From p. xviii-xix of the preface of Selection, by Graham Bell (Chapman and Hall, New York, 1997):
One might expect, for example, that in Britain, the cradle of evolutionary biology, natural selection might be accorded an honored and conspicuous position. But in the published curricula of the programs that students follow preparatory to the university, it is no more prominent than aquaculture....
The treatment of selection in textbooks usually follows more or less the same course. There is an introductory section on genetics, sometimes even outlining the chemical structure of DNA, followed by an account of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, a page or two of population genetics, and of course the history of the peppered moth. The whole is illustrated by a picture of Darwin, looking stern, as well he might. This is a caricature, of course, but by no means an unrecognizable one. Thousands of students have left courses on evolution with the vague impression that selection is something to do with the Hardy-Weinberg law, and study for the examination by trying to remember which it is that adenine pairs with.
