What, are you unfamiliar with the word?
OK....Let's examine the last 1/2 of the lead post. Should government be in the business of shoving either evolution or ID down the throats of resistant children?
Schools should teach science. Evolution is a vital part of biological science. That remains the case whether "government" is in the schooling business or not, so your one-trick-ponyism is beside the point and getting tiresome.
As for "shoving" anything "down the throats of resistant children", what the kids want or "resist" is beside the point -- left to their own wants and desires, few would spend any time in school at all. As adults, we have a responsibility to teach children the knowledge necessary to get by in the modern world, whether they "resist" it or not. For that matter I've seen far more children "resisting" math class than science class.
Should Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas even be voting on matters that offend freedom of conscience or that will have non-neutral religious consequences for many of the students?
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but being exposed to information that might have "non-neutral religious consequences" is hardly a violation of the First Amendment, as you have repeatedly stated in other posts. You have no right to be not exposed to information that might in some manner cause you to ponder some religious point. The Taliban believed that, and tried to enforce it, but I would hope that no American would be so similarly closed-minded or horrified at being exposed to ideas new to him.
If you examine this, you will need to conclude that government schools must be abolished and that the only solution to these continuing curriculum wars is vouchers, tax credits, and eventual complete separation of school and state.
No, I will not "need to conclude" that based on the realization that people in schools (private OR public) will be exposed to new ideas. Nor am I as horrified of that prospect as you seem to be.
What a controversial position!
Being a libertarian nut-job (TM), I'm highly supportive of homeschooling and private schools, and open to ideas such as voucher plans, public schools charging tuition, and even privatization. When it comes to the public policy issue of privatizing public education, the makeup of life science and earth science curricula is not even on the radar. The "compelled speech" argument against the teaching of evolution in the schools goes far beyond any multi-cultural sensitivity argument I have ever heard from the political left.
I plan to homeschool my children. In fact, I may have to do so for a period of time, if my wife and I adopt from overseas as we are planning. When I do, I intent to teach them as much science and math as they can stand, and that includes evolutionary theory.