Marveling at the beauty and diversity of the world around us, people have been wondering for centuries: how it appeared, how the planets formed, how life originated, why earthly life is based on carbon and uses four types of links in DNA, and in the end how space dust did the same, the first, living cell arise? Of course, all these questions excite young minds. Now, perhaps, there is not a single first-grader who would not be interested in the theme of the emergence of the world and man. Moreover, even preschool children ask similar questions. Naturally, publishers cannot ignore their interest. And today in the children's literature market there are many high-quality children's books on such topics as: "The Origin of the Earth", "Human Evolution" and "The Origin of Life".
It is about them that we will talk today.
"History of life. My first book about evolution"
The book is fully consistent with its title, it is really an introductory course into the wonderful and so bewitching world of nature and evolution. With a childish approach, it tells the story of how life developed on our planet. A period of more than 4 billion years is described, the beginning of which is chaos, volcanic ash and hot lava, and the result is the birth of something very amazing and so necessary for all of us.
Strikingly light, logical text that transforms into independent thoughts. Everything is laid out on the shelves, it is clear what follows from what and why one is replaced by another. Despite the fact that a huge piece of history is covered, after reading the whole process will inevitably become clear.
In addition to the content, I want to draw your attention to the design of the book. It's really children's version. The manner of narration, presentation, illustrations - everything is designed for children of senior preschool and younger school age. In addition, the book will be of interest to younger readers, who will be able to look at the colorful illustrations and for the first time think about how the world around them came into being.
Age: 4+
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"History of life. From the primordial broth to the present day"
A Brief History of the Universe. Just think of a brief-history-of-the-universe! That is, the history of our planet is a little over 13.5 billion years long, from the time of the Big Bang to the present day.
The narrative of the book begins with the distant Catarchean, a period that lasted about half a billion years and began about 4.5 billion years ago.
It was then that the formation of a solid earth's surface, similar to what we observe today, occurs. Also during this period, the atmosphere and hydrosphere are formed.
Further Archaea - the origin of life; Ediacaran - the first algae and animals; The Cambrian period is the era of trilobites; Ordovician period - the first plants, jellyfish, sponges and echinoderms; Silurian period - landfall, development of coral species; Devonian period - a layer of fertile soil, the first sharks and amphibians; Carboniferous period - the first reptiles; Permian period - fish and ammonites, pangolins; Triassic period - the first dinosaurs, the division of Pangea and the mass extinctions of amphibians; Jurassic - the era of giants and the first mammals; Cretaceous - further division of Gondwana, first flowers, insects and birds; Eocene - division of Laurasia, adaptation to a new climate; Pleistocene - a sharp cooling, ice Age, mammoths and saber-toothed cats; The Holocene is the modern period, covering the period from 11,700 years ago to the present day.
In addition to periodicals and stages of development and formation of life on earth, the reader will learn from this book: why the ancient centipede grew up to a meter long, how fast the tyrannosaurus ran, what is common between a whale and a deer or a crow and a dinosaur, what is oil, who are Australopithecus, why does a plant need flowers and fruits, and about other entertaining facts described in footnotes "curious monkey"
Age: 5+
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"From Tyrannosaurus Rex to Rooster! The Big Book of Animal Evolution"
I will make a reservation right away that "From a tyrannosaurus rex to a rooster" is not a book about "dinosaurs". This is their parents, who know a little more about prehistoric animals than just their names. Here, the process of evolution lasting several million years is considered, and its course is analyzed using the example of several animal species.
Whether it is a huge tyrannosaurus rex (the largest of the theropods), which somehow magically turned into a poultry, a meganeura with a wingspan of 65 cm and devouring everyone and everything, but becoming a completely harmless (at least for humans) dragonfly, or dorudon (he is also a modern whale), which lost all its teeth, but retained its fins and impressive size, after some 100-150 million years!
I would also like to note the sections from the book devoted to the comparison of "those" and "these", for example, comparative drawings of Archeopteryx and a modern rooster (yes, the one that is the closest relative of the tyrannosaurus rex). Or here's another - explaining why and why the horse lost its fingers, instead receiving no less useful hooves. Or how it happened that although ostriches are birds, they do not know how to fly ... It seems to me that it is very informative, and not only for children.
