Teaching Evolution Has a Bright Future in the U.S.

Teaching development has a bright future in the United States

By Glenn Branch Edited by Daniel Vergano

One hundred years ago, a young teacher, John T. Scopes, conducting a trial in Dayton, Tenn., L Violating a recently enacted state law This improves the state’s teachers “to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man was descended from an order lower than the animals.” Since religiously motivated attempts to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools in the United States have not only continued, but have also been adapted in response to legal setbacks.

However, today there are encouraging trends that indicate that the arc of history is bending toward teaching.

Of the famous, ranges were condemned, despite The conviction was overturned On appeal, Servant Codeunder prosecution, remained on the books — joining similar laws enacted in Arkansas and Mississippi later in the 1920s. It was not until 1967 that the Tennessee Legislature was elected He abolished the servant lawPartly in reaction to the negative publicity surrounding the Scopes trial sparked by Hollywood films He inherited the wind. The following year, the Arkansas law was struck as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in its decision in Epperson v. Arkansasand Its counterpart in Mississippi was similarly found unconstitutional by the state’s highest court in 1970.

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A second wave of attacks on teaching evolution followed. Their strategy was not to ban the teaching of evolution but to “balance” it by requiring the teaching of such purportedly discredited – but clearly religiously motivated – evolution as an oracle as a biblical letter. CreationAnd the science of creation Smart design. These attacks were unsuccessful, thanks to a series of decisions in federal courts. The latest came in Kitzmiller v. Doverand A 2005 case in which a Pennsylvania school district’s policy of requiring teachers to recommend intelligent design to their students as a scientifically credible alternative to evolution was found unconstitutional.

anticipation Kitzmiller Resolution, a third wave of attacks emerged early in the 21st century. The new strategy was not to ban or counterbalance the teaching of evolution but to honesty it by requiring teachers to, or more commonly, distort evolution as scientifically controversial. A handful of states — Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee — have such laws on the books. It is difficult to challenge these laws as unconstitutional in the abstract without a teacher actually claiming protection for preaching against evolution to their students. But it’s also unclear whether any teachers took the opportunity to misrepresent their students about evolution.

However, what is clear is that the teaching of evolution in American public schools is improving. comparison Nationally representative surveys of public high school biology teachers conducted in 2007 versus 2019 reveal that more are being taught about evolution in general—and substantially more are being taught about human evolution, which, as the wording of the Server Act indicates The hiker, especially. Whereas in 2007 a large majority of these teachers reported that they emphasized the scientific credibility of evolution while not emphasizing creationism as a scientifically credible alternative, in 2019, it was a commanding majority, 67 percent, who did so.

What explains such a striking improvement in the focus on evolution in high school biology class? The reason is in part to improve treatment of advancement in state science standards, which outline the knowledge and know-how their students are expected to gain during their K-12 science education. The majority of state science standards are now based on a national research council range This recognizes as a fundamental principle of the life sciences “that all living organisms are linked by evolution and that evolutionary processes have led to the enormous diversity of the biosphere.” There are therefore incentives to ensure that science teachers are equipped and encouraged to teach accordingly.

There is still plenty of room for improvement: Even in a 2019 survey, 17.6 percent of high school biology teachers—more than one in six—reported affirming, incorrectly, that creationism is a scientifically credible alternative to evolution. Many of these teachers were creationists themselves: 10.5 percent of respondents indicated that they personally agreed that “God created humans largely in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.” The rest presented creationism as scientifically credible most likely the result of inadequate preparation or societal pressure, whether implicit or explicit.

There is still cause for concern about attempts to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools. Most recently in 2024, the West Virginia Legislature considered a bill, As it was presentedwould have allowed public school teachers to present “intelligent design as a theory of how the universe and/or humanity exist.” Fortunately, the reference was to intelligent design It has been removed Before the bill passes. However, such concerns are newly urgent in light of the recent Supreme Court Give up A legal test of whether a government action is constitutional has enabled successful litigation against the second wave of attacks on evolutionary teaching.

However, despite occasional outbursts of overt attacks and a background level of implicit hostility across the country, synthetic attacks on evolution teaching are pervasive. Evolution has become accepted Majority position Among the American public for more than a decade, according to multiple independent polls, there are signs of a shift even among religious communities that have traditionally been hostile to evolution. In short, a century after the conclusion of the Eight-Day Scopes Trial, there is now reason to hope that every public school student in the United States will be in a position to appreciate that Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.

Disclosure: The author of this article is the Deputy Director of the National Center for Science Education, who was on the plaintiff’s legal team Kitzmiller v. Dover issue in 2005 and conducted a 2019 survey of science teachers with Eric Plotzer of Pennsylvania State University.

This is an article of opinion and analysis, and the opinions expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those American Scientific.