Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407050005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: E-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The education enjoyed by those destined to join scientific elites at prestigious universities and laboratories remains nothing short of world-class.
The problem, rather, is with non-scientists. It is with the math and science education to which the great mass of American students is exposed. It is failing them badly. It is failing the nation.
The enemy today is not Russian Sputnik-launchers, but global economic competition. The enemy is the decline that will prove inevitable if Americans lack the skills to excel in modern work and to rationally evaluate reality.
In an age driven by data, computers, technology and problem-solving skills, a population lacking in scientific literacy won't be able to keep up. Everyone should've been troubled by a recent study that ranked American 13-year-olds behind the children of 12 other industrialized nations in scientific ability.
Moreover: Critical thinking, which is a big part of scientific aptitude, is as essential to democracy as it is to successful economic endeavor. Citizens need to beware, for instance, most of the statistics politicians throw at them.
A few national initiatives to address the math and science gap are under way. For example:
The National Academy of Sciences is preparing science-ed standards to help show what students at various grades should know about physics, chemistry, biology and other subjects.
The Smithsonian Institution and the academy have formed a resource center to act as a clearinghouse for promising curriculum innovations.
Most of all, though, a greater commitment to science and math education is needed at the local level.
We need to reform the curriculum and teaching methods - starting in primary schools, where all too often children's instinctive fascination with nature is snuffed out. Don't worry about memorizing facts; science is a voyage of experimentation and discovery.
Schools need also to teach the interconnections of physics, chemistry and biology, instead of pretending they're entirely separate subjects. And students need to apply curiosity, data collection and scientific rigor in all disciplines.
Math and science education needs to be made more relevant to the real world. What, for example, are you more likely to use in the work place: geometry or statistics? What are you more likely to get in high school?
Businesses and especially institutions of higher education can help local school districts design better science instruction. And every school must be more rigorous in setting standards and determining what each graduate, college-bound or not, needs to master. A smattering of "general science" or one year of biology does not come close to being enough.
As Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, recently put it: "We do not need huge numbers of scientists, but huge numbers of scientifically trained people."
We have nothing like huge numbers today. We need to start adding more.
by CNB