College student leads fight against anti-evolution teachings in schools
Zach Kopplin (billmoyers.com/)
Going to college is tough enough without leading a campaign to stop creationism from being taught in school as an alternative to evolution, but that’s whatZach Kopplin, 19, has been doing for several years.
He began by taking on the badly named Louisiana Science Education Act, which actually allows teachers in science classrooms to discuss creationism as a way to question evolution. He even persuaded 78 Nobel laureates to sign onto to his effort. Now he has expanded his work to publicize creationist private schools that receive public money through school vouchers. His work earned him the first ever $10,000 “Troublemaker of the Year” given by an entrepreneur who wants to honor young people who make a lot of noise fighting for a good cause.
Evolution is, of course, the central principle around which all of the biological sciences revolve, and creationism is not a scientific alternative. But religious fundamentalists continue to push for creationism to be taught in schools. Here’s what cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham wrote about teaching creationism in this post:
Why shouldn’t science teachers “teach the controversy?” Isn’t it the job of teachers to sharpen students critical thinking skills? Isn’t it part of the scientific method to evaluate evidence? If evolution proponents are so sure their theory is right, why are they afraid of students scrutinizing the ideas? Imagine this logic applied in other subjects. Rather than just reading Shakespeare and assuming he’s a great playwright, why not ask students to read Shakespeare and the screenplay to Battlefield Earth [a science fiction film starring John Travolta based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard], and let students decide? And hey, why is such deference offered to Euclid? My uncle Leon has an alternative version of plane geometry and it shows Euclid was all wrong. I think that theory deserves a hearing.
Now Kopplin’s work against the Louisiana law has led him to expand his research to include creationist schools in Louisiana and in other states that are receiving public money through school vouchers. He now has a database of more than 300 schools, which you can find