Unfortunately it was her sincere belief. Creationism was very popular, and we were coming out of the late aughts, when creationism vs evolution was a popular controversy. That same year another student saw me reading a book and asked me what it was about. I said "evolution". She replied "you know that's fake right?". That was in the morning. At lunch I was surrounded by her and six other kids hounding me to argue with them about evolution. I'll never forget this one girl, who was so proud that her dad went to abortion clinics to "talk women out of it", said "If evolution is real, then when am I gonna evolve into a mermaid?"
Later in eighth grade science class we were learning about "animal adaptation" and my science teacher almost said "evolution", stopped himself, and said "adaptation" instead. He seemed to know he'd lose credibility or invite argument if he said the E word.
I don’t remember all of them. Some others that I do remember were we couldn’t talk about economic systems other than capitalism in a good light. No gay or lesbian stuff, only hetero. No discussion of slavery. That’s about all I can recall.
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u/AI-ArtfulInsults 5d ago edited 5d ago
Unfortunately it was her sincere belief. Creationism was very popular, and we were coming out of the late aughts, when creationism vs evolution was a popular controversy. That same year another student saw me reading a book and asked me what it was about. I said "evolution". She replied "you know that's fake right?". That was in the morning. At lunch I was surrounded by her and six other kids hounding me to argue with them about evolution. I'll never forget this one girl, who was so proud that her dad went to abortion clinics to "talk women out of it", said "If evolution is real, then when am I gonna evolve into a mermaid?"
Later in eighth grade science class we were learning about "animal adaptation" and my science teacher almost said "evolution", stopped himself, and said "adaptation" instead. He seemed to know he'd lose credibility or invite argument if he said the E word.