SCHOLA: Darwin Has a Posse Indeed

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Darwin Has a Posse Indeed

Today, at the insistence of a friend, we watched Icons of Evolution.

What did we learn? Anything new?

That Darwin's theory is absolutely, positively correct or incorrect? No, Darwin acknowledged there were gaps that he hoped would be filled in as new fossils were found and studied.

That school textbooks are flawed and biased? Nope, Diane Ravitch demonstrated that quite clearly in The Language Police.

That you can present one side of any story and make it appear to be true by distorting facts or leaving out most of the evidence? Already knew that too.

That science is science. That it is measurable. That Intelligent Design is most emphatically not science as it cannot be measured? That you cannot prove your argument by attempting to discredit someone else? That students must question everything in order to obtain a real education? No news here.

But it might all be news to my friend and will certainly spark a lively conversation.

What exactly were the supplements that former science teacher Roger Dehart was so innocently trying to share with his class? Just the two articles referenced in the video questioning some of the weaker points of Darwin's theory? The producers of the film never do say, but you immediately suspect it was not so benign as that. See for yourself:

Science or Myth? A documentation of the controversial events.

Of Pandas and People Just one of the ID supplements producers forgot to mention.

"Not the Whole Truth" A review of the movie's local premiere.

Using gaps in knowledge and understanding of a subject only 150 or so years under study that covers a period of millions of years and deals with potentially trillions of pieces of evidence the majority of which are undiscovered and insisting that those gaps prove anything other than we need more fossils and more time to study them is ludicrous. Calling the battle Evolution (as in Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution is 100% Complete and Accurate) vs. Creationism is semantics really. I prefer the term Science vs. Non-Science. And seeing that Charles Darwin stands firmly on the side of science, whether or not he's totally free from error, I'm going to stick with him.

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.