SocraticGadfly: Mickey Mouse evolution teacher is serious

August 25, 2008

Mickey Mouse evolution teacher is serious

With Florida having passed new state teaching mandates explicitly requiring the teaching of evolution, David Campbell (pictured), an author of the new state teaching standards, is on the front lines.

One of his teaching tools Mickey Mouse. Seriously.

He shows how Mickey’s evolution to a more wasp-waisted, cute mouse was driving by Disney’s environment – the environment of capitalism and money-making.

Unfortunately, student Bryce Hass:
“I can see something else, too,” he said. “I can see that there’s no way I came from an ape.”

And fellow teacher Teresa Yancey, a biology teacher down the hall who taught a unit she called “Evolution or NOT,” who says:
“I think God did it.”

Don’t make Campbell’s life easier.

But, in crafting the state teaching standards, Campbell fought back against people who asked where stuff like intelligent design was:
“We also failed to include astrology, alchemy and the concept of the moon being made of green cheese,” he said. “Because those aren’t science, either.”

Read the whole story for more.

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