EDUCATION EXTRA.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Ringside 

By Jen Bryant

2008

Ages 12 and up

This would be an excellent title for both teachers and students to add to their reading lists this year. Bryant offers up a captivating account involving the separation of church and state, religion and science in the classroom.

In 1925, a teacher in Dayton, Tenn., was arrested after assigning a chapter in a biology text that covered Darwin's theory described in "The Origin of Species." The charge against J.T. Scopes was that the assignment violated the Butler Act, which prohibited teaching "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible."

Much has been written about the ensuing trial that unfolded in July 1925, often referred to as the Monkey Trial. The author includes a list of books, articles and a play written about the Scopes trial and the controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution.

However, in this book, Bryant has taken a different approach. You hear the details of the trial from the voices of students and adults who sat in the hot, stuffy courtroom or kept up with the accounts in the newspaper. Their perspectives, written in verse form, give an up-close view of the social impact on this rural community when two of the nation's most celebrated lawyers come to town. The courtroom atmosphere was often compared to a circus, hence the title.

The author gives an accurate account of the trial and at the same time makes the legal and moral arguments understandable for young adults.

The voices from the community are authentically pre-civil rights in the South; the journalist writes in the folksy style characteristic of the period.

Bryant's extensive research included a trip to Dayton to witness the annual reenactment of the trial, walk the streets of the community and visit locations included in the book.

The Butler Act was repealed by the Tennessee Legislature in 1967, but the teaching of evolution remains a hotly debated topic throughout the country. In reading Bryant's account, students will hear objectively the opposing viewpoints.

- Nicki Maxwell, retired Eugene School District librarian