hands of the creationists this teacher is trying to silence, but not that the essential ideas are wrong.
scott_s 18y ago
"Education is a series of small lies." My intro to compute engineering professor, after telling us that actual computers are designed with three-state gates in some places.

hsmyers 18y ago

Metaphor isn't the map either, but it works. If you read the article a bit more closely, you would read that the problem is to find a bit of traction on students who are primed to walk away. As much as I despise the little rodent, if Mickey makes it, more power to him(or more to the point to a teacher determined enough to make a difference.)

boredguy8 18y ago
I read the article quite closely, thankyou. I'd rather have people opposed to a correct understanding of the idea than embracing a caricature of evolution.
- MJC 18y ago
  I disagree. First of all, we're talking about highschool, so you have to allow for the fact that we're not going to dive arbitrarily deep into the details with this audience. For most of these kids, this is probably the first and only serious conversation about he topic they've ever seen, and many of them starting from an antagonistic point of view (as was clear in the article). But is talking about Mickey incorrect in any substantial sense? No. The notion that there is a replication/inheritance stage and a death/selection stage is essentially correct and forms the core of the idea of evolution by natural selection. That "drawing" is the replication stage and Walt Disney's managerial decisions (and aesthetic appeal based on which Mickey people find more attractive) is the selection stage in place is, of course, artificial selection, but that just makes the lesson more general. If that's all these kids learn about evolution, that's fine. My only worry is that it puts Walt in the role of God, which plays into the hands of the creationists this teacher is trying to silence, but not that the essential ideas are wrong.

scott_s 18y ago

"Education is a series of small lies." My intro to compute engineering professor, after telling us that actual computers are designed with three-state gates in some places.