Kansas vs. Darwin (PBS)

[Neecy]

I'm watching an excellent documentary about hearings that were held (I believe about 3 years ago) to challenge the teaching of Darwin in public schools in Kansas.

I thought Jesus Camp was a frightening glimpse of how children are manipulated by the extreme fundies but wow, this is scary. There's a guy who brought his little girl to watch the hearings - she was maybe 7 - and for most of the time she sat and quietly drew crosses in a notepad - LOTS of crosses. Then when a pro-Darwin biology teacher testified she drew him as the devil, complete with horns. She was too young to understand the proceedings so that devil drawing must have been promoted somehow by the father.

Who does this to children? How much is this kid going to respect her teachers, if she doesn't end up being home-schooled (likely)? Why do they screw up their kids like this?

The documentary is excellent, by the way. You can see the pro-Darwin people just gritting their teeth and finally erupting in the face of so much wingnuttiness.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. More willful ignorance that crosses over into evil.

[crimsonblue]

2. I lucked out

I attended a pro-Jesus public high school in Kansas, but I was lucky enough to have an AP biology teacher that believed ardently in evolution. I started the class as somewhat dismissive of it, but no I have no doubts abt the validity of evolution.