Evolution disappearing from Canadian schools
CHARLOTTETOWN - Where did we come from? In high schools across Canada over the past decades, the theory of evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin would be the most common one taught, while creationist theory was left for Sunday school.
But things are changing, as recent developments in two Canadian provinces point out. Public schools, under pressure from religious groups to give equal billing to the creation theory of the origin of life, are opting instead to pull teaching about origin of life theories altogether.
In Prince Edward Island, a parent advisory group known as the PEI Home and School Association passed a resolution calling for the provincial education system to mandate that students be taught creationism to counter evolution teaching in the classroom.
But when the resolution was brought to the provincial education department, the province called for a meeting with the association. The government assured association president Georgina Allen that there is currently no teaching of evolution in any course in the PEI education system.
"We took that at face value," says a spokesperson for the group. The association now considers it a dead issue. There are no plans to push the creation issue any further.
That hasn't stopped the issue from spicing up the letters to the editor at The Guardian, the province's main newspaper. Several evolutionists and creationists have been battling it out throughout this fall.
Quietly removed
In Ontario, public school students may go their entire grade school education without being taught the theory of evolution at all.
Ontario provincial curriculum developers have quietly removed virtually all teaching about evolution in order to avoid controversy. The new provincial curriculum has only one course that teaches evolution—a Grade 12 biology course for students headed for university studies in biochemistry or biology.
The Ontario Ministry of Education and Training is mum on the issue, refusing all requests for interviews.
Instead, the new curriculum concentrates on teaching the facts of how biological systems work, such as how food, water and light affect animals and analyzing the human muscle and nervous systems.
"It is all value-neutral," Tom Steinke of the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board told The National Post. "So stuff that is controversial or has values attached to it—environmental stuff and so on—is pretty much left out."
Teachers say that although evolution teaching hasn't been banned, the curriculum is so heavy with other science content that there's not time left to discuss things such as evolution.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