Age: 6+
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"In the darkness of time. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric inhabitants"
The author of the book, Sergey Yuryevich Afonkin, together with his wife Elena Yuryevna, published several dozen books and brochures, mainly about nature and man.
As for this book, it included a maximum necessary information. There are no bare facts and figures here. But there is consistency and the ability to convey the meaning to young readers.
Andreev's illustrations amaze the imagination. Here the artist's imagination was clearly unlimited. After all, until now, no one knows exactly how these toothy and winged lizards looked like.
The book includes several sections. The reader is first met by an enchanting introduction, after which you can no longer stop and, drugged by what you hear, you read on, swallowing the information like ... a dinosaur. Instead of a conclusion - a geochronological scale: from Archean to Cenozoic. Which, oddly enough, is not so common in such books. But this is the foundation of the foundations.
Age: 6+
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"The Origin of Life" and "The Origin of Man" (School Guides)
From these books, young readers will learn about existing hypotheses and assumptions, about theories and facts related to the emergence of life on planet Earth, about distant human relatives who lived on it many thousands of years ago.
Books from the "Know the World" series will help preschoolers and primary schoolchildren understand not only the origin of life and man, but will also allow them to better understand and imagine what the first forms of life were like, how they lived their short life, and what they did...
Age: 6+
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"The Riddle of Life and the Dirty Socks of Jos Grotjes of Dril"
What are the seashells doing on the top of the mountain? Why did the giant deer become extinct? Why are women getting more beautiful and men not? Why do some animals want to die? How to become a quadruped from a fish? Why do we write in fossils at school? How to find an amphibian, or fish phobia? Finally, what does dirty socks have to do with it?
The well-known Dutch popularizer of science, Jan Paul Schütten, does not leave any of these questions unanswered. Answering them, he talks about the most difficult things in an accessible way. For example, about how the Universe came into being, what the Big Bang is, how life began on Earth, and even what aliens will look like when we finally find them. He is assisted by the witty and ironic artist Floor Ryder, whose drawings perfectly complement this exciting story.
Age: 12+
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"Imprints of life. 25 steps of evolution and the whole history of the planet"
Bestselling author, paleontologist Donald Protheroe, has transformed scientific description twenty-five famous perfectly preserved fossils in a fascinating . The twenty-five fossils discussed in this book demonstrate life in all its evolutionary splendor, showing how one species evolves into another.
We will see the whole variety of extinct plants and animals - from microscopic to gigantic sizes. We will read about fantastic land and sea creatures that have no analogues in modern nature: the first trilobites, giant sharks, huge marine reptiles and feathered dinosaurs, the first birds, walking whales, giant hornless rhinoceros and Lucy the Australopithecus.
Age: 12+
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"Pulling Link. Book One. Monkeys and All-All-All" and "Pulling Link. Book Two. People"
The theory of human evolution is called anthropogenesis. It is to her that the books of the biologist and popularizer of science Stanislav Drobyshevsky are dedicated. By the titles of the volumes - "Monkeys and All-All-All" and "People" it immediately becomes clear who the main characters are in them.
The beauty of sci-fi is that it is written for inexperienced readers. The author of this book very quickly manages to bring the unprepared up to date and, largely thanks to the easy and metaphorical language, constantly maintains an interest in reading. Especially abstruse places can be skipped, then there will even be time to sleep.
Sergei Kumysh, in an article on Posta Magazine, compared The Retrieving Link with The Lord of the Rings in terms of volume and fascination, assigning not the last place to hobbits in Drobyshevsky's book - very high mark the artistic merit of the book.
Age: 12+
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"Question of Life"
The author of the book is Nick Lane, an English biochemist, researcher in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and environment University College London.
Billions of years ago, during the Hadean period, our planet lived as usual for a relatively recently appeared planet. celestial body life. It was a relatively calm water world with rare islands, and not a fiery hell with constantly erupting volcanoes, as artists like to portray.
