Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy

The problem is not teaching weaknesses of Evolutionary theory, it's picking it out for special attention as needing teaching of the weaknesses. There's no more reason to spend a long time teaching the weaknesses of Evolution that there is of gravity, Newton's laws of Motion or any of the other things taught in schools. This has nothing to do with balanced teaching of Science and everything to do with propagating the lie that Evolution is in some way "not proper science" or "just a theory".Now, I'd love to see Science education that moves on from presenting facts to teaching about how we know what we know, and teaches the subtle distinctions between what is certain, less certain and speculation. But it's just not possible for mass education in the time available. I recall having about two hours of teaching on Evolution at school. Two hours. Two hours is barely enough to communicate the bare bones of the Theory, and certainly not long enough to deal with teaching it's "Strengths and Weaknesses".

Punctuated Equilibria is not supported by the fossil record. Where we have sufficient evidence to decide one way or the other (almost exclusively in the Cenozoic) the record support phyletic gradualism. While an more incomplete fossil record cannot distinguish between the two.Evolution is gradual in the sense that Darwin meant the word (it's shifted in meaning, in Darwins time it meant simply that there were no big jumps), but it shows a much wider variety of speeds and can proceed considerably faster than he expected.