# How did you learn about evolution in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 5, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450 "2009-08-05T18:54:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/41 "2009-08-06T08:13:52Z")
We learned about it at length in science class. This was public school in Utah in the early 90’s. My mom went to Catholic school and learned about it in science class as well. Creation was limited to spiritual studies. They also taught us sex ed too, oddly enough. No, not abstinence only, but how to get contraception and dispelling any myths(like you can’t get pregnant the first time). Now that I think of it, that’s REALLY weird for a public school in Utah. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/42 "2009-08-06T12:05:16Z")
I really don’t remember learning about evolution in school, but I know we did in sixth grade because I do distinctly remember my 6th grade teacher telling us that some people didn’t believe in evolution, and that was okay, but religion was inappropriate for the classroom. I remember being baffled because I already knew the basics of evolution and was very fuzzy on religious beliefs. (My parents are atheists who regularly took me to the zoo and to the California Academy of Sciences, so I was a lot more familiar with natural history than I was with any theology.) Then I took Intro to Human Evolution in college (I was an anthropology major) and learned about it in detail. All of this was in the California public school system in the late 80s to mid 90s. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/43 "2009-08-06T15:08:28Z")
A footnote to my Catholic school in New York- in 5th grade, we actually put on a Scopes Trial re-enactment, and NOBODY wanted to be William Jennings Bryan, because even at the age of 10/11, we’d been pretty well disabused of the notion that his side had a leg to stand on. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/44 "2009-08-06T15:16:13Z")
I went to a smallish high school in middle Tennessee, mid-90’s. My biology teacher said evolution exists. Tadpoles evolve into frogs and catepillars evolve into butterflies. But he didn’t believe in the evolution of man. If we did, that was fine. And that was the evolution lesson. Took maybe 45 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/45 "2009-08-06T15:16:17Z")
I learned more about THE BIG BANG than sex from my catholic school edumacation. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/46 "2009-08-06T15:41:59Z")
> [@Jelly\_Roll](#): > > I went to a smallish high school in middle Tennessee, mid-90’s. > > My biology teacher said evolution exists. **Tadpoles evolve into frogs and catepillars evolve into butterflies.** But he didn’t believe in the evolution of man. If we did, that was fine. > > And that was the evolution lesson. Took maybe 45 seconds. Was your biology teacher five? ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/47 "2009-08-06T15:58:17Z")
AP Biology, 1999-1999. My teacher covered it. Gave very brief lip service to non-creationist ideas while literally rolling her eyes, then got on to the real science. She was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/48 "2009-08-06T16:16:34Z")
Old joke (I first heard it told by Lyndon Johnson, of all people): A young teacher had been out of work for a long time, and finally got an interview at a prestigious Southern private school. The interview went well, and the teacher started getting his hopes up. The principal then asked the teacher, “One last thing- do you believe in the theory of evolution?” Terrified of blowing a job opportunity, the teacher said, “Well… personally, yes. But I can teach both ways.” ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/49 "2009-08-06T17:18:12Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > At my high school, mid-1990s, we didn’t learn about it all. Our biology textbook had a chapter on evolution. As far as I can recall there was nothing about creationism or intelligent design in there. But we just skipped over any discussion about the origins of man. The origins of man are a tiny sideshow in evolution. I know that’s the part that has people up in arms, but your post seems to imply that evolution=origins of man, which is like saying “Sister Mary Margaret rapped my knuckles with a ruler=the entire history of religion” or something. It’s not equivalent. > [@StGermain](#): > > In elementary school and junior high we were taught that all life evolved from something more primitive, going back to the idea of a primodial ooze. Probably what they taught, but incorrect. All life evolved from _something else;_ “primitive,” “advanced,” and any implied directionality or purpose are human errors of thought. Surviving selection does not guarantee increased complexity or sophistication, only generally depends on fitness for the current environment, and is, often enough, accidental. This is a sore point with me (probably from reading too much Stephen Jay Gould) so I harp on it when I see it; please don’t take it personally. > [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](#): > > AP Biology, 1999-1999. My teacher covered it. Gave very brief lip service to non-creationist ideas while literally rolling her eyes, then got on to the real science. Not being snarky – what are “non-creationist ideas”? I would have said the “non-creationist ideas” were science, but you say that she then moved on to real science, so I’m confused. Did you mean she gave lip service to creationist ideas? ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/50 "2009-08-06T17:23:31Z")
We spent a lot of time on evolution in biology when I was in high school. Freshman level biology was the basics, then when I was in AP, we got into genetics, more in-depth natural selection, etc. But I went to a small merit-based private school in Southern Indiana. I’m not sure what I would have been taught had I gone to public school. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/51 "2009-08-06T17:33:04Z")
We learned it in high school biology. I remember the teacher saying there was some restriction on how he could teach it – something like he had to say “This is the theory of evolution” not “This is how life evolved” – but he could still cover the subject fairy thoroughly. This was in New York in the late 60s. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/52 "2009-08-06T17:55:31Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Catholic School. Covered it in most science books. > > Catholic church accepts evolution, and sees Genesis and other creationist views as nothing more than allegories, stories, lessons, etc. > > It was covered as far back as I could remember (prob 3rd grade) and routinely as part of High School biology. > > Born and raised in the Arch Diocese Philadelphia. Same here - I graduated from HS in 1999, in NH. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/53 "2009-08-06T18:38:24Z")
Public school, 1980s. It was presented in our biology texts in an implicit manner, with the usual timelines, species trees, epochs, etc it was obvious that things were really really old and had changed over time. It wasn’t explicity taught or discussed by our teachers as a distinct concept at all, simply avoided. By this avoidance, I think it probably had the opposite intent that deniers would have liked. Since it was essentially just built in to everything, I think we accepted it as an obvious no-brainer concept. Why debate and discuss evolution at all, that’s like debating if the sky is blue? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450/54 "2009-08-06T20:03:16Z")
I don’t remember. As far as I can tell we learned it the same way we learned about anything else in basic science. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-learn-about-evolution-in-school/505450.md?page=2)