Canadians have a higher tolerance for some topics that Americans do: swearing on broadcast TV and gay/lesbian marriage leap to mind.
The latest topic is a children's book that is receiving extraordinary praise up north, but was turned down by American publishers.
"Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be" by Daniel Loxton is geared toward children in grades 3-7 (3rd grade through 7th grade in American). The Globe and Mail reports that the book is a finalist for the Lane Anderson Award for Canadian science books, a finalist in the Norma Fleck Award (Canadian children's nonfiction) and was a finalist for the Silver Birch award.
The key to the issue in the United States lies in the first word: "Evolution." Both countries make primary education textbook decisions on the state/province level. I can't speak for how that affects Canadian education, but I do have some idea about the U.S. system. And in the United States, one or two states can control what goes into textbooks across the country since education companies don't want 50 textbooks. In other words, the U.S. system ends up targeting the lowest common denominator (and these aren't even math books).
Evolution doesn't go over well in parts of the Southern U.S., not even counting the Creation Museum in the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati.
If Canadians are freaking out over the notions of teaching evolution, they are pretty silent on the issue.
Given the huge scientific evidence of evolution, you would think that education would be above politics. Uh, no, it isn't.
Canadians having tougher skin than Americans on these issues, and yes, to my American readers, Canadians are making fun of Americans. As the Globe and Mail writer noted, the book "does not depict nudity. It does not contain curse words. It does not include blasphemy. The love scenes, such as they are, involve males with females."
And yet in America, enough people freak out over evolution. Most Canadians don't. You might even say on this issue that Canadians are more evolved than Americans, unless, of course, you don't believe in evolution.
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