Numerous web pages advocating the theory of evolution recently were deemed unsafe for children by Turkey’s regulatory board controlling the Internet.

Yaman Akdeniz of Istanbul’s Bilgi University is an expert on Internet freedom.

“The authorities are trying to establish one view, one morality that the youngsters of our generation should subscribe to,” said Akdeniz.

Undermining evolution

The result was an outcry by the media and academics. Soon after, regulatory authorities re-instated the web pages, with the regulatory authority claiming the ban was a “clerical error.” Recent media reports, however, say the evolution sites still remain blocked in schools.

The controversy is not only confined to the Internet. Professor Asli Tolon is a molecular biologist at Istanbul’s Bosphorus University. She has been tracking the changes in how evolution is taught in school text books.  

Tolon said the idea of evolution increasingly is undermined by creationists who argue the world was created by God.

“Here, there is this, how life evolved. This part is quite scientific, but then right after that, it starts with the creation, the view of creation, which should really not be in a scientific book, because this is a religious view,” said Tolon.

Tolon said the result of such changes are increasingly being felt by her students.

“They sometimes get the idea, that I am trying to teach them my own views. But this is not mine, because evolution is one of the basic theories,” said Tolon.

Balancing the teaching

Mustafa Akyol, columnist and writer on religious affairs, said alternative theories to evolution have a place in education.

“There are some scientific facts in nature that point to a design by some intelligent being which is not a part of nature, this being might be God. This cannot be a reason to reject data just simply because it’s compatible with religion. I think a fair and objective scientific education should allow Darwin evolution and also critics of Darwin evolution,” said Akyol.

Turkey’s teachers are now increasingly being caught in the middle of the deepening dispute.

The country’s main teaching trade union frequently complain that science teachers are facing increasing intimidation by the education ministry, local authorities controlled by the governing AK party and even religious parents.

The government has dismissed such claims. But one teacher, who did not want to give her name, said teaching evolution is increasingly difficult.

“In my school, three out of five science teachers now only teach creationism,” she said, adding that she faces daily pressure from fellow teachers who are religious, and from some families of children who complain about her teaching evolution.

For teachers advocating evolution in Turkey’s schools, they seem destined to be on the frontline of this ongoing struggle for the minds of the nation’s young.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkey-Blocks-Web-Pages-Touting-Darwins-Evolution-Theory-136162663.html

Alex Schimke is a trim and fit New York sixth grader.  He says he likes fruits, particularly strawberries.  But like most children, he admits a taste for candy, cakes and other sweets.

“Are you going to eat the cake or the apple for health?  Obviously, you’re going to eat the apple, but you want the cake,” said Schimke.

Such indisputable logic of children is not lost on New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.

“Children have a natural preference for sweets, more so than adults.  On the other hand, as adults, we choose what to put in front of our children,” said Farley.

Farley says New York has increased the amount of physical activity in local schools, and also improved the healthfulness of food in cafeterias.

“They do have apples.  Oh, yes! And they have a salad bar,” noted Schimke.

Alex also noticed that school vending machines now offer vitamin water instead of sugary high-calorie beverages.  

Farley notes that obesity rates in America began rising about 30 years ago, as many people traded physical labor on farms and factories for sedentary office jobs.

“Physical activity has all but disappeared out of most people’s lives, unless they make it a separate task,” Farley added.  “At the same time, and even more importantly, food has increasingly become cheap, ready to eat, available everywhere, and so people have adopted habits to snack constantly.”

Farley says the New York childhood obesity rate is still at 20 percent.  But New York’s decline goes against a rising national trend.  And the health commissioner is heartened that the rate has fallen at all for the first time in decades – 10 percent among five and six year olds – which gives him reason to believe some youngsters will adopt lifelong habits of healthy eating.

ref http://www.voanews.com/english/news/health/NYC-Battles-Childhood-Obesity-136181148.html