A conservative education think tank, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, recently issued a report giving Kansas an “F” for its most recent science standards, saying the evolution standards are “radically compromised” by an intelligent design agenda that “makes a mockery of the very definition of science.”
But evolution wasn’t the only problem. The report also called Kansas’ high school physics standards “deficient” and its chemistry benchmarks “uninspiring.”
It’s small comfort that Kansas was one of 12 states that received failing grades on its science standards. The larger point: America’s science education is failing the country.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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7 Comments
Indeed, Mr. Scholfield,
In my limited experience at a Kansas institute of higher education, it seems to me there’s a far greater welfare mentality among students than there is among actual welfare recipients. Their base skills in math, chemistry, and physics, are weak. They do only the minimum assigned work in the class (if that). Their performance, in short, is mediocre. Yet, they EXPECT nothing lower than a B. They’re SHOCKED when they see grades on homework, papers, and exams with (gasp) Cs, Ds, and even Fs. they complain when they have to go to a copy machine to enlarge a figure for easier reading. They have a cow when they might actually have to crack another book or go to the internet to look for information (even though most spend 5 hours a day on there anyway).
I hear from colleagues that it’s no different at the azverage university. Domestic science and engineering trasining in the US is on a steady decline, and the decline rests squarely on the shoulders of a lazy, self-centered, arrogant, generation of young adults who look for their welfare checks at the end of each semester rather than at the end of each month.
OK, it’s time to stop agreeing with you now Brian.Yes students need to work hard and accept challenges and responsablity, but NO. Kids did not just suddenly start being different overnight and wake up as ‘lazy, self-centered, arrogant, generation of young adults who look for their welfare checks at the end of each semester rather than at the end of each month.’
We’re talking about high school kids, remember?If you really feel that way about them, do you think this happened overnight and nobody else had any responsability for their academic decline?No poor leadership, funding, standards, etc.?
Students in K-12 don’t seem to know the importance of their education for their future needs so they sluff-off or just don’t care. I get a sense that people are apathetic or possibly more depressed than in times past.
I don’t have any statistics nor do I have any web pages to prove my point. It’s just a gut feeling based on my experiences.
Perhaps kids these days know they’re all going to be working for Wal-Mart or its ilk anyway.
Tracy,
No, I totally agree with you. The kids didn’t make themselves into what they are. We’re all responsible for letting the education system go down the toilet.
However, these same high school kids can show a remarkable discipline when it comes to sports, or computer games. They choose not to show that discipline in school…and I assume their choice is either supported by their parents or their parents are generally uninterested. It has something to do with their age and maturity, but it also has a lot to do with the respect they choose to give to education and to their teachers.
Yes you have a point Brian.Society has certainly changed for the worse in this respect.Many children learned from their parents that they don’t need to respect authorities, teachers and schools in general.Let’s not give up on kids and just generalize that they’ve all gone bad. That’s just not true.Some parents are real terds, and it’s a shame their kids have learned to act the same way. I know the type that just seems to think that they are entitled to everything the world has to offer, without earning any of it.
Brian,
I spent a good portion of my life in the clutches of small-town Oklahoma schools. Sports were regarded as the most important thing on Earth there, particularly football. Teachers who had any experience at all were drafted into being coaches, even against their will (I’m not exaggerating–I could give you contact info for one of them).
Even in presumably more enlightened Kansas, for a while we had KAKE-TV praising students who excelled both academically and in sports. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, but why put those two together, as if those who simply excel academically are underacheivers?
Finally, science education is continually undermined by school boards and, yes, Tracy, clueless parents, who have little clue as to how science works. The science community must share some of the blame, too, as even fairly accurate, comprehensive science education tends to teach everything as the divine wisdom of the ancients, leaving out any indication of the hard work, false starts, blind alleys, heated arguments, and gradual consensus that makes science as robust as it is.