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Taking Issue With Claims That American Science Education is 'Dismal'

Posted by timothy on from the note-this-is-an-editorial dept.

TaeKwonDood writes "We've all seen the stories about how 'dismal' science education in America is. It turns out that it's kind of a straw man. America has long led the world in science but the 'average' score for Americans on standardized tests has never been good. Instead, every 2 years American kids get better but we keep being told things are terrible. Here is why."

2 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. America leader in science? Don't make me laugh. by tulcod · · Score: 0, Troll

    Without a doubt, this post will get modded -1 disagree, but the truth is that all marginally useful researchers active in the USA come from Europe and Asia. America is willing to spend way billions and billions every year on a brain drain, and truth be told, they're pretty good at that: it's now come to a point where any academic here in Europe will have to consider whether he thinks going to the US for further research is worth it, or choose to live for a lower wage and keep up your standards.

    Yes, good researchers often live in America, but that's because they were all, piece by piece, bought out from Europe and Asia. America a leader in science? Don't make me laugh.

  2. Bullshit. by bmo · · Score: 0, Troll

    We are 5 voting percentage points from shoving religion into science classes nation-wide. The know-nothings and American Taliban (dominionists, christian reconstructionists, etc) are so bent upon bringing Gawd's Word and the law of Leviticus to the land that they have been trying, and succeeding, in getting into positions of power. It truly is frightening, and the next thing you know, Pi is going to equal 3 because that's what it says in the Bible.

    The amount of people who believe in strict creationism is stunning. It is fully half of the US population, and another big chunk believe that God directly guides evolution if it exists at all. Anti-science is all the rage, because it makes people who don't actually know anything believe that their opinion is just as good as someone who holds a doctorate in physics.

    http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-half-americans-believe-creationism-212000630.html

    And these people are your neighbors, so they determine who is on the school boards and what textbooks get bought. Have we forgotten recent history? Have we forgotten the Dover PA school district?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District

    Have we forgotten this too?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/law-allows-creationism-to-be-taught-in-tenn-public-schools/2012/04/11/gIQAAjqxAT_story.html

    A bill that allows Tennessee public school teachers to teach alternatives to mainstream scientific theories such as evolution will become law this month after the governor refused to sign or veto the measure, The Washington Postâ(TM)s Valerie Strauss reports.

    Without good books, good curricula, and school boards that are not going to pander to the religious nutbags (or not be religious nutbags themselves as in Dover), the science education gets short shrift, which happens too often.

    Yes, it is fucking abysmal, and don't let anyone tell you differently.

    --
    BMO