Intelligent design in the UK

[Psudopod]

Apparently a group called Truth in Science has been targeting UK schools with packs of resources on intelligent design.

From the guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

And also in El Reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/id_blighty/

Worryingly, "The enclosed feedback postcard was returned by 89 schools. As well as 59 positive responses, 15 were negative or dismissive and 15 said the material was "not suitable"."

Nearly 60 schools though this was a good idea. Also interesting are the letters in the Guardian the next day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1958445,00.html

 

[Baggins]

Apparently a group called Truth in Science has been targeting UK schools with packs of resources on intelligent design.

From the guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

And also in El Reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/id_blighty/

Worryingly, "The enclosed feedback postcard was returned by 89 schools. As well as 59 positive responses, 15 were negative or dismissive and 15 said the material was "not suitable"."

Nearly 60 schools though this was a good idea. Also interesting are the letters in the Guardian the next day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1958445,00.html

I read those letters in the guardian, and I was horrified by the level of scientific ignorance on display.

We had the : " It's only a theory" canard

we had the " Darwin couldn't explain....." canard, as if no more work had been done on the theory in the last 150 years.

We had the " teach the controvesy" rubbish, oblivious to the fact that ID is not science.

Finally we had some bloke claiming that very few people would be able to assess the science of this, a fundamental scientific theory!

If someone showed this much ignorance about the arts they would be villified as an uncouth philistine, but these people obviously didn't feel ashamed enough to stop them parading their ignorance on the letters page of a major UK paper.

Needless to say I sent off a stinging reposte that will not be printed

 

[BandyOne]

All I can say is, I am glad I am on the way out and not on the way in, the world is going to hell in a hand cart,
Good luck to everyone, because you are going to need it.

 

[AngryWomble]

I'm training to be a Secondary School Science Teacher here in the UK. The only use i could find for that stuff in a science lesson is to point out bad/psuedo science and how you need to test etc and things like that. As well as possibly filching any decent pics from it.

 

[Siderite]

I am shocked and appalled at this happening in the UK. I certainly hope that teachers have the same reaction as AngryWomble, other than copying pictures

Copyright and all that.......

 

[AngryWomble]

Well they'd have been sent to the schools to use as resources and i'd be using them as that, just not in the way the auther intended

Besides i think schools can use upto 5% of stuff before copying laws come into effect over here.

 

[Psudopod]

It'd be nice to think that those 60 schools were thinking like Angry Womble (where are you likely to be teaching, by the way? I may have to make sure my kids go to your school), but I'm pssimistic.

One of the letter writers is from my home town, so I may have to hunt her down with a clue-by-four.

 

[shernren]

All those boffins in UK and not one of them can write a proper Letter to the Editor briefly explaining the problem with ID?

No wonder people think there's a conspiracy going on to silence anything that opposes Darwinism, you have a classic "us public - them elite - overthrow the oppressors!" rebellion reaction to the scientists who apparently are making things up as they go along. Plus the mass media seems to be full of anti-ID articles and we all know the papers are all lying to us, right? Trust the vigilantes who can't get any decent avenues due to the "big mafia in worldwide" of evolutionism and thus don't have any peer-reviewed papers, just pretty Internet websites.

All this is as much a failure of science education as it is the fault of those ID proponents. ID is just filling a gap - the need for people to feel that they can understand the scientists - that is partly scientists' own doing.

 

[Siderite]

Shernren> I agree with you. Science and scientist have not been very good in the public discussion forum. We (scientists) need to do better - and we are, but slowly.

I do agree that ID is filling a gap - it is a gap of understanding which follows the least resistance. It is my opinion that people want something easy to believe and easy to understand. Look at Biblical interpretation - there are multiple ways to salvation - supposedly - leaning from the easy to the relatively hard.

 

[The Nihilist]

Apparently a group called Truth in Science has been targeting UK schools with packs of resources on intelligent design.

From the guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

And also in El Reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/id_blighty/

Worryingly, "The enclosed feedback postcard was returned by 89 schools. As well as 59 positive responses, 15 were negative or dismissive and 15 said the material was "not suitable"."

Nearly 60 schools though this was a good idea. Also interesting are the letters in the Guardian the next day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1958445,00.html

Don't worry yourself too much about this. The United States has weathered this nonsense, and you will too.

 

[AngryWomble]

It'd be nice to think that those 60 schools were thinking like Angry Womble (where are you likely to be teaching, by the way? I may have to make sure my kids go to your school), but I'm pssimistic.

One of the letter writers is from my home town, so I may have to hunt her down with a clue-by-four.

At the moment i'm in staffordshire, but i'm only an associate teacher (trainee) so i don't know if you'd want to rely on my teaching completely. But once my course is done i'm willing to move anywhere, does your kids school need any science/geology teachers?

