Two disturbing stories on education today.

The first, continuing a theme that royally chaps my ass, on how evolution is under assault in the classroom. In this piece, the assault is not from our “Intelligent Design” friends, but from teachers themselves who have been intimidated into not disucssing evolution in the classroom. A disturbing quote:

Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, said she heard “all the time” from teachers who did not teach evolution “because it’s just too much trouble.”

“Or their principals tell them, ‘We just don’t have time to teach everything so let’s leave out the things that will cause us problems,’ ” she said.

The second, and equally anxiety-inducing, deals with how students today view the First Amendment. According to AP’s Ben Feller, students just don’t give our Constitution the same kind of respect it has always inspired:

…when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

What?!? What in high heaven are we teaching our students? That we can’t and don’t trust science and research? That the Constitution of the United States and the freedoms it guarantees are bunk? That the government has a right to tell people what to do, say, and think?

I don’t know about you, but I’m frightened. In 30 years, these are the people that will be running the country. And if this country turns out like 1984, I think I might have to relocate to the moon.