Review: Inherit the Wind

Clarence Darrow (wikipedia)

Yesterday is Today

A rousing, if slightly flat, rendition of a courthouse Holy War reminds us that the teaching of evolution is still in question

by Sarah Deshaies
@sarahdeshaies

“After Tuesday’s election, four new members will join the Kansas State Board of Education, but one thing likely won’t change — students will continue to learn about evolution,” reads an opening paragraph in a news article. “That means Intelligent Design isn’t likely to return to Kansas science standards anytime soon.”

The dateline on this article in The Topeka-Capital Journal is Nov. 7, 2012 - a questionable near 80 years after the sensational Scopes Monkey Trial, a case in Tennessee where a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Inherit the Wind is the 1955 theatrical retelling of the Scopes trial, but set in the town of Hillsboro - “the buckle on the Bible Belt.” 

In Montreal, where the hot education debates mostly revolve around at which age the government should mandate language in classrooms, and funding one of the cheapest post-secondary education on the continent, it’s hard to imagine that beyond our borders, questions of science pedagogy are still brewing. 

Oddly enough, while intelligent design in Kansas is apparently on the out, legislators in Tennessee easily passed the “Monkey Bill” earlier this year. It allows teachers to discuss the “alternative” theories of science like evolution and cloning, but only if students question them.

Some old debates, like religion vs. science, die hard.