UK: Evolution and History Compulsory, page 1

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Topic started on 20-11-2009 @ 02:24 AM by ImaginaryReality1984

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I must say i'm fully against evolution being made compulsory to primary school children. Now before believers in evolution jump on me i will say clearly that i fully believe in evolution and have had many debates in it's favour on ATS and other websites.

I am however against teaching such a complex subject to children who are so young. This really needs to be left to secondary school. Primary school children now are really pressured already and adding to that workload a very complex subject. No wonder kids are on antidepressants.

History i have no problems with being taught as it can be taught in a more relaxed manner.

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 02:38 AM by heyo

I wonder if this is gonna be taught to these kids before or after sex-ed? Probably before, it'd be extremely difficult to teach history to gaggle of giggling 8 year olds.
I'm not sure how much they think these kids are going to retain, as well, with dwindling attention spans and more and more fat kids needing to go to the bathroom all the time.
Those poor teachers....sigh
Nice evolution waiver too I could hear the hounds barking in the distance lol.

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 02:45 AM by john124

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984

Evolution is part of our history, part of the history of species on planet earth. We should not hide away our kids from this fact just because a few bible bashing creationists in the US have hijacked the science classroom for their own agenda's in the states.

Education, education and education is the only way to ever prevent religion from being taught in the science classroom here as well. It's not science to attribute a whole process to god, yet fail to explain even one aspect of what is claimed to be god's work without resorting to ficticious bible quotes.

So, YES of course the history of life on our planet should be taught as a compulsory subject!

The kids who have been brainwashed by religion are probably more at risk of depression etc, if they later have to struggle in their efforts to become a critical thinker after years of being told whatever you want to exist must exist, or because the teachers wish it to exist - which is actually a pathetic way of teaching anyone, especially kids!

[edit on 20-11-2009 by john124]

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 02:48 AM by john124

reply to post by heyo

I'm sure they will keep it fairly basic

, you know with nice pictures of animals etc. I mean for the evolution teaching of course, not the sex-ed - that's definitely a bad idea for kids this young, maybe around 13-16 would be the best time.

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 03:02 AM by ImaginaryReality1984

Originally posted by john124
reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984

Evolution is part of our history, part of the history of species on planet earth. We should not hide away our kids from this fact just because a few bible bashing creationists in the US have hijacked the science classroom for their own agenda's in the states.

Where did that all come from? I'm all for teaching evolution and creationism is a load of rubbish but these kids are very yonug and i somehow doubt they'll retain much of it. These young years should be spent more on establishing the early principles of science and not approaching a theory like evolution until later.

Originally posted by john124
Education, education and education is the only way to ever prevent religion from being taught in the science classroom here as well. It's not science to attribute a whole process to god, yet fail to explain even one aspect of what is claimed to be god's work without resorting to ficticious bible quotes.

Who said we wanted religion taught? I'm just saying leave evolution for secondary school when kids have had a really good grounding in biology, chemistry, maths, english etc.

Originally posted by john124
So, YES of course the history of life on our planet should be taught as a compulsory subject!

You can teach the history of animals and ignore evolution at the primary school level. That is how i was taught and it seemed pretty good.

Originally posted by john124
The kids who have been brainwashed by religion are probably more at risk of depression etc, if they later have to struggle in their efforts to become a critical thinker after years of being told whatever you want to exist must exist, or because the teachers wish it to exist - which is actually a pathetic way of teaching anyone, especially kids!

[edit on 20-11-2009 by john124]

Actually one of the biggest stress factors for children at primary level is now emerging to be education itself. The constant testing, the expectation for them to be little adults and take their academic career seriously is rather stupid.

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 07:47 AM by Freedom ERP

And what was so wrong with my education, many moons ago?

I can remember primary school as generally a time of fun and not under pressure to pass exams. While my memory is not perfect, I do not recall being taught evolution and I have to agree with the OP. Is primary school the right place to start talking about evolution, and if we take this forward, evolution and sex education are related, so are we seeing a conspiracy in education policy?

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 08:31 AM by Peruvianmonk

Indoctrinate them in this kind of logical thinking early i say. This will keep them out of the clutches of religion.

reply posted on 20-11-2009 @ 10:24 AM by ImaginaryReality1984

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
Indoctrinate them in this kind of logical thinking early i say. This will keep them out of the clutches of religion.

Firstly school is not the place to indoctrinate anyone in anything, whether religion of atheism. If they were indoctrinated into religion then you would no doubt be up in arms and yet you're quite happy to indoctrinate them in something else, hypocrite. I say that as an atheist btw so don't think i'm a religious nut job.

Secondly this isn't about religion vs evolution, this is about whether it is correct in an already pressured primary school system, with kids stressed out and being put on anti depressants to be teaching them a complex theory. Why not just ground them in the basics of science before moving to the complex stuff?

In my primary school this is how it went, all the basics were covered well, a quick glance at everything and then when we moved up to secondary school we delved into the details.

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