Abstract
The debate over teaching Darwin's theory in public schools has been a feature of American public life since at least the Scopes trial of 1925. Drawing on the liberal arts tradition centered in rhetoric and civic argument, this essay argues that science education should not merely prepare tomorrow's scientists, but also educate scientifically articulate citzens. It offers the Origin of Species as a model for educational strategies that would protect the integrity of science, while addressing the objections of students and their parents to Darwin's ideas. Darwin's work belongs in the great tradition of two-sided humanistic argument central to Western education since antiquity, and exemplified in John Milton and John Stuart Mitt. Debate between Darwin's theory and its alternatives, whether young earth creationism or Intelligent Design, is recommended as a means to teach Darwin's theory and train students in the central role of critique and argument in scientific reasoning.
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