Applied Epistemology

A few weeks ago, I picked up the third and final volume of Joy Hakim's Story of Science. It's a nicely detailed and handsomely illustrated history of science for 10-12 year olds. Like Hakim's earlier, acclaimed multi-volume history of the U.S., it's intended to be used as a textbook, especially for homeschoolers. However, after finishing the last volume, I realized in horror that in a 468 page book, there are barely five pages on biology, of which only two or three treat DNA. And nowhere in the 1100+ pages of the books is a single mention made of Darwin. He's not even in the indices. I guess when a big chunk of your market is composed of people who actually think public schools effectively teach anything, you can't risk offending them with inconvenient realities about life's origins.