And suddenly something happened that radically changed the entire further history of the planet. It had life. What was it: a random coincidence of a million different factors or the inevitable course of events? What was the first cell? How did it change, develop, become more complex, and how, as a result, did all the variety of living organisms that we can observe around us arise: from humans and plants, to bacteria and viruses? What secrets does our DNA hold? Why do genetic diseases appear? Are we alone in the universe? Nick Lane offers a revolutionary and completely unexpected look at the origin of life.
Age: 14+
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» PostNauka acquaints readers with the opinions of our experts on topical issues of society, education and science. In the new issue, we asked our authors to express their point of view on the main problems of teaching the theory of evolution in schools.
I had no experience teaching biology in high school, but, not knowing the process, I deal with the product, including first-year students. In my opinion, the theory of evolution is not taught in school at all. In general, is the phrase "evolutionary biology" in modern school courses? I do not know. We have been successful in recruiting schoolchildren, but they are all products of biological circles and/or "special" schools, and cannot be judged by them. school education generally.
The theory of evolution should be the basis of the entire course of biology at school, its core from the very beginning of teaching the subject. It is necessary to pay attention to the amazing diversity of life and the mystery of its origin, gradually unraveled with varying success over hundreds of years. And only then, with an emphasis on evolutionary processes, to study the structure of the cell of plants and animals, the diversity of stamens and pistils, flagella, paws, ears, tails, other internal and external organs, landscapes, natural areas, flow and metabolism, life cycles, reproduction , mechanisms of variability and heredity. Evolutionary ideas should be the basis of the study of all biology. Moreover, the main mysteries, principles and mechanisms of evolution can be explained simply and easily, including the role of DNA, and in such a way that it does not remain just an abbreviation that every decent person should know. You can complete the course of school biology with the evolution of the theory of evolution, the origin of life.
It is also important at the very beginning to explain unobtrusively that we are also a product of biological evolution: we are arranged in the likeness of our smaller brothers, and not vice versa. Then it will be easier to explain the basic patterns of evolution. Maybe this is lobbyism, but the behavior of animals and humans is, it seems to me, an underestimated subject in school courses for studying and understanding evolution. And, importantly, attractive for any age.
Practice is also important, if not “live” in some laboratories (even this is a big deal), then at least computer or through cinema and excellent lectures for children available in special educational programs. And the game "Evolution" is an excellent educational product.
Of course, maybe everything is just so arranged, but it seems to me that it is not. By the first of September, a boy I knew suddenly remembered what he had to do during the summer practical work in biology. I went and bought two fish - one big, the other small, put them in jars and signed: “I fed this one all summer” and “I didn’t feed this one all summer.” Got five.
There are two main problems in teaching the theory of evolution at school. The first is Vertyanov's textbook, that is, an attempt to change biology into religion, which is harmful both for biology and religion. This textbook is not accepted in all schools, but it is widely distributed. The second problem is a common "disease" of all school programs is an incompleteness. But you can't do anything about it, because a school is a school.
What is written in the Bible, that is, the creation of the world in 6 days, does not fit into modern not only biology, but also geology, dantology, and so on. But since it is difficult to argue with physics, they argue with biology, and mainly on the question of whether a person originated from a monkey or not, this problem has remained since the time of Darwin. Naturally, the orthodox Orthodox religion does not accept this, although the orthodox Catholic religion accepted it a long time ago. The fact is that it is difficult to link with religion what we know about evolution - there is creation, there is development. Therefore, attacks, attempts to falsify biological facts, or at least interpret them from religious positions, do not stop.
There are not enough hours devoted to the theory of evolution in school, but today few hours are devoted to biology in general. And this is very bad.
Maria Mednikova
doctor historical sciences, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
I have never taught in a high school. But I have several years of experience teaching first-year students, future psychologists, including the experience of lecturing on evolutionary anthropology. Therefore, I can judge the degree of preparation of recent applicants, mainly Moscow schools.
First, of course, there is a huge gap between schools. Some of them are very well known, and the fate of their graduates is not worth worrying about. But the vast majority are others educational establishments. In the value system of our secondary education, biology is not the main subject. This is least of all to blame the teachers, who have a lot of workload, a lot of paperwork. But the results are visible.
