Earlier this week, I blogged about some concerning public comments made by the Head Teacher of St. Andrew’s Primary School in Accrington, UK regarding evolution and the Bible. I also proposed an offer to crowd source funds for a School trip to The Natural History Museum. I have followed up on that offer with the below email to the school. Please feel free to share and repost it.
From: Stephen Knight
Date: Thursday 28 January 2016
To: St Andrew’s Primary School
Subject: National History Museum Trip
Good Morning,
My name is Stephen Knight. I am a podcaster, blogger and occasional fundraiser. I read with surprise and concern the public comments made by Head Teacher Christina Wilkinson on Twitter regarding evolution and the Bible.
“Evolution is not a fact. That’s why it’s called a theory! There’s more evidence that the Bible is true”. (25 Jan 2016)
I’ve published my thoughts on these comments here.
I’m a staunch supporter of free expression and freedom of religion, however given that these comments were made in an official capacity as Head Teacher, I feel that they must be addressed by the school. Especially since Mrs Wilkinson’s views do not appear to be representative of the curriculum. There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is, what scientific ‘theory’ means and what constitutes ‘evidence’ which I find worrying.
Although I do not currently possess information to claim that the pupils of St. Andrew’s are being disadvantaged by Mrs Wilkinson’s failings in this area, given her senior role, her views do not fill me with confidence either.
With this in mind, I’d like to propose an offer. I would be pleased to launch a crowd sourcing campaign to fund a field trip to the Natural History Museum for some of the pupils of St. Andrew’s. It would be a truly enlightening and exciting experience for the young, inquisitive minds at your school. They will have the opportunity to learn about the wonders of evolution and see the abundance of evidence with their own eyes.
I hope we can work through the details of this together. It would be a fantastic opportunity and experience.
I will be also be publishing this as an open letter. I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Stephen
I will update this blog with any responses.
Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.
Like this:
Like Loading...
