To think this person should not be a biology teacher?

[baublegirl454]

My son is yr 8, and had had concerns about his biology teacher for a while. She has often been totally unprepared for their lessons so they are told to just read from their textbooks, she can't use the whiteboard & often sets incomprehensible homework or on subjects that they haven't studied yet. She is new, so we hoped these were just teething issues and would improve. Howe er, DS came home on Friday and announced that she has said that she doesn't believe in Evolution and (I quote) 'I don't believe an explosion (I.e. The Big Bang) could create a house'
WTF????
Would we be unreasonable to approach the school about this?!

Much of this thread does not make sense. I don't know if I believe the initial post which is unclear. A biology teacher confuses Big Bang and Evolution? Really? And she tells a twelve year old that she is a creationist? ("An explosion didn't create a house" -sounds like a joke to me but I wasn't there)

Then we have Creationism itself - which apparently all Christians believe and so they shouldn't be allowed to teach and Faith schools shouldn't be allowed either. ??

And Academies and Private Schools are also full of religious fanatics teaching - (but only Christians not Muslims of course because that would be racist...)

And then the complete lack of understanding about RE and the belief that it means teaching Christianity?? I mean really?

There are some very muddled arguments here and poor understanding that the point of education is to learn what others think/thought and test it for ourselves. (Not everyone obvs!)
Science - the NC should be taught of course - exams need to be passed - so if the NC isn't being covered THAT is a point to report - but the rest?

It's not just about the NC though. If you don't believe in evolution then most of biology just doesn't make sense. If you believe in creationism then kiss goodbye to geology and geography too. What sort of person would spend their life teaching stuff to kids that they fundementally disagree with?

Badknees . You are firstly confusing believing in a God created world that is gods was "behind" the creation of the world but maybe not directly responsible for every detail. This is the teaching of many world religions including Christianity with Young Earth Creationism those idiots who believe the world is 6000 years old or so and take a very literal view from the bible and then there are old earth creationists those who take a pretty literal view of the bible but accept that Ussher ( who first worked out 6000 years) got a few digits wrong here and then there are the itellligent disign believers too.
YEC became more popular in the US in the 1970s and has in the last decade or so become more mainstream and has made its way over here.
In 2007 the Govt made it through statutory guidelines that creationism (YEC ) could not be presented in science lessons. When freeschools were set up the contract includes a clause that creationism cannot be presented in the form of a science or be given weight to as a sscientific theorem. This is because YEC tend to make their own science up since the 6000 year belief tends to muck every scientific law and theory. If you are interested in their nonsense then have a look at Creation Ministries International website. It can seem very plausible how it is presented.
While you are looking at the site it take a look at their events page and look at the number of events primarily aimed at children . Then find the page which sets out how they wish to get into schools by the back door.
Despite the fairly meaningless clauses in contracts and guidelines creationists are getting a foot in schools.
Of course not all academies are affected but given the lack of scrutiny and because some schools operate under the Christian Schools Trust appear to be creationist or at least have people who are/ were creationist running the trust and other free schools have been set up by creationist church's but no gov' of course we are not going to teach creationism , well maybe a bit , well maybe on a par with other theory ...
So I am not surprised that the OP is calling one teacher out on it.

Missed a comma out in the first sentence of that long post . To be clear I am not equating Christianity with Young Earth Creationism . The bib I ble is about all they have in common.

("An explosion didn't create a house" -sounds like a joke to me but I wasn't there)

I think its an analogy and a simple version of the teleological argument.

Op I'd withdraw him from the class asap, and make sure you know what the curriculum is. He can use the period/s to study independently.

I'd ask to see the teacher and tell her why your DS won't be attending her class. Follow up with a letter of her "stories" taught in the class with the management.

In this day and age, religion and belief systems have NO PLACE IN A SCIENCE CLASS. And those 'teachers' that peddle such shite have no place there either (though they might learn something, if they could wedge open their tiny minds for a millisecond, and actually read the science.)

