Spinal Fire Scientia Est Potentia

In my other life, I'm a science teacher at the local high school. I teach biology, physics, and earth science. For this year, I ended up teaching one class at the local middle school...basic earth science.

At this particular school, the demographics are completely different from where I normally teach. All of these children are from well-off families and most of them have parents are really involved and care. Also, many of the families are very religious and conservative.

As the year has gone on, I've grown to really appreciate these kids. They are smart, they work hard, and you can really tell that they are being brought up right. Now, I'm smart enough to realize that their faith is part of this equation and I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.

Here's the problem...

I have at least a half dozen kids who are outright creationists. They believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, that evolution is not true, and that specially created by god exactly like it says in genesis. And I have a half dozen more who lean this way.

I was initially surprised by this. At my other school, we don't have any evangelical churches nearby and I've only had a couple of students with these beliefs. They were polite, they sat in class, listened to what I had to say, and moved on.

In this class, however, my creationist students have banded together to present a united front against the challenge to their beliefs. They say things like, "There's no such thing as millions of years" or "There's no such thing as Evolution" or "Adam and Eve lived with the dinosaurs" or "There really was a world wide flood and Noah's Ark was real."

When I ask them to provide evidence for these claims, they either give really flimsy anecdotes or no evidence at all, saying that it is just a matter of faith.

Every student in class listened when I went over these topics this year. I presented the evidence matter of factly, as "this is what people have observed" and "this is how these people arrived at this conclusion."

My students are poised to debate. It could be a good learning experience for all involved, but there will be clear losers. The other kids in the class have listened to the information that I've presented and all they need to do is parrot that stuff off and my Creationist students will have nothing to counter with. Sure, a one sided debate is instructive, but this really is a sensitive issue.

This problem gets worse. I have to give these students grades. The criteria that I set for grading is the same for every student...I want to know how well they understand the concepts that I'm teaching. Their Creationist beliefs are clearly standing in the way of them understanding some of these concepts.

For example, if I ask "How do scientists arrive at the conclusion that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old?" And I get an answer like, "The Earth isn't that old, I believe in the Bible and the Bible says that the Earth is only 6,000 years old" I cannot accept that answer. There is no credible scientific evidence for this claim.

The bottom line is that they aren't learning the science that I have to teach and their beliefs are the reason. I feel that if I'm going to continue with this unit and try to teach these kids, I'm going to have to addess these Creationist claims. These kids are only 12 and 13. They are very impressionable and what happens in the next couple of weeks could stick with them for the rest of their lives.

I'm not sure what to do? What do you think about all this?