I started seventh grade in the Fall of 1963. It was a big change. We went from a single class room, dedicated teacher, elementary school to a junior high school with several single hour class periods and the opportunity to choose a couple of elective classes from several offered. I took typing and band. I wish I had worked harder on typing.
It was the middle of the baby boom school years. New schools were opening all the time. Many of the teachers were right out of college and teaching subjects that they had majored in. Sometimes they weren't the greatest teachers. They had the advantage of teaching subjects they knew well and were interested in. Science was a general class with some natural and some physical science. My teacher was a guy named Mr Harris. He was a little older but still shy of thirty. Hitch in the Air Force. A little time over seas. Kicked around a little. College on the GI Bill. Wife and two young kids. Devout Southern Baptist. Great teacher. I looked forward to class. Got straight A's. Even won the science fair that year with my pathetic little rat maze.
We had a unit on genetics. We learned all about the monk Gregory Mendel and his studies of the pea plants in a monastery garden. DNA was pretty cutting edge then. They weren't teaching that in junior high. We learned about chromosomes and the exchange of genetic material in sexual reproduction. We learned about how haploid genetic material combined together to form a new complete diploid chromosome. We learned about how genes determine varied physical traits in a diverse population. We learned about dominant traits and double recessive traits and learned how that dictated the mathematical frequency of physical traits within a population. I figured out how my red hair and freckles were the result of double, double recessive genes. I didn't look upon this as a lucky break.
We learned about fruit fly research. How because of their relatively simple genetic code and a generational span of only a few days, they were the research specimen of choice in the study of animal genetics. We saw a lot of pictures of fruit flies with different traits and graphs showing the mathematical frequency of traits in a given population. If you had the pea stuff down, you could get the fruit flies. If not, it was just bugs. The bottom line was that it was about the predictability of genetic traits, not fruit flies. I'm not the brightest guy in the World. I always wished I was smarter but it's not something you can really change. I liked science class though. I liked Mr Harris. I paid attention in science class in the seventh grade. I have a pretty good handle on genetics, as shown by trait variation in sweet peas and fruit flies, 45 years later. It's helped me in life. Really. Taking band helped in my appreciation of music, even if I don't play any more. Typing was pretty much of a bust.
After genetics we had a unit on Charles Darwin. We learned how different environmental challenges allow species to evolve because of genetic variation within the population. If you got the sweet pea and fruit fly stuff, the concept of evolution of the species was eye opening. If you didn't, it was just another fairy story. School curriculum is pretty methodical. They taught Mendel and Darwin in seventh grade science. Everybody takes seventh grade science. They assume everybody got the concepts. They referred to these concepts a lot later on down the line but never really went back and hit the basics again. They did this in all subjects. There is so much to cover. It may be a mistake.
Sarah Palin went a lot farther in school than the seventh grade. She is the daughter of a high school science teacher. She made some statements this week that indicate she may not have learned the basics of genetic theory. This is corroborated by her religious beliefs, which specifically deny Darwinism. If you accept Darwinism, you have to get a little more sophisticated in your religious beliefs. Once you understand the basics of Mendel and Darwin, they are pretty hard to deny. Scientific knowledge changes the way that a person looks at the World around them. It's just my opinion but I think the more you know the better and not just about science. I think it's true of most things.
On the other hand, if you don't know too much, it's comforting to have leadership that reinforces your ignorance. From a strictly Darwinistic perspective though, it doesn't do much for your chances of survival.
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