The problem is not that such concepts are taught using the word “evolution” - it should be pretty obvious that as soon as concepts such as adaptation and speciation and common descent are brought up, the teacher is talking about evolution, and those “fundamentalist hicks” will still be up in arms (probably throwing in some added indignation about using deceit to teach such an evil subject).
It is rare that one’s first exposure to the concept of evolution is in the classroom. There are plenty of books and TV shows (and sermons) which discuss the subject, so students are very likely to “know it when they see it” (a possibility which increases as students progress through the K-12 system). Especially as soon as the name “Darwin” is mentioned. Granted, they may not know much until they are formally taught, but removing the word from Georgian school curriculum was not likely to be the insurance against closed minds that Ms. Cox might have thought.
On the other hand, as I mentioned previously, by switching to the phrase “biological changes through time”, the way is opened to bypass the teaching of evolution altogether - much moreso than if the curriculum simply stated that evolution has to be part of the curriculum.
Now Dewey, before we all start educating the wee children of those “fundamentalist hicks” down in Georgia let’s try to educate Dewey Cheatem in the creation of clearly constructed thoughts. Here’s a happy idea, let’s take your paragraph above and rearrange it so as to purge it of its condescension and then redo the wording so that it conveys clear constructive thoughts.
Ok, first out let’s take the first paragraph you wrote and while keeping it’s form we will gain insight into its subtle paternalistic meanings by giving it a racial twist. Ready?
Please note Mr.Dewey that the presumption remains the same, that is, both paragraphs demonstrate that the writer assumes that he knows better than the subjects of his paragraph what is best for their children. He has such little respect for their ability to think that he thinks that he can trick them into liking classical music or learning evolution. What a pragmatic pig. Good thing he doesn’t want to trick people into believing in psychotherapy, That was a loser: five generations of Americans wasted a few billion dollars being psychoanalyzed by psychoanalysis before some obscure study pointed out to academia that no one was getting cured and that the rednecks were right, Freudian psychoanalysis is a joke.
Thank Heaven for decent people who don’t interfere in other peoples lives. Right?
.
I think that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
A slightly imperfect education can be a horror.
Hitler’s education was imperfect, for example.
Junk in, junk out.
May God save the South from the Comet and meddling Yankees.
Amen.
Well, in this case the author would be “she,” but it is good to see that, once you were shown the true nature of her comments via Dewey’s paraphrase, you have begun to agree with several of the other posters that the comments of Ms. Cox are seriously insulting to the parents and children of Georgia.
I agree with a previous poster that it would be better to open another thread to debate the point about Republicans being racists-by-association and will therefore not debate it here. You are quite right, the Democratic Party was long the Evil Party wrt racism, but if you’ll get your butt into the latter half of the PREVIOUS century, you’ll see that that has changed.