///Well I have worked in science (as a science teacher), and I can assure you that only dolts teach evolution as a ladder. Homo erectus, etc. and modern humans have a common ancestor. The genus Homo and the genus Pan, to which chimps and bonobos belong, also have a common ancestor, but you have to go back a little further. And so on.///

I found a chart that shows that H. sapiens descended from H. ergaster. It's still being taught. Maybe you should correct them.

///This is the Darwinian model for evolution and it has been overwhelmingly shown to be true. Darwin's contemporary detractors tried to pin ladder-evolution on him, just as the Daily Mail would have done had Darwin been here today. At least one cartoon of the time depicted Darwin as half-monkey, half-man. Contemporary science journalism was even worse than religion when it came to misrepresenting Darwin. But Darwin never subscribed to this ridiculous ladder idea. Not once, ever.///

Whatever Darwin taught, he's overrated. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck is the man who actually came up with evolution 50 years before Darwin and he was likely more on target. He said evolution was based on "instructive" cooperation. Cell biology has more in common with the ideas of Lemarck than Darwin.