Creationism row has offered nothing new

SCMP Education Mailbag - (Mar 28, 2009)

From the dean of science at HKU to the man in the street, I have yet to hear a compelling reason not to teach creationism next to evolution.

The point of education is less about giving students the 'right answers' as to teach students to ask the 'right questions'. The response of Professor Sun Kwok reinforces my sneaky suspicion that many Hong Kong educational establishments completely miss this most important aspect of education. Schools and universities should challenge students' thinking constantly, break set ways of perceiving things and stimulate young people's curiosity about everything.

Instead, we spoon feed them with whatever version of knowledge we subscribe to; our educational leaders feel threatened by alternative and different ways of looking at phenomena.

The product is that many in the street trot out the same banal and simplistic reasoning for taking challenge and choice out of education and defining 'science' and 'fact' as one, completely missing the fact that much of science is still an imputation of meaning on a set of observed data and this can change.

Intellectual humility will lead to more open minds. Let's see more of that for the sake of the next generation in our schools and universities. Teach our kids to ask questions and have many alternative perspectives on observed data, and let them draw their own conclusions.

KWEN IP, Sai Kung