Young people fill gaps in their knowledge not from school course, but from other sources, where rather turbid samples float on the surface. Sometimes it was funny to listen to the students' answers regarding the details of the formation of humanity in the exams, but more and more it became sad. Among the most exotic and cute versions, I can rank the origin of man from a bear or from aliens.
You can often hear that school and even university textbooks are decades behind the current state of science. Say, write a good textbook and solve the problem. I'm afraid that this is not a solution, because in the most outdated textbooks there is neither about bears nor about aliens, but about Darwinism. Also, any textbook should be read. And if people aim to refuse scientific knowledge as such, they just won't do it.
I think it will be possible to radically improve the teaching of biology at school when we change the situation outside of it. When it becomes indecent for a doctor or TV presenter to utter phrases like “Do you really think that man really came from a monkey?” or "As is widely known, Darwin's theory has long been refuted (option: outdated) ...". So far, we are very far from it.
What can be done in a particular situation? Today, a school teacher, a university teacher has a special responsibility. Speaking of, one must be super professional, have new facts, not be boring and not formal. The role of personality in history is very great, and the teacher of the theory of evolution must be charismatic. Fortunately, we have such people in our country, and they are present in the media space. What we really need is a new age of enlightenment. We must not allow our country to fall into a neo-medieval impasse.
Alexander Markov
Doctor of Biology, Leading Researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor at NES, Head of the Department of Biological Evolution, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University
I have not dealt with first-year biology students, but this is not a sample for evaluating knowledge of the theory of evolution after school - they are preparing for admission and specially study additionally. But I work with first-year economists. In order not to bother, I just think that their level of knowledge in evolutionary biology is zero, which, in principle, is not far from reality, and we go through the entire program with them from the initial level. That is, in my opinion, the level of biological literacy that is inculcated in secondary school, if we do not take, of course, specialized classes of specialized schools, can be safely neglected, considered zero.
When you test students in the first classes to check a basic level of, as a rule, a very large scatter is obtained. From kids with a zero level, who know nothing at all in biology, to kids with a very good level, like high school students who are interested in biology, who read books, who independently study topics of interest to them. But, of course, it prevails low level knowledge. There are only a few children who know biology well.
Why does a giraffe have a long neck?
We are touched when young children, answering this question, build funny theories. However, the habit of intuitive and erroneous conceptions can last a lifetime...
Probably, everyone who saw this majestic creature at large, cutting off the high branches of an acacia, was amazed at the miracle of evolution. The giraffe's long neck is a wonderful adaptation to its natural habitat. Obviously, the giraffe acquired this unusual and useful trait to feed on those tasty leaves. A striking example natural selection!
This explanation, offered by six-year-old children, seems correct and logical only at first glance. In fact, it demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of adaptation by natural selection, a key concept in the theory of evolution. Children correctly identified the function of the neck. The error lies in the idea that the giraffe, with sufficient effort, is supposedly able to transform to its own advantage.
Actually natural selection I did not set myself the goal of giving the giraffe a long neck. Moreover, each specific giraffe does not strive for this. In reality, there was a gradual change in the frequency with which offspring with a relatively long neck were born in representatives of this species. This change only took place because giraffes that were lucky with this “adaptation” were more likely to survive and reproduce more successfully. It is important to note that it was not individual giraffes that changed, but the population as a whole.
An educated adult knows this, but it is not easy for young children to understand such a complex concept. Children - until they are taught to think differently - build theories that explain the universe, intuitively, and in these theories the idea, purpose, intention come to the fore. It makes no sense to present them with complex ideas like natural selection, because they will be misinterpreted. And we are waiting for the children to grow up and their cognitive ability become more mature.
Adapted from the United States Association for the Psychological Science.
Dmitry Tselikov
November 21, 2013
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Scientists are seriously concerned about the growing gap between the progress of science and backwardness public consciousness vegetating in captivity of ignorance and prejudice. Research recent years revealed a relationship between the rejection of certain scientific theories adults and the psychology of young children. In particular, children's "disordered teleology" - the tendency to attribute to every object a purpose for which it was made by someone - is one of the reasons for the amazing persistence of creationism.
Richard Dawkins talks with Al Jazeera Muslim journalist Mehdi Hasan on religion, Islam, faith, political ideology, education and morality.
