One of the blessings of problems was my problematic educational journey. I was, through almost all of my elementary school education, an excellent student. Okay, I talked a lot in class when I shouldn't have, but, as far as grades were concerned, I was above average...in an average school system. When my parents moved from Pennsauken, NJ to Pittsburgh, PA, my father wanted his three sons to get a great education. So we moved to Mt. Lebanon, a southern suburb of Pittsburgh. Mt. Lebanon, at the time, had the 19th best school system in the entire nation. Mt. Lebanon also was an extremely rich community. Therefore, in a matter of moments, I went from an above average student grade wise and economically comfortable to feeling both dumb and poor. It was an emotional and intellectual shock to my system.

Looking back on my life, I realized that I put 2 + 2 together and came up with 18 as the answer. That was a mistake, but I didn't realize it. There have been several people that have helped me to wake up to that mistake. I am here to tell you that I'm not dumb nor am I poor. There are loads of people smarter and richer than me, but I am neither dumb and/or poor. However, it took me half my life to realize the mistake made in the early 1950s when my family moved to Pittsburgh.

That realization is why I still am teaching in my 70s. I know what feeling dumb and poor felt like. I don't want to relive that in my life nor do I want other students to waste decades of their lives feeling bad about themselves as I did. However, that learning process was often quite painful and will be for my students. We are all forced to face facts, ideas, beliefs, etc. that they got from their families and the society in which they grew up.

Case in point...I teach an online introduction to philosophy class to freshmen and have for years. To assist in the teaching process, I have used films as a teaching aid. Early in the semester, the class deals with the question of philosophy and religion. How do they function together? Along with their reading assignment, I have them view a movie: Inherit the Wind, which is a classic film of the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 in Dayton, TN.

Darrow and Bryan Clarence Darrow defended John Scopes who was a high school math and science teacher in
Dayton, TN. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor. Scopes was accused of violating the Butler Act,
which was a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the public schools of the state.

Scopes

While the movie is an interesting reflection of the times nearly a century ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial raises a handful of problems stopping the teaching of evolution.

1. The Scopes Monkey Trial was in a country founded upon the separation of church and state. Just because some believe differing religious things, the government is not to impose a particular religious belief upon all others. I tell my students about days back in New Jersey in elementary school having the teacher read the Bible and say a prayer prior to the beginning of each school day. Fortunately, the times have changed but not enough.
2. The teaching of evolution in science classes was replaced in Tennessee with one that was totally anti-science. When we discuss this topic in class, I like to play Socrates. I will ask a question. "Do you accept chemistry, geology, physics, and biology?" The response is obviously yes. The Socratic follow-up question then is why of all the other scientific branches of exploration accepted excluding evolution?
3. Some will respond that the Bible says so. If the Bible says so, it is the gospel...a gospel over the science of evolution. The next Socratic question is what is a firmament in Genesis 1:7? Most people don't have the foggiest idea. However, back in the days when Genesis was written, they understood and believed in firmaments. There were those that believed in only one firmament and others had three or more. It was believed the firmament(s) would crack and leak waters from the sky, which we call rain.

Here are several artistic impressions of what the world looked like and how it was protected by the firmament.

Heaven Realm of God

The earth is flat covered by the firmament

Waters Above The Firmament

From the biblical text, there are all sorts of other questions based upon especially the first dozen chapters of Genesis. Is the world flat? Are we the center of our solar system? Does the sun rotate around the earth along with all the other heavenly objects? Who was Cain fearful of killing him while living East of Eden?

No one buys that the earth is the center of the universe or even the Milky Way. There are some photographic proofs:

The Milky Way

The location of our Sun in the Milky Way

Even Galileo did not know at the time that the Milky Way contains about 300 billion stars, and we are miles from the center of the Milky Way. Nevertheless, he knew that the earth wasn't the center of our solar system.

4. Now, many Christians buy into evolution as just one more scientific study based upon tons of research, experiments, etc. According to one poll, 46% of Americans believe in creationism vs. evolution. In comparison, Europe has gotten with the scientific world. This is a chart showing in blue those accepting science as opposed to those in red who are into creationism. The gold color represents those that are not sure.

Evolution Less Accepted in the U.S.

Interestingly, this chart included the US as a basis for comparison.

5. In addition to the issue of dissing one part of the scientific Weltanschauung while accepting the entire rest of science, there is a great deal of hubris and ignorance for using Christianity as if it is the only religion in the world today. There are a dozen other major religions today like Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Shinto, Baha'i, and all the various Chinese religions. And all those listed have different understandings than what some Christians base their anti-science bias regarding science.
6. That raises the question about education. What is the reason for education and the educational process? Is the educational process merely repeating what was told us regardless of other research? Students will raise that as a concern of theirs. Why should we believe science when our religion and/or our parents told us differently?
7. That is a valid question. My response is something that I learned from Socrates. I was born just a couple of years after he drank the hemlock. Socrates asked questions. This is my Socratic question: "Do you believe everything that your parents have told you?" For students in their late teens or those in their early 20s, that question should cause them to rethink protecting the past. Much of their lives is about questioning their parents. It started with Santa Claus and his existence and continued during their questioning and rebelling in their early teens.

Finally, questions are beneficial for all of us. They cause us pain/concern/lack of understanding/doubts. I am offering you, my reader, something that I learned over 70-years. What you think is accurate and true may not be. I thought that I was dumb and poor. After a while and with the help of other teachers, I realized that I wasn't. I addressed the issue. That has opened the doors to learning for me.

While many at 70 have chilled out, I won't. My pain and discomforted has pushed me to help my students in class and my readers to wake up and smell the roses. It is a wondrous world out there. Learn and enjoy it. The alternative isn't worth it. Trust me.

Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

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