In this case, I do wish they all could be California girls...

Not a big proponent of beauty pageants.  They remind me of a visit to the local livestock market.  But the recent Miss USA pageant certainly produced some interesting moments.  Most notable?  One of the questions posed to the contestants - "Should evolution by taught in schools?"

The fact that most of the young ladies waffled is understandable - a young woman trying to become Miss USA is in the same intellectual boat as a politician hoping to be elected to the State Senate.  Make it sound like you have an opinion, but don't say anything that you might have to answer for later.  Still, Miss California (the eventual winner) was among the few contestants who came fairly close to the mark.  



An excessive number of "you knows", but she is, after all, from California. And you don't have to "believe" in evolution, any more than you have to believe in gravity. It just is. Add to that the apparent confusion of evolution with the origins of the universe. Still, for a 22-year model, it's not bad. The best answer, of course, would be something like, "What a stupid question. Of course. You can't understand biology without an understanding of evolution."  Probably not getting that at a beauty pageant.

You'll certainly get a lot of "teach both sides."  You can see all the responses here.  Count the number that suggest that a treatment of evolution should be balanced with the "other theories", or that students should be exposed to "both sides of the story."



Sorry, kids.  If you want your science teacher to "teach" the science of intelligent design, you're out of luck.  There's nothing to teach.  "We should teach other theories."  Like what?  It's science class, girls.  Not theology, not philosophy.

And then, alas, there's Miss Alabama, You saw her leading off that last clip. Madeline Mitchell from Russellville and the University of Alabama, has a strong and completely misguided view.

“I do not believe in evolution, I do not believe it should be taught in schools, and I would not encourage it.”

That's Madeline Mitchell, senior at the University of Alabama majoring in elementary education.  Madeline, who graduated from Russelville High School in 2007.  Well, take a look at this, Madeline.  These are figures from the most recent Program for International Student Assessment indicating where U.S. 15-year olds stand in science in relation to students from other nations.  The figure shows the top ten nations, and the U.S.  Notice the gap between Australia in the 10th spot and the U.S.  That's to represent the gap between 10th and 23rd. 

Are we willing to accept this?  Well, in certain circles, the answer appears to be yes.

Let's hope that Madeline will be able to make a living modeling lingerie.  Maybe she can land a gig on a soap opera. Anything to keep her out of the classroom.  If that sounds mean-spirited, I'm sorry.  But I take science education seriously.  Madeline doesn't.

Today's irony - Miss Georgia - "We're smarter than ever these days."