Psychologist Justin Barret compares believers to three-year-olds who "think other people know almost everything." Dr. Barrett is a Christian, editor of the journal Cognition and Culture, and author of Why Does Someone Believe in God? According to him, children's inherent belief in the omniscience of others decreases as they grow older due to experience. However, this attitude, which is necessary for the socialization of a person and productive interaction with other people, is preserved as far as faith in God is concerned.
An international group of geneticists and psychologists, using a sample of more than 6,000 pairs of twins, found out what factors determine the high heritability of exam results taken by English students after graduation. high school. It turned out that not only general intelligence contributes to the heritability of exam results, but also many other traits, the formation of which also significantly depends on genes. This means that innate traits are more important for academic success than is commonly believed.
Researchers at Stanford University have found that brain scans of eight-year-olds can predict what their math performance will be over the next six years.
Australian scientists have found a human ancestor at the age of 3.5 billion years. It turned out to be a single-celled microbe. The editors of KYKY asked a Belarusian child to comment on a scientific event.
Uche Scientists from the University of Old Dominion found a fossil in Australia, which is about 3.5 billion years old. According to the researchers, we are talking about unicellular microbes, which are the distant ancestors of man. “Such microbes could have the ability to convert sunlight into energy, while releasing the unpleasant smell of sulfur as a by-product. », – told the head research group Robert Hazen. According to him, if people were transported 3.5 billion years ago and visited any Australian beach, « they would certainly find there a jelly-like mass of purple-brown color, slippery, smelly, but living very happily ».
Katya Yashchenko, 8 years old, a 3rd grade student of gymnasium No. 75, comments:
“It seems to me that Australian scientists have gone crazy. The very first man was an ape. All clinics have posters about it. The monkey rises, then turns into a bearded monkey, then straightens up altogether, and at the end - there is such a boy with a pipe, in a skin and with a stick. I thought it was the most true. And the scientists collapsed from the oak. The slippery mass smells like rotten eggs - it's disgusting. In another three and a half million years they will find us on the beach, and we will be the same gray mass. Bacteria are small and vicious. We can swallow them and get poisoned. Microbes do not have eyes, mouth or nose. How could they turn into people like us? Then you have to believe that God lived, and he created the first people.
Editorial children participate in the creation of stories. If you want your child to comment on the news, leave a request on [email protected]
"Uche Scientists have found an unpleasant-smelling fossil in Australia, which is about 3.5 billion years old. These fossils are 300 million years older than previous fossils found.the best examples of life on earth.The researchers believe that the fossils they found belong to stinking single-celledmicrobes, which are the distant ancestors of humans.A small number of remains were found by scientists from Old Dominion University inside a rock fragment in Western Australia.
According to Dr. Robert Hazen, such microbes could have the ability to convert sunlight into energy, while releasing the unpleasant smell of sulfur as a by-product. " If people had the opportunity to travel back 3.5 billion years and visit any Australian beach, they would certainly find there a jelly-like mass of purple-brown color, slippery, stinkI feel, but living very happily "- said Dr. Hazan.
Here is a real situation that I witnessed a couple of years ago. Ordinary village. The village father, a graduate of the history department, read with interest my book Myths about Human Evolution and recommended it to the library of the Theological Academy. An educated priest, imagine, accepts evolution, respects Darwin, believes that the Universe came into being as a result of the Big Bang.
A physics teacher at a school in the same village read a lot of creationist pamphlets. She tells the children that there was no evolution, the Earth arose 6 thousand years ago, the first people were Adam and Eve. The village priest, having learned about this, is horrified and tries to reason with the creationist. But in vain - after all, the pamphlets brought from Moscow do not lie! Russia, XXI century. Upside down world. Who in this situation poses a greater threat to children's minds - the village priest or the village teacher? ..
The school was and remains a place where a huge number of people receive scientific information for the only time in their lives. Of course, the school as a source of knowledge for the child has now largely lost its significance - it has to compete with TV and the Internet.
It is doubly important that, at least at school, students receive reliable information about the structure of the world around them from the position modern science. And, in particular, about the origin of man.
