You thought Texas was bad?

[kentonio]

How exactly does teaching evolution pertain to history?

You mean apart from the bit where it explains the evolution of every living creature on the planet since life began?

[Imran Siddiqui]

In fairness to Ben, the vast majority of history books involve the history of people.

[The Mad Monk]

You mean apart from the bit where it explains the evolution of every living creature on the planet since life began?

That would be prehistory.

[The Mad Monk]

In fairness to Ben, the vast majority of history books involve the history of people.

Certainly all the books with accurate titles do.

[kentonio]

That would be prehistory.

Actually it wouldn't, evolution never stops.

[The Mad Monk]

CONTEXT! Please try to maintain it.

History, as an academic discipline, deals with the interactions of human society through time. No humans, no history. I'm sure you will agree that evolution existed before humans.

[notyoueither]

In fairness to Ben, the vast majority of history books involve the history of people.

Well, there's also this thing about Darwin's theory being instrumental for subsequent scientific and social developments.

[regexcellent]

Evolution was well outside the scope of any high school or college history class I have ever taken. It is something that is covered in biology.

[kentonio]

Which seems a shame given that evolutionary theory also arguably had a major impact on the rise of secularism and many, many other lines of human thought and idea. When people understand evolution as a whole idea, it changes so many ways of thinking.

[regexcellent]

Evolution was well outside the scope of any high school or college history class I have ever taken. It is something that is covered in biology. Teaching it in history would be a very strange change of topic and also completely redundant.

Incidentally, I have yet to experience anything thus far in my life where knowledge of evolution has been of actual material use to me. I suspect this is true for most people, especially those who refuse to learn it.

[kentonio]

How would a major human discovery which had a vast impact on a whole range of human thinking be 'redundant' in a history class?

[regexcellent]

Gravity was an important discovery too but in the interest of not spending a history course covering integral calculus it isn't covered there either. Evolution is a science concept. It belongs in a science class.

[DaShi]

Creationism does not belong in a history book either.

[regexcellent]

I agree with that. I never had a history textbook with creationism in it either.

[kentonio]

Gravity was an important discovery too but in the interest of not spending a history course covering integral calculus it isn't covered there either. Evolution is a science concept. It belongs in a science class.

Evolution had far broader effects on human thought and development. A better question would be why you are so reticent about a history course including something so profoundly important?