The government is ready to put evolution on the primary curriculum for the first time after years of lobbying by senior scientists. The schools minister, Diana Johnson, has confirmed the plans will be included in a blueprint for a new curriculum to be published in the next few weeks.
It follows a letter signed by scientists and science educators calling on the government to make the change after draft versions of the new curriculum failed to mention evolution explicitly. The open letter sent in July to Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, was signed by 25 leading figures from science and education, who urged the government to rewrite the curriculum before it was finalised.
Among the signatories were the Oxford University evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, three Nobel laureates and Reverend Professor Michael Reiss, the professor of science education at the Institute of Education in London.
The letter expressed alarm that the theory of evolution through natural selection, which it describes as “one of the most important ideas underlying biological science”, was ignored in the revamped curriculum.
“We consider its inclusion vital,” the letter said.
Full article at The Guardian
Fantastic news, I had been worried for a while about this, thanks for the information.
Yaaaay
Love the picture !!!
woop – finally they see sense
Excellent news!
alternate headline for this post:
“Johnson and Balls help perpetuate evolution”
Good news! I wonder what some devout religious educational establishments will make of this?
Yay indeed!
Now can you make that happen here in the USA too?
Although the original wording did not explicitly mention evolution as a core theme, the curriculum contained extensive reference to evolution as part of biological theory. It was under lots of different headings. The furore was a storm in a teacup aimed at raising awareness but I fear it may have played into the hands of the creationists. If we (atheists) leave their God alone maybe they won’t teach their children a mythological history in order to counteract what they see as an attack on their beliefs. God might exist: evolution is a definite provable process. A law, not a theory. Don’t panic! We will keep the truth alive and continue to refine our understanding through research and the proper application of the scientific method. Please allow people to have faith as for some it is their only source of stability.
- Quite the contrary Rob. Scientists were perfectly happy to leave it alone as part of the curriculum. The creationist push has come from the US and is now leaking in to schools. This is rebuttal not an attack. – Phillis
Great news! Even if there are people who don’t agree with it, there isn’t any harm in learning – just like with R.E. lessons!
What century we living in?! Jeezo.
Somehow the gorilla seems familiar..?
Oh yeh – Letterman!
well, that’s half the battle – now can they get ‘religious education’ out of schools? – an oxymoron if ever I heard one.
4 year olds? Ehehe … they don’t even know half of the time how kids come on this planet .. My little cousin of 5 is very intrigued by the human body … watches a dvd on that topic over and over again .. even though it is above his level (difficult words etc). In his spare time. He probably watched a dvd on evolution not with that much fun yet. He is not done yet with the humans .. I wonder how they will bring evolution to those young ones. If it has nothing to do with themselves it will half of the time not really trigger something inside of themselves. I also wonder how much they will remember from things back then like this type of lessons if they can not reuse it in daily life.
But hey .. there’s lots of stuff on schools which leads to wondeing about the same system.
Some prefer to think forward, not backward.
How come apes got left behind? I reckon we’re aliens. Just a thought…!
Now if we can only get this logic to infect more of the US.
Nooooo! Don’t teach the little people! They will take over the world, I swear it!
Thank you Phyllis, I quite agree that the creationist push for education reform is terrifying. I have limited information but remembered an interview on Radio 4 with a woman who helped to design the new curriculum: it was her who said that evolution was already covered. She did say at the time that she agreed that it should have a greater emphasis and a section of its own which I totally support: she also said that they were in the process at the time of including it which pleased me greatly.
I did not hear any media coverage of creationists rubbishing the British curriculum, but maybe I missed that.
Certainly I do not believe that science lessons should have any elements of the creationist perspective as it is not science.
However, I know that zealots get more stubborn when cornered. Maybe I am just worried about that.