The Selfish Gene & Evolutionary Theory
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Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene in 1976, and it has become a mainstay in the study of evolutionary theory though it is controversial in nature (Dawkins, 1976). Dawkins believes the driving force behind survival is the gene, not the gene which most people refer to today, but an even smaller structure. He believes the gene is smaller than the gene as most people refer to it because it is known that "genes" may be quite long and also that they may become broken into pieces during genetic transfer. It is difficult to believe that long chain genes could survive intact for long over the course of evolution and therefore he proposes that it is the smaller subunits that are the true genes, or replicators, as he calls them, which carry the genetic information on through generation after generation. Dawkins believes that these replicators influence our lives and what we do, just as geneticists believe this of traditional genes, and when he refers to the "selfish gene" he is not referring to any characteristics of humans as being selfish but to the characteristics of the replicators whose only purpose is reproduction of themselves (Dawkins, 1976). Dawkins theory of evolution is that in the "primordial soup" certain molecules became attracted to each other, and these molecules began to aggregate into longer and longer chains of molecules. As the "soup" became used up, these long chain molecules broke down other chains for additional molecules for their own chains.
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s are still being used. Education is essential to making a livelihood in this increasingly technological age, and the school system has to recognize this. A meme change is needed to make everyone involved in education aware of the changes that have taken place in society, the increasing numbers of poor and disadvantaged in this country, the increasing disparity between rich and poor, and the shocking disregard for the state of education in many of the schools across the nation.
Tougher standards may be beneficial in making students pay more attention to their studies, but may also be harmful (Kerry, 2002). A preoccupation with achievement can be detrimental to the learning process. The children in the disadvantaged schools are having a hard enough time as it is. Tougher standards are linked to the push for standardized testing, but this ignores the inequalities in schools. The "tougher standards is good" meme needs to be bred out of the powers that be in education.
Theories of education reform abound, from constructivism to MI theory to site-based management and home schooling, each having its particular advantages, but the drive seems to be for a bottom-up approach (Styles, 2006). However, all require meme changes a
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Approximate Word count = 2560
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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