"Isn't it true that mutations only make an animal weaker?" sophomore Chris Willett demands.
" 'Cause I was watching one time on CNN and they mutated monkeys to see if they could get one to become human and they couldn't."
Frisby tries to explain that evolution takes millions of years, but Willett isn't listening. "I feel a tail growing!" he calls to his friends, drawing laughter.
Unruffled, Frisby puts up a transparency tracing the evolution of the whale, from its ancient origins as a hoofed land animal through two lumbering transitional species and finally into the sea. He's about to start on the fossil evidence when sophomore Jeff Paul interrupts: "How are you 100 percent sure that those bones belong to those animals? It could just be some deformed raccoon."
From the back of the room, sophomore Melissa Brooks chimes in: "Those are real bones that someone actually found? You're not just making this up?"
"No, I am not just making it up," Frisby says.
At least half the students in this class of 14 don't believe him, though, and they're not about to let him off easy.
Well at least they are paying attention in class. I know that this must be terribly difficult for these teachers, but I know that this is the time to introduce the kids to the alternate reality of what they have been spoon fed their entire lives. For many of these kids the damage has been done and there is no changing their minds. But for some of them this is new and exciting information that might introduce critical thinking for the first time in their lives.
I just hope that these teachers are up to the herculean task.
Their parents and church encourage them to act like that!
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