Recently, Nick Matzke made a comment advertising Caroline Crocker’s supposed incompetence, in response to a reflection on why the American Scientific Affiliation cannot deal with scientists who doubt
Following the evidence wherever it leads, eh? Caroline Crocker’s record does not suggest that she is any good at doing this. Instead she just brazenly repeats the crudest creationist arguments.
Crocker has apparently replied Here is her response to a Darwinist site impugning the credibility of the scientists featured in Ben Stein’s Expelled:
Dr. Crocker was summoned by her department head, accused of teaching creationism despite a singular lack of written even one complaint, and told she had to be disciplined. He immediately removed her from lecturing, even though this was against policy listed in the Faculty Handbook. In fact, she was told to sign up to teach extra lab classes without delay. Many students complained because they had signed up specifically for her lecture class. The short-notice replacement teacher was struggling and not covering the material that was necessary for them to do well in the lab and in future classes.
The sole reason for Dr. Crocker’s removal from the classroom was a single lecture that was not even delivered that semester, where she suggested that the theory of evolution may not have all the answers and may, in fact, have been rendered out-of-date by current scientific knowledge. Faculty and staff members confirmed that this was the only issue.
Second, much of what is said about Dr. Crocker’s teaching, here and elsewhere on the internet, is grossly distorted. The writer is relying on second-hand information, imperfectly reported.
Shocka.