The Classroom as Frontline

While teaching evolution is doing well in court, it may be losing in the classroom, says an essay in PLoS Biology. The authors from Penn State surveyed high school teachers from across the US about if they teach evolution and how much time they spend on it, if they mention creationism or intelligent design and in what context, as well as about their personal beliefs. Their results indicate that between 12 and 16 percent of high school biology teachers are creationists and one in eight teachers also teach creationism or intelligent design. However, the majority see evolution as an important aspect of high school biology courses, though the authors point out, "The amount of time devoted to evolutionary biology varies substantially from teacher to teacher, and a majority either avoid human evolution altogether or devote only one or two class periods to the topic."