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Jack Uretsky wrote:
>But, in the U.S. a parent can always have a child excused from specific >parts of a course that offends the parent's religious beliefs. I've never >heard of a case, however, where the excused portion was required for the >child to graduate.
>
If the so-called excused portion (assuming it is evolution) is in the state science standards, which in most states are, and all teachers are responsible for teaching to those standards in preparation for the state mandated *exit* test in science, then there would most likely be specific questions on any test pertaining to those standards. Now, the child who was excused from the evolution part would still have to answer those questions because I never heard of a state test that is altered to accomodate specific individuals who may object to a certain part of the test. What is the child going to write... I refuse to answer on the grounds it is against my religion? The child should hope he or she has enough of the other questions correct to make up for those he or she refuses to darken in the bubble.
This whole issue opens up a new can of worms... what about the English history or literature course that teaches the druids or Beowulf? (Gods and goddesses other than the *accepted* ones) or MacBeth (witches); the Health or Bio course on the reproduction system? the history course that teaches Salem witch trials? music... The Ring Cycle (Norse Gods), *Night on Bald Mountain* ("unGodly music with suggestions of spirits") Silly? To us it may very well be, but you would be surprised how many people object to course contenc we would never think twice about.
Private schools are especially protective about what their students get to read, hear, see, or experience. That's their right, but it mirrors the public school teacher's nightmare taken to the extreme. In my very private school where the religious administrators must approve everything the English teacher wants to assign, the secular principal had to fight tooth and nail to allow the kids to read Romeo and Juliet, and To Kill a Mockingbird. They even had to view the movie Red Badge of Courage ahead of time and then approved it. (Actually for most of these novels and plays the religious people had NEVER read or seen the material before! Their education was so restricted in their own schools that no one bothered to even ask to allow them to read or see such things.)
Now, after 8 years, I don't even ask... I just teach cosmology or evolution and answer questions later. By the time they find out what it was, it's done. I have been there for all that time, they would be hard pressed to find another science teacher who contributes what I do above and beyond, so they don't even ask any longer, just a mild admonition in the beginning of the year... "You know we don't believe in evolution."
I simply nod my head and it becomes *don't ask, don't tell.*
Marty
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