Echoes David Goodstein's "Paradox of Scientific Elites and Scientific Illiterates" from the early 90's[0]: "The answer, I think, is that in education and in sc

Echoes David Goodstein's "Paradox of Scientific Elites and Scientific Illiterates" from the early 90's[0]: "The answer, I think, is that in education and in science, as in fast food and popular culture, America is not really worse than the rest of the world, we are merely a few years ahead of the rest of the world. What we are seeing here will happen everywhere soon enough. Our colleagues abroad can take what scant comfort they can find in the promise that our dilemmas in science and education are on the way, along with Big Macs and designer jeans ... Most elementary school teachers are poorly prepared to present even the simplest lessons in scientific or mathematical subjects. In many places, Elementary Education is the only college major that does not require even a single science course, and it is said that many students who choose that major do so precisely to avoid having to take a course in science. To the extent that is true, elementary school teachers are not merely ignorant of science, they are preselected for their hostility to science, and no doubt they transmit that hostility to their pupils, especially young girls for whom elementary school teachers must be powerful role models. Even those teachers who did have at least some science in college are not likely to be well prepared to teach the subject." [0]http://www.geoffdavis.net/dartmouth/policy/elites.html http://www.geoffdavis.net/dartmouth/policy/elites.html