The Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 took place in Dayton, Tennessee. It centered around a young science teacher and football coach named John Scopes who had mentioned teaching his students the theory of evolution despite a Tennessee statute that prohibited the theory of evolution being taught in classrooms. The issue being debated was not necessarily whether Scopes was guilty of violating the law, rather, the prosecution used the trial as a way to disprove Darwin's theories and to shove biblical ideas down the public's throat. The two lawyers that fought this battle were William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Oddly enough, Darrow actually wanted his client to be found guilty because then he could appeal the case to a higher court and get the Butler statute evaluated. The trial ended with a famous question and answer between the two lawyers that convinced the jury to find Scopes guilty of violating the law. Later, the decision was appealed by a higher court but only because of a technicality and not because the law was found unjust.

It was not until 1967 that Tennessee finally got rid of the Butler Act. Afterwards, many other states began to appeal their laws banning evolution and even began to require that schools require equal coverage of biblical ideas and the theory of evolution. Emphasis was put on the fact that it is a theory and should not be taught as fact. Later, these laws emphasizing teaching creationism and evolution equally were also appealed on the basis that they were unconstitutional. In the classroom today, there is still a huge debate over how to teach students about how life came to be the way that it is. No one knows for sure and everyone has their own ideas of what students should learn.

My Informal Education Curriculum

All of my life I have been exposed to school, my mother was a kindergarten T.A., and I would often go to school with her even before I had started school myself. I was also very happy to go; I guess you could say that I was born for school. As a natural consequence of loving school, I got the reputation of being an egghead and a goody-two shoes. Once in middle school, I realized that I didn't have very many friends because of how I liked to get every answer right and I was a bit of a show off when it came to grades. After I had this revelation, I stopped and took a good look at myself. That was when I realized that I would rather be modest and have friends than to have everyone see how smart I was and hating me for it. This is when I learned that people don't like a show-off so I changed my attitude.

Last year, I went through a bit of a rough experience with my parents and sister so, consequently, we are currently not on speaking terms. (Their choice, not mine.) Right now, I am living with my husband's family while he is deployed to Afghanistan. (As a side note, I am constantly talking about him and I will probably find a way to work him into any topic of conversation so I'll introduce him to you; his name is Andrew.) The experience of living in a family that is so radically different from my own (in a good way) has taught me so many different things. An especially important one is one that I learned from my mother-in-law. Every weekend, we do at least one activity outside of the house. Whether it is going all the way to York Animal Farm or just down to the lake at the end of the road, we are out of the house for a couple of hours. This in itself would not teach me anything that I would not have already known, except for the fact that I lived a very sheltered life with my parents where we never went anywhere or did anything. What my mother-in-law taught me was that life needs to be lived fully. We aren't meant to sit around on our butts at home all day doing nothing. It is much more fun to get out and do things in the world. That is how we gain experience, knowledge and wisdom. My life is much more fulfilling and enjoyable than it was before (except that Andrew's not here, which is a downer). I've noticed that ever since I started living my life this way, my anxiety levels have become much more manageable. I don't need medication for anxiety attacks anymore, which is great. Life is fun!

Possibly the most important part of my informal curriculum (probably only in my eyes though) is my love of books. I started reading books when I was extremely little. I remember in Kindergarten, reading books that didn't even have pictures in them which impressed all of my classmates immensely (sometimes my show-off attitude comes back in small flashes, don't worry, it'll subside). I loved everything that came in written form. I would read labels on bottles, posters on buses, I even started reading out of the dictionary one time (I didn't get very far, so don't be too worried about me). Over time my love of books developed into something much more sophisticated than just reading for the sake of reading; I started to really become interested in using books to advance the way that I learned. I absorbed everything that I read and kept little bits and pieces in the back of my mind that would come up randomly in conversation. I still pop up with random information even now; I often lose track of what I was saying before and can't seem to get back to my main point. I also started to develop an avid imagination and this was reflected in my favorite types of books, which are science fiction and fantasy. Even now, my favorite book series is the Harry Potter series. I have been following the series since I was 12 years old. You can probably imagine the excitement I went through when the final book came out this past summer. Eight years of loyalty and patience have finally paid off! (By the way, J.K. Rowling is a total business genius because she just let Dumbledore out of the closet. Not only has she gained a new fan base but she has also brought attention back to the series when people were starting to forget about it after the release of the final book. Genius!) I don't just read novels though, I still love to read magazines, the newspaper and maddox.xmission.com. My point though, with telling you about my love of books and reading, is that this love has fostered an inquisitive and imaginative mind in which I never get tired of learning new things. The world has so many interesting facets that I discover through reading and I will never get tired of it.

First Day

Well, I never thought that I would ever have a blog but I guess I was wrong. So here it is.