How Bush Bankrupted America
"Bush is more like Richard Nixon [than Ronald Reagan]—a man who used the right to pursue his agenda but was never really part of it. In short, he is an impostor, a pretend conservative."
How Republicans became defenders of Big Government
"Not so long ago, Republicans were eager to make the case for smaller government and, at times, backed up their rhetoric with action. In 1994, they won a majority of the votes cast in Congressional elections for the first time since 1946 – at least in part because they offered a credible alternative to government growth. Indeed, the budget they proposed in 1995 would have eliminated three cabinet agencies and more than 200 federal programs.
Ten years later, the one-time party of fiscal prudence has ceded all claims to the high moral ground on budget matters, overseeing the largest increase in government spending since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society."
What Should We Think about Americans’ Beliefs Regarding Evolution?
"Of course, most Americans have studied at least some science at the elementary-school and high-school levels. Most high-school students, indeed, have taken some sort of biology course. Have they learned nothing at all? My own experience in teaching university-level physics casts some light on this question. Students in the introductory level course soon find that much of what they must learn is counterintuitive...
...an awful lot of students who solve enough homework problems to pass the course come to believe that the real world and the “physics-class world” operate according to different laws....
...I am sure that biology teachers can tell similar stories. One can see why citizens who don’t “believe” in evolution are nevertheless quite happy to have it taught in schools."
All eyes on evolution
"There is a fundamental disconnect between the scientific community and the community at large. In science, there is no controversy over evolution; it’s simply a fact, backed up by millions upon millions of evidences from experiments and fossils. But scientists would be wise to pay attention to the rising trend of anti-science among the public and stop living in a naive world so they can focus all of their efforts on research."
2 comments:
Although this isn't the best outlet to reach the masses, I have to say that, as both an "insider" and an "outsider" in the science world, there are many misconceptions about science and education.
The first of which is that scientists are not interested in education. Scientists train graduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral students at a large rate. 26,000 Ph.D.'s were awarded in 2004 to science and engineering fields, this doesn't include medical doctors, psychiatrists, educators, etc who make up another 15,000. Do these students come out of the woodwork? No. They are trained from the fourth year of undergraduate until they finish their studies.
Another misconception is that scientists do not care about K-12 education and public outreach. First of all, it is not necessarily a scientist's amibition, nor place, to take part in such activities. After all, when's the last time your friendly neighborhood investment banker came and gave a kid-friendly lecture series at the local elementary school? Sometimes the subject matter isn't so appropriate, or the person isn't so qualified. However, many professional scientists do indeed take part in such activities, and they have as much passion as any teacher would. Scientists need students, they cannot function without them. They need their time, they need their insight, and they need the additional funding they bring with them. But undergrads don't just pop out of thin air, either, they come form high schools. Every physicist, chemist, astronomer, biologist, whoever, that I have spoken with, and I've spoken with hundreds, understands this, and many do their part for outreach. The Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute spends over $6M/year on public outreach. Countless programs system-wide incorporate public outreach components.
Another misconception is that kids don't know science because scientists don't want to teach them. A child is more likely to learn physics from an english or history major than a person with training in physical sciences. Conversely, a student is far less likely to learn english or history from a physical scientist than from an english/history major. This suggests a very powerful notion: there is a belief that scientists are not as capable of teaching english/history as an english/history major is of teaching physical sciences. Not only does this help explain the public disconnect with science, it also depicts a K-12 educational system that has lost its interest in teaching science. Further, you cannot expect one trained in english or history to be able to communicate the archaics of physical sciences.
So why is it such a surprise that there is a resurgence of anti-evolutionism? It's a relatively simple linear trend, just look at the time between now and te Renaissance. As scientific literacy increased, people became less and less reliant upon religious myths to explain events. For instance, the Chief Seismologist of Turkey is trying to assuage public fears that an earthquake is imminent due to the coming total solar eclipse at the enf of March. Turkey is a far less scientifically cognizent society. Charles Darwin waited to publish his theory of evolution until his death, and was buried in an umarked grave to avoid the desecratino of his body. And then there's Scopes, etc. Until the age of invention, most advances in mechanics or chemistry, aside from items used for warfare of course, were basically considered witchcraft.
I'm rambling, but if we want to avoid ridiculous assertions like "intelligent design," which is only semantically different from creationism, then we had better dispel the idea of the scientist from the 1920's with crazy hair and in a white lab coat who's cross-breeding nuclear weapons and puppies. The problem lies at the root of society, and that's where the education has to begin.
Great contribution Dave, thanks. I'm going to highlight it in a new post.
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