The Magic School Bus tackles human evolution in upcoming release

Education Forum
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The Magic School Bus was a staple in our elementary science home school experience.

Here is an interview with author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degan about the latest installation which will deal with human ancestry.

Bruce Degan:

Well, there are people who object to evolution, because it contradicts their ideas that come out of their religious beliefs. There are people who believe the Earth is flat. And I’ve spoken to home-schooled kids who said the Magic School Bus was banned in their homes, even before we went on to these more difficult topics. But the decision we’ve always had is that we have to go with good science. And we should not make it a false equivalency of “he said, she said.” Let’s face it, most scientists believe the planet is billions of years old, and that’s a fact.

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Interesting. I enjoyed the original show as a kid, although I don’t think we were allowed to watch the dinosaur one. I don’t mind it now, but I think I’d be more apt to want to supplement any secular human evolution resource.

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Yeah - I hope they don’t get all condescending toward religions in general. Some shows would be ahead if they just stuck to the science and didn’t mention religion at all, because when they do they only put their foot in their mouth and make it worse (i.e. often promoting the warfare mentality, at least implicitly if not explicitly.) But if they can pull it off without any of that nonsense, then more power to them!