[barik]

I have no idea how it happens, but I recall having more teachers that I referred to as "Coach" instead of "Mr.", "Ms.", or "Dr." while in middle school and early high school.

I'll add to this since I think these types of stories occurs more often than people think. I went to Baker High School in Mobile, Alabama (that might be your first clue).

In the 8th grade I took a required course called Earth Science, also of course taught by a coach. I recall that the last question of one of the exams was "The Universe was created by _____________". Odd. I thought this was a fairly complex answer for a simple fill in the blank question, especially for tests which were typically always multiple choice or fill in the blank. So I just assumed that the empty space below it (since it was the last question) was for writing a short answer.

So, I did my best to mention the Big Bang Theory and associated information about red shifts and such for scientific evidence. In the end, my answer was about a paragraph long, and I felt really good about my answer.

I did get full credit, but I noticed that other students also got full credit but wrote only in the blank itself. So I checked with the teacher for how I could have been more concise. Turns out that the correct answer that he was looking for was "God".

I guess the question was a simple fill in the blank after all.

[w1ntermute]

Isn't that illegal? Or has that been turned into a states' rights issue and been made legal by the Alabama legislature?

[barik]

I've wondered that myself, particularly in regards to the recent evolution vs. "intelligent design" debates in school as of late. I'd be interested to here what other HN readers think.

This is the most dramatic instance I experienced, but in Honors English we spent at least a week on the Bible, but never any other religious texts. Conveniently, at the same time I had read some vampire fiction by Anne Rice and concluded that it's possible that Satan is actually the hero of the Adam & Eve story. It turns out, however, that this is not a good opinion to express when trying to do well in English in a conservative public state school.

As to Earth Science, I was not penalized for my response; had it been, this would have been clearly objectionable. On the other hand, at the time I did feel that it was unfair in that one could give what I considered a cop-out answer for full credit. It may be a theologically true response, but it does not give us any scientific insight and understanding into our Universe.

Given the two examples above, I'm not really sure. It can certainly be uncomfortable for someone who is brought up as an atheist, but I'm not sure it's outright illegal. And this is where the avenue for standardized testing comes in -- it's not necessarily to demonstrate student learning but perhaps rather to better identify egregious issues in school districts.

[w1ntermute]

> It can certainly be uncomfortable for someone who is brought up as an atheist, but I'm not sure it's outright illegal.

I'm quite sure it is illegal according to federal law. The question is whether state law trumps this. Because if it does, no doubt Alabama has passed a law making it legal to teach creationism in schools.