[extropy-chat] unevolved Italians

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040428/04

Tens of thousands of Italians have expressed their disagreement with a plan
by the minister of education, universities, and research, Letizia Moratti,
to ban the teaching of evolutionary theory to young teenagers.

Fearing the measure will pave the way for creationist teaching, more than
40,000 citizens-and the number is still increasing-have subscribed a
petition launched last week by some of the country's top scientists through
the daily La Repubblica.

The document, signed by Nobel laureates Rita Levi Montalcini and Renato
Dulbecco, together with scientists including Luca Cavalli Sforza, Bruno
Dallapiccola, and Alberto Piazza, urges Moratti to "review the secondary
schools programs and to rectify an oversight which is detrimental to the
scientific culture of future generations."

"Ignoring the theory of evolution is a cultural limitation sacrificing the
scientific curiosity of youth. It's unquestionably fair to point out that
Darwinism and the theories that derived from it show gaps and unsolved
problems, but the link between the past and the present of mankind shouldn't
be completely ignored," write the scientists.

The Italian school system, which Moratti aims to reform shortly, is divided
into three levels: primary school ("scuola elementare"), which lasts 5
years, from 6 to 11 years of age, secondary school ("scuola media"), which
lasts 3 years, and high school ("scuola superiore"), which lasts 5 years.

Established by legislative decree on February 19, the new teaching programs
for secondary schools make no mention of the history of human evolution, nor
of the relationship between mankind and other species.

As a result, boys and girls aged 12 to 14 will have no idea of subjects such
as "Structure, Function, and Evolution of Living Organisms" and "The
Biological and Cultural Evolution of Mankind," said the scientists who
launched the petition.