The origin of man is not only a subject of scientists' attention, but also a question, the answer to which actually forms our worldview. The topic is acute, almost scandalous. It seems to me that in modern Russian school There are six key issues associated with teaching anthropogenesis.
1. Outdated textbooks
I acted very simply: I compared two school textbooks on the "History of the Ancient World": Korovkin F.P. (1962) and Goder G.I. (2010).
There is almost half a century between the two textbooks. The list of the most important discoveries made by anthropologists and archaeologists during this time will take several pages. How many species are described! A skilled man, a Rudolf man, a working man, a Georgian man; Australopithecus Afar, Anamsky, Harry, Bahrelgazalsky, sediba; paranthropus boysa and Ethiopian. At the turn of the century, anthropologists found the remains of the most ancient hominids - Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, due to which the continuous evolutionary chain of our ancestors was doubled - up to 7 million years. Incredible hobbits from the island of Flores discovered in 2004. The African ancestral home of humanity was finally substantiated by geneticists (1988).
Let's see what the textbooks say about ancient people:
“The most ancient people, who lived 700-600 thousand years ago, were significantly different from people of our time. They looked like big monkeys. Their foreheads were low and sloping. When walking, people leaned forward strongly, and their hands hung below their knees.
“The most ancient people lived in hot countries where there are no frosts and cold winters. For example, in East Africa. Archaeologists find here during excavations the bones of people who lived more than 2 million years ago. Based on these finds, it is possible to restore the appearance of our most distant ancestors. The earliest man was very much like a monkey. He had a rough face with a broad flattened nose, a heavy lower jaw no chin, receding forehead. Above the eyebrows was a roller, under which the eyes were hidden, as if under a canopy. The gait of people was still not quite straight, jumping; long arms hung below the knees.
Probably, the 2010 version reflected information about the discovery of a skilled man in East Africa - let me remind you that this happened in 1964. Otherwise, the meaning has not changed. The story of the long arms of the most ancient people hanging below the knees was an anachronism already in 1962 - this is how our ancestors were represented in accordance with the first reconstructions of the Neanderthals of the early 20th century. We have known for many decades that even Australopithecus, the early ancestors of man, did not have hands to the knees, more than 3 million years ago.
Surprisingly, both textbooks do not say a word about where people came from in the first place. Fell from the sky? Grow like mushrooms? The idea of origin from a monkey is bashfully hushed up by the authors. Nothing is said about Australopithecus and other hominids. Why did our ancestors stand on two legs? Why did their brains get bigger? Where did the wool go? In the textbook young reader will not find answers. But the questions for these important topics The kids have asked me many times. Students will probably ask the teacher - and what will he answer them? It's better for us not to know...
The description of the life of ancient people in the modern textbook has not only changed little over the past half century, but almost does not differ from the text from the textbook by R.Yu. Wipper 1913 (!) - I'm not kidding. The story about hunting and gathering, about making fire, about the appearance of art is very similar. True, Wipper's description is more interesting from a literary point of view. Compare:
Wipper, 1913: “He spoke little and abruptly; celestial phenomena did not interest him. He did not distinguish between good and evil deeds, did not think about a punishing deity, did not ask himself the question of where everything around him comes from, who rules the world he sees. He could only rejoice noisily when there was good luck, and moan hard when misfortune befell him.
Korovkin, 1962: “People made only a few staccato sounds. With these sounds they expressed anger and fear, called for help and warned each other of danger.
A more acceptable presentation of human evolution in a biology textbook for grades 10-11 (V.I. Sivoglazov et al., 2010). At least Australopithecus, a skilled man, Neanderthals are mentioned here; talking about ape-like ancestors. However, the textbook is still dominated by the stage concept, according to which human evolution took place through successive stages: archanthropes - paleoanthropes - neoanthropes. This beautiful scheme was relevant 40-50 years ago, but now it looks like an obvious anachronism.
So, the poor kids get very outdated information at school.
2. Misconceptions and errors in textbooks
The impression I got while reading the textbooks is that their compilers did not bother to study the subject thoroughly. This is not surprising - experts in anthropogenesis in the country can be counted on the fingers. However, the author of the textbook could at least correctly retell the scientific sources. Unfortunately, this does not happen in practice.
