ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly considers the challenge of intelligent design (ID) arguments. It discusses the merits of such arguments and how their success matters for justifying teaching intelligent design accounts in schools. The central controversy revolves around what children should learn about evolutionary theory and its rivals in their schools. The chapter approaches this controversy as a platform for beginning to reflect on several more basic issues, including parental authority over children, what a child's proper claims are for education, and the state's interest in fostering education. The history of modern education for any given nation links industrial, economic, political, and social developments to changes in curricula, the structure of schools, and the shape of institutions determining how schools are organized. The chapter illustrates how sometimes the people can avoid some controversy in public policy by having fewer ambitions for policy to resolve their disputes.
