The Biological Process that Dare not Speak its Name

A century and a half after Darwin penned On the Origin of Species, the Florida state board of education is considering adding the word evolution to its official curriculum. Until now, it has been referred to only obliquely as “biological changes over time.”


At least one school district (of which Florida has only a handful) is already balking at the proposed change.


Most of my fellow evolutionists seem to think that government‐​mandated instruction in evolution, in state run schools, is the ideal path to biological enlightnment. Personally, I think 150 years of foot‐​dragging before seriously considering the use of the word evolution bodes ill for the quality of instruction that will follow.