Science teachers are facing an uphill battle against bad science and conspiracy theory as they try to instruct the youngest generation of Americans. One struggle they’re facing is convincing students of the most elementary truths about the world, and Kyrie Irving has played a role in this.
Science teachers are struggling to convince students the earth is round thanks to Kyrie Irving
Students are siding with an NBA player over science.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
A story from NPR titled “The Ongoing Battle Between Science Teachers And Fake News” explores how groups outside the school system are trying to win a battle to capture science teachers’ minds and direct their lesson plans away from climate change — but there are even more basic concerns for teachers. One prospective teacher, currently working in a Philadelphia middle school, explained that some of his students refuse to believe the earth is round, because Irving believes it isn’t.
Gurol says his students got the idea of a flat planet from basketball star Kyrie Irving, who said as much on a podcast.
“And immediately I start to panic. How have I failed these kids so badly they think the Earth is flat just because a basketball player says it?” He says he tried reasoning with the students and showed them a video. Nothing worked.
“They think that I’m part of this larger conspiracy of being a round-Earther. That’s definitely hard for me because it feels like science isn’t real to them.”
Irving made his feelings known in February when he double-downed on his belief that the world was flat, telling ESPN that he was glad he “got people talking” about his theory. The problem teachers face is that many of their kids trust an NBA superstar more than them.
Susan Yoon, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education is trying to instruct the next generation of teachers to challenge students to expand their minds, and ask them to follow the scientific process to reach their own conclusions. But convincing students is proving difficult, especially with an NBA superstar as opposition.
Irving also supports an empirical process.
“I think people should do their own research, man,” Irving told ESPN. “Hopefully they’ll either back my belief or they’ll throw it in the water. But I think it’s interesting for people to find out on their own.
“I’ve seen a lot of things that my educational system has said that was real that turned out to be completely fake. I don’t mind going against the grain in terms of my thoughts.”
Students are happy to “go against the grain” as well, except they are siding with a basketball player and not a trained teacher instructing tested hypotheses that have passed peer review. That is alarming.
