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Re: [Phys-l] Parents don't see a crisis over science and math



I think that the public actually understands that math and science as
currently taught is very irrelevant to their lives. It certainly is
necessary to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, but
even there science and math teaching is not optimum.

The abstract content of the current math and science courses do not improve
the thinking skills much, despite the claims that it does. How often does
the average person use algebra, or trig, or imaginary numbers? So in a
sense the public recognizes this. It is not that we have failed to sell the
public on the need for math and science, but rather that we have
demonstrated that it is irrelevant to them personally. As a result the
distaste for these subjects increases with each course.

The dreadful way in which college physics is often taught drives some very
good people out of the sciences. HS physics is actually not much better.
Then there is the problem that math turns students into manipulators of
equations, but that is useless if they can't write equations. They can't
even write accurate linear equations. There was a study that showed that
30% of incoming engineers can not accurately write a simple equation from a
description.

So in the end the public has been convinced that they can't understand these
subjects, so why should they try? Just consume the fruits of science
produced by the people who are willing to do it. The main problem is that
this attitude combined with the get rich in business attitude is decreasing
the number of students willing to go into science. We can survive for quite
a while as traders of goods produced by others, but in the end we may end up
as a third world country. Can we survive as long as the Roman Empire?

I think in the case of Dover, PA, it was not necessarily scientific
arguments that convinced parents. It was the way in which the board lied,
and wasted taxpayer money that was probably the final blow.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


Specifically to the article--we have failed, both in math and science,
to
sell the public (meaning our students) on the importance of this
knowledge
and these skills to their successful functioning in the modern world.
Despite a huge emphasis put on this in my gen-ed course, I still will
hear
the comment (from a few)--I don't need to understand this stuff, I don't
want to understand this stuff---I just want to use the fruits of
science.
______________________________snip________________________________

[Cases in point are the
International Space Station and future manned exploration of Mars.
Public
opinion is negative on both--but the public has been poorly educated as
to
the ultimate benefits of each of these expensive projects to human
society.]

Educated scientific opinion is also opposed (See Bob Parks'
"What's New" weekly postings) extravagances of the military-industrial
complex. So the public seems to be ahead of this particular critic.
Also, note, it was the public - the parents - who went after the
schoolboard in the Dover, Pa. cases. Beware of generalizations,
especially such facile ones as these, for all generalizations are false
(including this one).