The Inside Scoop on Evolution/Creation in Ontario Elementary Schools

[velvetpage]

First, the impetus: Ontario schools simply sidestep the issue, teaching neither evolution nor creation explicitly until grade 12 biology.

I promised the original poster of this article that I would look through my curriculum document for science and see what I could find. Well, here's what I found.

First, the document I have goes from grade one to grade eight only. I don't own a copy of the nine to twelve document, and I have never taught those grades, so I can't speak to them.

I looked at two sections of the five-part science curriculum: Life Systems and the Earth and Space Systems. Then I narrowed that down to the areas where one would be most likely to see references to evolution: Habitats and Communities, taught in grade four; Diversity of Living Things in grade six; Interactions within Ecosystems in grade seven; Rocks, Minerals, and Erosion in grade four; Space in grade six; The Earth's Crust in grade seven; and Water Systems in grade eight. Though the words "evolution" and "evolve" don't appear anywhere in the document, the words "adapt" and "change" do, as do the concepts of formations over millenia, erosion and buildup of soils and other formations, geologic formations as legacies of past events, plate tectonics - in other words, a great many concepts that depend on old-earth evolution as a guiding principle. In fact, in several of the above, the idea of formations changing over millenia is a central theme of the unit, one of the "overall expectations" from which all the other expectations are derived.

Then I looked in my book room at my school, for any evidence that the (overwhelmingly Christian) staff have been selecting teaching materials that avoid evolution. I found the exact opposite. There are at least four big books, designed for shared reading with the entire class, that specifically use the word "evolution" or a derivative word, and assume it to be true. There are three more shared-reading type resources of shorter length, designed for a single lesson, that include the concept of "changes over thousands of years;" and there are six guided reading units, each at different levels (mostly designed to support the science curricula listed above) that are quite specific about changes over very long periods of time. These resources are being purchased with Ministry money, selected by a Board team of literacy experts and listed as "good to purchase," from which list our school literacy team has selected them - all within the last five years. I did not find a single reference anywhere to Creationism or ID, and I know exactly what to look for. If it had been there, i would have found it.

This does not speak to me of creeping creationism in my school or school board. Instead, it tells me that evolution is simply assumed to be true. It's not taught specifically, but neither is it ignored; it underpins the science curriculum, and no one in the system appears to be questioning it. There is no infiltration of the science curriculum at any level that was evident in my school - which, with its tight connections to specific literacy money from the Ministry of Education, is a good place to go looking for it.

I think the article overstates its case for the sake of some fear-mongering amongst those who don't care for the Evolution/Creation issues going on in American schools. In our elementary schools, this is a non-issue.

Comments

[merlyn4401.livejournal.com]

FWIW, 15 years ago in my midwestern high school, it was a non-issue as well.

I am not trying to slam on fundies, but I have a hard time getting my head around the dichotamy of creation/evolution. I don't see evolution disproving God's hand in Creation at all. Of course, I am not a biblical literalist, either. :p

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's my point of view, too. :)

I can't picture this becoming a big enough issue in Canada to create the climate for a turnaround. There simply aren't enough Biblical literalists around here - they make up a relatively small portion of the population. We're not exactly Bible belt.

[merlyn4401.livejournal.com]

It's a relatively samll portion of the population here, too. It's just LOUDER here.

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Apparently, once the lunatics are heard once, they shout all the louder. *Rolls eyes*

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

When I went through elementary school near Kingston, Ontario in the 50's, I learned about dinosaurs from books my family had (which were in Dutch, my true native language), but there was no mention of them at school. Somehow the social context made it clear to me that one doesn't talk about dinosaurs in public. They were taboo, like sex.

I'm glad to hear things are better there now. They're better here in Quebec (where I live) too. The science teacher in my kids' primary school has a dinosaur club, where the kids spend their linch hours making life-size dinosaur models. (well, maybe they're scaled down to fit the room, but they are big,