Here are a couple of examples from a 2010 textbook. Next to the reconstruction of Sinanthropus is the signature “a man who lived about a million years ago” (in fact, half a million). It turns out that people needed stone tools to “cut down clubs” and “grind digging sticks”. On the next page we see an image of a cudgel... In fact, there are neither archaeological finds of cudgels, nor ethnographic analogues of this virtual "tool of the ancients". Does the author of the textbook know about this?
Ideas about the "caveman armed with a club" come from the popular literature XIX century, stories about the human herd and tribal community - apparently from the works of Friedrich Engels.
In the 21st century, I would like to change the record. But it seems that the authors have neither the desire nor the ability to rework the text.
3. Boring!
The modern schoolboy was brought up on bright cartoons, on movies with fantastic special effects, on TV shows where something is sure to explode; on cool pictures from VKontakte, on YouTube videos that try to capture your attention from the first second. What does the textbook suggest? Faded reproductions of Burian. Boredom!
Is it any wonder that when talking about an ancient man, a teenager recalls a cartoon about the Flintstones or monkey-like characters from the movie Night at the Museum, and not a school lesson at all?
In theory, teachers who are responsible for their work should, in addition to the textbook, use in the classroom Additional materials. Watching films? But I have not heard of popular science films on anthropogenesis aimed at children. Publications from the Internet? You know their quality.
A good option is to organize an excursion to the museum for children. Only in what museum outside of Moscow will schoolchildren be able to see an exposition on anthropogenesis? Even in St. Petersburg, there is nothing like this in museums. The joint exhibition "Anthropogenesis.Ru" and the State Biological Museum is now traveling around the country, but this is a drop in the ocean.
And in order to give children something beyond the textbook, teachers must have a desire and understanding of the importance of this topic.
4. Attitude of teachers
And what is the attitude of teachers - it is clear from the example with which I began this article. If the teacher himself "does not believe in Darwin's theory" - and this, alas, is a common thing - it is foolish to expect zeal from him. So it turns out that the teacher tells the children (almost a quote): “Scientists once claimed that man descended from a monkey. You and I understand that this is nonsense, but according to the program, I am obliged to tell you this.
Another noble-minded teacher invites students to discuss which theory of human origins seems more convincing to them - "religious, biological, or extraterrestrial."
Your opinion on the most difficult scientific topic 11-year-old boys and girls must make up within 10 minutes ...
But perhaps the most common phenomenon is the usual teacher indifference. I recently encountered this problem: Nizhny Novgorod a "round table" was held on the topic of problems of teaching the theory of evolution at school. Although invitations were sent out to local schools, no teachers showed up for the event.
But one psycho and several high school students came.
Schoolchildren shared their misfortune: they have introduced in their school, however, as an additional subject “Problem questions of history” (I can’t vouch for the exact name). What do children learn within the framework of a new subject? Well, for example, they get acquainted with the "new chronology" of Fomenko. And the teacher tells unsuspecting listeners about Veles's book. When I said that the Book of Veles was a well-known forgery, this was news to schoolchildren.
Thus we come to the next problem.
5. Teacher gag
There are almost one and a half million teachers in Russia. In the capitals and in the outback, in major cities and in small rural schools ... A huge army! Huge and poorly managed. Is it possible to ensure that the teacher expounds the topic of anthropogenesis at least in accordance with the program? And in private schools, the program can change in general as you like.
And no one guarantees that your child will not learn biology in the 10th grade according to Vertyanov's textbook "on an Orthodox basis", does not hear enough stories about global flood and the fall into sin or about the origin of man from the Atlanteans-Lemurians, as the crazy ophthalmologist Muldashev teaches.
Why not? Teachers and school directors are real people, they also read blogs and watch REN TV.
Above, I criticized textbooks, but, to be honest, it seems to me that it’s better for a teacher to tell children “like in a textbook” than to gag! The textbook, however outdated, at least does not contain explicit pseudoscience. But what if the teacher at school firmly stands on anti-scientific positions? What should students do? This question has been asked to me many times by listeners. Unfortunately I don't have a good answer. Transfer to another school? Complain? Silently endure and rely on home education?
