John Paul and 666

I went to high school in Alabama. Lucky me. I was fortunate enough to attend a magnet high school, meaning all the kids I went to school with had a passion outside of the normal high school course work. At least, in theory. Everything from theatre to law. We were not the academic magnet school. Those egg-heads were confined to a different campus. But we were smarter than the rest of the public school system. By what measure? In a system where most of the high schools were bragging if over half of the students passed the exit exam the first time, we had only one student out of a class of 151 need to retake the exam. And frankly, he was stoned so often I was amazed he only failed one section. Taking the test high and only failing one section probably means he's a genius sober. Then again, no hard feelings Jeremy, but probably not. Amazing musician though.

Like I said, this school was in Alabama. As part of the state law every high school biology textbook must have a disclaimer in the front concerning the teaching of evolution. I had my high school biology class in 1999-2000, so I had the original...disclaimer, hedging, whatever you want to call this bullshit. It was apparently designed by the Eagle Forum, brainchild of the evil harpy Phyllis Schafly. As far as I'm concerned, she's the Uncle Tom of the woman's movement. I can't wait till she dies. Anyway, they have opinions about evolution and the sticker is their band-aid. Below is a the text of the sticker.


A MESSAGE FROM THE ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things, such as plants, animals and humans.

No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact.

The word "evolution" may refer to many types of change. Evolution describes changes that occur within a species. (White moths, for example, may "evolve" into gray moths.) This process is microevolution, which can be observed and described as fact. Evolution may also refer to the change of one living thing to another, such as reptiles into birds. This process, called macroevolution, has never been observed and should be considered a theory. Evolution also refers to the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of living things.

There are many unanswered questions about the origin of life which are not mentioned in your textbooks, including:

• Why did the major groups of animals suddenly appear in the fossil record (known as the Cambrian Explosion)?
• Why have no new major groups of living things appeared in the fossil record in a long time?
• Why do major groups of plants and animals have no transitional forms in the fossil record?
• How did you and all living things come to possess such a complete and complex set of "instructions" for building a living body?

Study hard and keep an open mind. Someday you may contribute to the theories of how living things appeared on earth.

I found this on the Alabama Citizens for Science Edcation page, here. The school board apparently revised it in 2001 and 2004. Eh.

So when it was time for radical, activist, opinionated me to take this class I was ready. An avowed atheist at the tender age of 15, and my first high school paper was a nine page analysis of "Inherit the Wind", with footnotes. Of course, my biology teacher was on old hat at this by the time I landed in his classroom. I have to admit, he handled the whole thing well. He read what he was supposed to read, treated all of us with casual contempt, and kept the heavy combatants on both sides appeased. That is, until he left us to our own devices.

There is one more thing you should know about Alabama public schools, if you don't already. The forcible desegregation of schools lead to an overnight bloom of private schools. The schools are generally between 100 to 500 students, with a handful of 500 to 1200 student schools, and almost all had religion on the curriculum. Don't believe me, ask google. That was what, forty years ago? My generation saw public schools that were predominately black, or at least maintained a fifty-fifty mix to avoid getting in trouble with the federal government. This means that the white students I went to school with either made the conscious choice to or had desperatly poor parents. So my white friends and classmates tended towards the wacky liberal side. There were, of course, exceptions.

This is about one of the exceptions. Her name, I think, is Kelly. She was not too bright, shaped like a trapezoid, but could apparently sing. Mr. Bennett, the biology teacher, after our first no incident evolution lesson, took us outside to the courtyard to complete our assignment in the spring sunshine. Grouped with some of my closest co-conspirators, we got down to the serious business of trashing the stupid school board. Which is when Kelly chimed in, (I have no idea why she was sitting near me,) expoused the opinion that evolution was crock and she knew because her preacher told her. I mentioned I though the Catholic church, the foundation for her break-away sect of nutters, found no necessary contradiction between the scientific theory and the practice of Christianity. She rebutted that the Catholic church was evil, and she knew it because the Pope's name spelled out 666.

This I could not respond to. I mean, what can you say? "Oh, gee. I hadn't thought of that. John Paul II == 666. It's so clear to me now!"

I'd like to refer back to Steven Soundheim as the moral of the story:

"Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see. And learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you For which way to turn, to learn what to be. Careful before you say, "Listen to me." Children will listen. "

So there it is, kids. Fight your fight, do what you think is right. But keep in mind, it's the shaping of the next generation you're arguing about. It's whether you're propelling us in the direction of an enlightenment or a dark age. The world's moving forward, no matter what. And we can move forward looking for answers about the world around us with our eyes open, or we can keep looking backwards and inwards for answers about the world around us. I vote eyes open. It hasn't failed us yet.