Neil Greenspan's opinion1 makes many good points. However, his use of the word evolution as an umbrella term will make trouble for me and other members of NCSE (National Center for Science Education) trying to deal with a lay public constantly bombarded with fundamentalist propaganda. One has to separate the event we call evolution, a history of life that shows patterns that are causally connected, from the mechanism(s) responsible for these patterns. It is far easier to convince a thinking layp

Professor Ronald Morris's suggestion of converting Ph.D.s to teachers1 is a great idea. But it won't work. As a former public school teacher (four years) who has been a scientist for over 30 years, I can see major obstacles that will be overcome in only a few cases: * The students (the most important variable in the equation): You cannot lecture to public school students as if they were motivated undergraduates. Most of the Ph.D.s I know would not know how to handle disciplinary problems. And i