My Physics teacher was also head of RE. Can you imagine?
I was taught all aspects of science by a nun, and she was a perfectly fine teacher and no problem with any scientific theory and keeping it completely separate from religion.

I present the creation story from the Bible as one set of ideas (and teach other creation stories as part of a term's topic work) and the theory of evolution as another set of ideas.

Theory of evolution should be in a biology lesson, creation stories in an RE lesson. The two should never be taught in the same class.

OP

go to the school about this.

Is is possible that the teacher was using this as a way to start a discussion on evolution.

But If the OP's DC only works to the IWB and wasn't paying attention, we won't know unless the OP talks to the teacher.

I think it is hust a teaching method.she might have said this about creationism and then the children have to write a homework explaining how the evidence for evolution disproves her

It doesn't sound like your DS has much chance of excelling in this subject with such a teacher. On another note I am of the opinion that weather you believe in intelligent design, creation, darwinist evolution etc., they are all just theories and unsupported by conclusive evidence (ie.the missing link). No one was there all that time ago to bear witness to whatever took place.

Not true Zaphod , tons of evidence supporting evolution; none supporting creationism and ID .

In this day and age, religion and belief systems have NO PLACE IN A SCIENCE CLASS. And those 'teachers' that peddle such shite have no place there either (though they might learn something, if they could wedge open their tiny minds for a millisecond, and actually read the science.)

Are you saying that no religious people should be science teachers? There's a limit to what science can explain-what happened before the Big Bang is a matter of faith not science. Currently no one can convincingly explain where the universe came from. Pretending that science has all the answers isn't a very scientific position to take.

Science does get discussed in RS. We talk about whether faith and science are compatible. Spoiler: they are.

I had a biology teacher at A level who didn't believe in evolution. It was fine, we still got taught it and just thought she was very strange. I went on to get a biology related degree so no harm done.

That does not sound good, I woukd raise this with the HT.

This is the kind of lazy anti scientific thinking that has become so popular in the 21st century. We should be moving forward but now in schools people are espousing their opinions rather than scientific fact apparently.

It's part of this individualistic post trump, post truth, my opinions count more tHan an expert (who we hate) much crappy mess we are in

Queen said she taught in a faith school, not that it was secondary.

A teacher required to teach both would by inference teach in a primary because you'd not have to teach religion in a biology class, I just don't see how that would be allowed or even work.

I did get a bit worried when I read this but the only young earther we've had in my school worked in the IT department. And isn't there now anyway. A young earther wouldn't last long in either our Biology or RS department if they made their views that public.
Creationism shouldn't be taught in Science lesson but is in RS lessons. In fact my year 8 class have just done some work based on a newspaper article about the ruling that stated Creationism had no place in the Science lab.

Whilst I have stated she shouldn't be contradicting NC, donquixote makes a good point about wider discussion, which would be particularly useful at higher levels. However, this is a year 8 class and this teacher seems to be disregarding basic requirements rather than strengthening discussion. And I'd still be concerned about her lack of organisation/creativity/planning.

I remember a programme with Richard Dawkins visiting a muslim school and discussing chimpanzees and evolution with the biology teacher. Wow. (Although probably edited extremely to be sensational.)

Doctor Donna, whilst it is possible to have a position where faith and science are compatible, it is difficult to reconcile not accepting evolution as a scientific theorem ( not the same as just a theory- see munchkin above) and faith in something like creationism.
What is more worrying is when YEC start expressing their own pseudo scientific nonsense and presenting it in a scientific manner. See the Creation Ministries Internnational website for evidence. That is why I would be very concerned about such a biology teacher stating she didn't accept evolution. It implies a whole manner of potential things and like other pp I would definitely be raising this with the HT , governors , LA or DfE if no action was taken.

Dawkins can be quite silly though. He fails to see the logical flaws in his own work (The God Delusion - dreadful work of philosophy/theology). Love The Selfish Gene though.

she can't use the whiteboard Really?

2bees - oh I agree, wholeheartedly. I was mainly responding to the posts that lump all believers in with Young Earthers. Seriously, we all think they're mad too!

Derxa - I assume it's an interactive whiteboard.