Education in the U.S.Needs Facts, Not Ideologies

One hundred years after the Scopes trial, religious ideologues are still trying to supplant evidence-based curricula with myths, to the detriment of a well-informed society

- 

IN JULY OF 1925 hundreds of reporters and other onlookers crowded into a sweltering courtroom in Dayton, Tenn., to watch what would become widely recognized as the trial of the century. Against a backdrop of societal anxieties over cultural upheaval, the Scopes “monkey trial,” as it was dubbed in the press, pitted the authority of the Bible against the evidence-based science behind evolution. At the center of the trial was John Scopes, a 24-year-old teacher accused of teaching human evolution at a public school, in violation of a religiously motivated state law against it.

Opinions on who won the case differ depending on whom you ask. Technically the defense lost—the jury found Scopes guilty of breaking the law, and the judge ordered him to pay a $100 fine (a ruling that was later overturned on a technicality). But defense attorney Clarence Darrow’s arguments raised public awareness of the evidence supporting evolution and the threat that religious dogma posed to science education, academic freedom and individual liberty. Still, for decades after the trial, discussion of evolution in high school textbooks declined, and in many cases, it was omitted altogether.

One hundred years after that famous trial, education in the U.S. is still under attack from the same antiscience political forces, which are continuously using state and federal courts to assail the roles of critical thinking, inquisition and curiosity in schools in favor of religious instruction. Those who value public education must redouble their efforts to fight those forces.