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THE CURRENT NEED That volunteer citizen initiative can secure substantial and constructive change in the classrooms of America was generously demonstrated by the impact of the National Science Foundation's Course Content Improvement Program. Some 53 different curriculum-development projects were carried through by volunteer groups of university scientists and experienced teachers. Beginning with the Physical Sciences Study Com- mittee of 1956, the effort spread to the life sciences, chemistry, mathematics, and the social sciences, principally for the secondary school years but also including new pro- grams and materials for the elementary grades. By the mid- 1960 's, improvements in the preparation of entering freshmen compelled upgrading of the science curricula in the colleges. In 1978, nearly a decade after the main initiative had been spent, more than half the high-school science teachers sur- veyed were still using "at least one" of the materials thus developed, as were 22 percent of the teachers in the social sciences and 11 percent of the teachers of mathematics. The cumulative cost to the taxpayer of this movement in American education came to just under $1 billion, most of it spent for teacher institutes that brought teachers back to college for refresher courses in their subjects as well as introducing them to the new curricular materials. It would be difficult to find a better bargain in the federal government's shopping list over the past quarter century. The effort that started in the 1950's was motivated by fear that the United States was falling behind in interna- tional competition and by the conviction that it was necessary to increase the number of young people preparing for careers in science and technology. Now, the disarray in American elementary and secondary schools again asks for the concern and the constructive inter- vention of all responsible citizens. Much evidence indicates that far too many young men and women are leaving high school with less than adequate capacity to read, write, and do simple arithmetic. Such findings have enlisted many citizens and educators in a nationwide "back to the basics" movement, with a resulting narrowing of the educational program in schools all across the country. From the preoccupation of the popular culture with the paranormal, the psychic, the mystic, and the occult, it is apparent that an alarming number of American adults cannot tell sense from nonsense. Mathophobia and the associated incapacity to make rigorous quantitative connections and distinctions afflicts altogether too large a fraction of the 38
adult population. In the context of single purpose pressure groups in contemporary politics, wishing displaces thinking; none of these groups accepts the real-world constraint that allows the attainment of each good only in a trade-off against some other good. The American people share no common body of knowledge and understanding on which to ground a reliable consensus on such urgent public issues as energy and the arms race. Too many Americans find themselves coping with life in today's largely man-made environment with rela- tively as much ignorance and superstition as forerunners in the pristine environment of nature. The situation argues for literacy in science as an objec- tive of American education fully as urgent as basic skills in the three R's. An educated citizen ought to have not only a general acquaintance with contemporary knowledge about inanimate and living nature but, more important, a disposition and capacity to frame questions and find answers. One must be able to recognize relevant evidence, make quantitative assessments of rate and scale, and think in rational accor- dance with objective reality. Some methods of teaching science can contribute to the development of this kind of critical, rational approach to problems; and a reasonably accurate but not detailed understanding of major scientific principles and of the methods and limitations of scientific work â what we here call scientific literacy â can help one to understand and cope with many types of problems. To assert the priority of scientific literacy is not, therefore, to attempt to impose upon American education the aims of yet another single-purpose pressure group. On the contrary, it is a call on American society to redeem its promise to its children: that is, to fulfill their right to the best education society can provide. That right is implicit in the very institution of demo- cratic self-government. A self-governing society must be made up of self-governing citizens. What is wanted in the citizen is autonomous intelligence, disciplined to seek and face the truth, and capable of the independent judgment that stands up both to wishful thinking and to arbitrary external authority, The liberating objective of scientific literacy cannot be accomplished by a one-time effort, not even one as pro- longed as the course content improvement effort. What is required is the permanent, sustained, and increasing commit- ment of the American scientific community to enlarge its presence in the nation's classrooms. A practical and feasible program to this end, one that will reach a substantial and reasonable number of classrooms and children in a reasonable time, is spelled out in what follows. 39
There is not now as much public interest in improving the quality of education as there was during the early post- Sputnik years and many scientists may now be less willing to take time away from their regular duties than were eager to volunteer in the 1950's and 1960"s. Even so, we expect that university and industrial scientists and engineers, and others qualified to help, will make themselves available for the effort, which will range from curriculum development, to the instruction of classroom teachers, to the development of regional resource centers, and to helping teachers in the classroom. That such talent and time are available, providing there is assurance the effort can be effective, was demon- strated by the story of the science-curriculum reform move- ment of the 1950's and 1960's. It is also expected that the National Science Foundation will correspondingly restore elementary and secondary science education to its priorities, and will have funding available to respond to proposals, subject to the usual critical stan- dards of peer review. Additional funding will be necessary from other sources, for while NSF can be a leader, it should not be expected to provide all of the necessary money. We make no estimate of the total cost of the following recom- mendations. Those costs will be variable, depending upon how widely the recommendations are adopted. But even at full implementation, annual costs would be substantially less than one percent of the $100 billion per year that federal, state, and local governments now spend on elementary and secondary education. 40
