| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Watch: Mom Sees 8th-Grader’s Assignment And Says ‘The Hair On The Back Of My Neck Stood Up’
It’s not just a theory that parents are angry about concerning an assignment given to their middle-schoolers, and it’s a fact that the school has issued an apology and promised to never use that particular resource again.
School officials at Heritage Middle School in Deltona, Fla., backtracked the assignment “Not Just a Theory” after moms began circulating details of the lesson across social media, including the Volusia County Moms Facebook page.
The assignment was meant, according to school officials, to help eighth-grade students learn about science standards in separating theory from fact. The phrasing of the assignment, which states that authority figures who do not believe in evolution are wrong, is what sent parents into an uproar.
“The hair on the back of my neck stood up,” said parent Jennifer Flinchum in an interview with local news station WKMG-TV.
The assignment read:
Next time someone tries to tell you that evolution is just a theory, as a way of dismissing it, as if it’s just something someone guessed at, remember that they’re using the non-scientific meaning of the word. If that person is a teacher, or minister, or some other figure of authority, they should know better. In fact, they probably do, and are trying to mislead you.
School principal Thomas Vaughn stated in the apology letter that the assignment was following criterion until the last two sentences. The lesson was retracted, and officials said parents should “take comfort” in knowing it will not be used again.
“At no time, is it our place to interfere with authorities of household beliefs,” the letter stated.
Volusia County School District officials claimed that the assignment was not mandated by the district. The district representative said three science teachers have used the assignment since the beginning of the school year.
For parent Lisa McNeil, it wasn’t the mention of evolution that upset her. She said it was the wording that angered her.
“It’s not so much the evolution aspect of it, it’s just the way they phrased those few sentences how they were kind of taking the rights away from the parents,” McNeil commented.
Flinchum publicly thanked Vaughn for the apology and for retracting the assignment, but she no longer trusts the school as much as she did in the past.
“It does make me question what else they’re going to put in front of him for the rest of the year,” she said.
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-mom-sees-8th-graders-assignment-and-says-the-hair-on-the-back-of-my-neck-stood-up/
