The average adult newspaper reader in Rhode Island no doubt reads with a yawn the front page news: " NECAP test science scores decline in R.I. ",( Providence Journal, Sept.30). Assuming the validity of the New England Common Assessment Program tests, I can sense too many kids are just bored and uninspired by the public school science teaching. Odd indeed : " science scores are not used to rank Rhode Island schools as high or low performing ". This negative report will not discourage state education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist in HER " race to the top ".
I wish these tests were published on the internet so that science-literate adults can get a better idea of the quality of science education in Rhode Island public schools.
The late great popular science writer Carl Sagan said in his " Demon Haunted World " that kids up to age 12 are naturally curious - almost born scientists. Then something happens to smother that wonderful curiosity. I suspect that something is boring, uninspiring science teaching. To be sure, there will always be numerous teachers with the strange gift of breathing boredom on ANY subject. But today when the Internet can make vivid or fascinating so many topics in science, even limited funds are no great excuse for mass-producing dullards in science.
When so much of the population fails to achieve basic science literacy , Dark Age ignorance and superstition can triumph over Reason and real knowledge of world and universe that we live in. How many young Islamic fanatics never had the equivalent of a good high school biology or physics course ? The same can happen here !
Curiously, as Carl Sagan pointed out, daily newspapers do very little to inform and instruct the public in basic science. But there is always an idiotic Horoscope section.
Did I read somewhere that the Great Imam of Egypt ( a while back ) still insisted that the world was flat ? Two cheers for Western Civilization . ( Now I will check out " Periodic Videos " on You Tube and watch the daffy looking old professor play like a kid sprinkling sodium on water. A truly brilliant display . Any real scientist is just a kid at heart ! )
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Ron