‘We don’t even call it evolution’

Evolution monkey in schools tile

In a 1,000-plus page biology textbook used to school Hamilton County students, the origin of human life takes up a mere chapter.

The chapter, one of nearly 40, doesn’t show the well-known picture of a monkey evolving to man, but it does say primates evolved. It teaches about the fossil record and Darwin’s theories of adaptation.

And many local teachers say – even though questions over the origins of life have been a cornerstone for the political culture war in schools for years – that chapter is rarely the source of fireworks.

“We don’t even call it evolution. We call it genetic change,” said Donna Sellers, lead teacher in the math, technology and science academy at Central High School. “Evolution is when a bacteria becomes resistant to an antibiotic. It’s how the woolly mammoth became extinct and how the horses used to be smaller. It’s sub-breeds of dogs. It has nothing to do with whether man was once a monkey.”