6. Methodological problem
“At school, they painted a simple and harmonious picture for us,” the reader complains. - And after many years I learned that in fact everything is complicated and confusing. So, it turns out that the teachers lied to me? Stop. Let's figure it out. Above, we considered a textbook of the history of the ancient world. Friends, this is the 5th grade. Children learn about the Stone Age and the origin of man at the age of 11, along with fractions and natural numbers.
Note the methodological issue. We comprehend mathematics, moving from simple to complex. First - the multiplication table, then - fractions, then - quadratic equations. Not so in history. Is the history of the ancient world simpler than modern history? Not at all. but Ancient world go along with fractions, and recent history— in the 9th grade, with quadratic equations and progressions. If you have forgotten what level of information is presented to a fifth grader, here is an excerpt from methodological manual for teachers (1988, Goder G.I.):
"Read how much (approximately) years ago, the most ancient people lived on Earth,” the teacher says and writes on the blackboard: “2,000,000 years ago.” The task draws attention to the great age of mankind and at the same time encourages students to independently name the date. Having received the answer, it is useful to check whether the expression “so many years ago” is understood by the fifth graders. Addressing individual students, the teacher asks: “How many years ago were you born? went to school?" (p. 8)”.
The teacher must make sure that the children understand the phrase "2 million years ago." This is the level of students the program is designed for.
Will someone, being in their right mind, load fifth graders with Latin names of ancient hominids, archaeological terms, features of radiocarbon analysis?
Five years pass, and the topic of the origin of man pops up again, this time as part of biology lessons. Now the students are old enough, but is it too late? The lessons of 5 years ago have long been out of my head - they have been replaced by TV, movies, computer games. The worldview of a 16-year-old teenager has already been formed - if they wanted to brainwash him with religion or the occult, then the deed has already been done ...
What to do?
As I said, I do not have a good and simple answer to the question of how to save children from a person with a diploma from a teacher's institute, carrying anti-scientific nonsense in the classroom. In my opinion, it is worth taking matters into your own hands, not counting on high-quality teaching at school (I now turn primarily to parents). There are few books on the origin of man for children, but they do exist - a brief review of them was recently published on our website. Good school encyclopedia edited by Konstantin Zadorozhny "From Monkey to Man" was published in collaboration with "Anthropogenesis.Ru", however, in Ukraine, but in Russian. The materials of the site "Anthropogenesis.Ru", of course, are intended for adults, but we have published answers to children's questions several times and even organized a competition for the best children's question. So any child can write to me - and I will try to provide answers from real scientists. I promise that every question will be given attention.
In addition to books, I would like to recommend popular science films ... I would like to, but the choice here is extremely poor. Perhaps the BBC series Walking with caveman» not bad. True, the film is by no means aimed at children, so parents and children should watch it together.
Above, I have already talked about visiting museums and exhibitions. Unfortunately, in Russia, expositions on the topic of anthropogenesis are actually only in Moscow. Muscovites can choose between the Darwin, Paleontological and Biological museums, and in autumn our traveling exhibition "17 Skulls and a Tooth" will be added to this list. I had the opportunity to observe how children react to the exhibits? It was nice to see burning eyes, and at some exhibits young visitors hung out for a long time.
And one more observation - the questions asked by children at the exhibition differ little from those sent to me by adults, respectable, educated uncles and aunts.
There is another possibility of obtaining knowledge from a source that is alternative to school. I share my impressions in hot pursuit. I am writing this article while on an archaeological expedition. For some time now, local kids began to visit the excavation. They stood in silence and watched the work of archaeologists. Finally, two girls of 10 years old asked to help. The head of the expedition, a kind man, did not refuse, especially since assistants at excavations are always needed! A few days under the supervision of adults - and the girls were already working in the excavation on an equal basis with everyone else. And at the same time they listened to stories about the Neanderthals who inhabited these places 30 thousand years ago. Asked naive, but sensible questions. And they received detailed answers not from a rural teacher, but from specialists from the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Both young "diggers" said that when they grow up, they will definitely become archaeologists.
Do you want to teach your children anthropogenesis? Take them with you on an archaeological expedition!
