CSC Fellow John Angus Campbell in a column for today’s Memphis Commercial Appeal argues that teaching both the strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution has several beneficial outcomes for students including preparing students to be informed citizens and helping them to understand the very nature of science.
His appeal is to teach Darwin’s theory the way Darwin would have himself, as an argument.
Further, when training in argument is recognized as the center of science education, and science education is seen as an extension of the civic education vital to a democratic and pluralistic culture, we will be able to turn the heat of our longstanding cultural debate over evolution into needed educational light.
The opening sentence of the final chapter of Darwin’s “Origin” should guide school board members and educators as they shape science education policy and curriculum: “This whole volume is one long argument…”