This year’s Darwin Awards

Teaching psychology for 20 years at Spokane Falls Community College was such a learning experience – for me. I hope the students also learned a lot about the “Scientific study of behavior and mental processes”. When teaching the section on Evolutionary Psychology, it was always interesting to ask the classes if anyone knew about the Darwin Awards. Sheepishly, some students, especially boys, would raise their hands, grinning from ear to ear. For those of you who don’t know, every year people are selected for Darwin Awards - the dumbest things people do that actually eliminate themselves from the gene pool.

With all the people overly anxious to “reopen” the country and not wear masks, not maintain physical distance, not wash hands or carry out other precautions - is it possible that 2020 will be exceptional and have a huge number of Darwin Awards? I hope not.

Nancy Street

Cheney