All those boffins in UK and not one of them can write a proper Letter to the Editor briefly explaining the problem with ID?

No wonder people think there's a conspiracy going on to silence anything that opposes Darwinism, you have a classic "us public - them elite - overthrow the oppressors!" rebellion reaction to the scientists who apparently are making things up as they go along. Plus the mass media seems to be full of anti-ID articles and we all know the papers are all lying to us, right? Trust the vigilantes who can't get any decent avenues due to the "big mafia in worldwide" of evolutionism and thus don't have any peer-reviewed papers, just pretty Internet websites.

All this is as much a failure of science education as it is the fault of those ID proponents. ID is just filling a gap - the need for people to feel that they can understand the scientists - that is partly scientists' own doing.

One of the issues has been effecting the english education system (for those that don't know it) is the concern over the 'dumbing down' of GCSE level science and the lack of actual content. I'm all for the idea of kids learning how to argue and present the information but not at the expence of devistating the content. However at the moment i've only taught ks3 science and when i move on to ks4 in the next few weeks it's year 11 so the older nc.

Shernren> I agree with you. Science and scientist have not been very good in the public discussion forum. We (scientists) need to do better - and we are, but slowly.

I do agree that ID is filling a gap - it is a gap of understanding which follows the least resistance. It is my opinion that people want something easy to believe and easy to understand. Look at Biblical interpretation - there are multiple ways to salvation - supposedly - leaning from the easy to the relatively hard.

I like your name, it's pretty.....

 

[Siderite]

Well thanks angrywomble!

Siderite is a fast forming iron mineral.

By the way, I am originally from South Staffordshire - Perton, just west of Wolverhampton Its a small world!

 

[AngryWomble]

Well thanks angrywomble!

Siderite is a fast forming iron mineral.

By the way, I am originally from South Staffordshire - Perton, just west of Wolverhampton Its a small world!

I know it's a mineral, although it's been a while since i did my degree so i can't remember much else about it.

I'm at Keele, but from East Anglia normally.

 

[Siderite]

Almost went to Keele for my degree - but decided to go to Birmingham.

Keele is a great uni though.

 

[LittleNipper]

Apparently a group called Truth in Science has been targeting UK schools with packs of resources on intelligent design.

From the guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html

And also in El Reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/27/id_blighty/

Worryingly, "The enclosed feedback postcard was returned by 89 schools. As well as 59 positive responses, 15 were negative or dismissive and 15 said the material was "not suitable"."

Nearly 60 schools though this was a good idea. Also interesting are the letters in the Guardian the next day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1958445,00.html

Intelligent design in the UK? Just look at the Parliament building with BIG Ben and Buckinham Palace and the Tower. Do they look like intelligent designs? ------now I ask you... It is obvios that there is no intelligent design in any part of the UK. Oh, Stonehenge comes close, but we all know that this is a natural phenomenon. No, there is no logic behind the premise of intelligent design anywhere in Europe for that matter. It might cause students to use their thought processes... Now, that would be a throw back to earlier educational principles... Bureaucracy forbid!

 

[shernren]

Intelligent design in the UK? Just look at the Parliament building with BIG Ben and Buckinham Palace and the Tower. Do they look like intelligent designs? ------now I ask you... It is obvios that there is no intelligent design in any part of the UK. Oh, Stonehenge comes close, but we all know that this is a natural phenomenon. No, there is no logic behind the premise of intelligent design anywhere in Europe for that matter. It might cause students to use their thought processes... Now, that would be a throw back to earlier educational principles... Bureaucracy forbid!

I don't get what you're saying here. But throwbacks to earlier educational principles are useful. If there ever is a place for IDism, it is to show students what pseudoscience looks like and how to debunk it. Science teachers should feel perfectly free to teach IDism, in the same vein as phlogiston, aether, and the plum pudding model of the atom.

 

[USincognito]

Intelligent design in the UK? Just look at the Parliament building with BIG Ben and Buckinham Palace and the Tower. Do they look like intelligent designs? ------now I ask you... It is obvios that there is no intelligent design in any part of the UK. Oh, Stonehenge comes close, but we all know that this is a natural phenomenon. No, there is no logic behind the premise of intelligent design anywhere in Europe for that matter. It might cause students to use their thought processes... Now, that would be a throw back to earlier educational principles... Bureaucracy forbid!

Thanks Nip. Now I won't have to take the link with the letters to the editor - you appear to have summarized them very succinctly.

 

[Psudopod]

At the moment i'm in staffordshire, but i'm only an associate teacher (trainee) so i don't know if you'd want to rely on my teaching completely. But once my course is done i'm willing to move anywhere, does your kids school need any science/geology teachers?

Well, technically I don't have any kids yet, just thought I'd ge a head start in planning thier education