"Science" in American Education
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Written by Dr. Gerry Lower
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Thursday, 13 July 2006
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The New York Times recently editorialized that: "The United States could easily fall from its privileged perch in the global economy unless it does something about the horrendous state of science education at both the public school and university levels."
 This is simply the horrible truth of it, of course. In spite of conservative belief, the economy does not begin with money. Like everything else, including religions and philosophies, the economy begins with ideas. The proposed solution to this sorry state of affairs in American education is, of all things, an educational solution. The solution "means finding ways to enliven a dry and dispiriting style of science instruction that leads as many as half of the country's aspiring scientists to quit the field before they leave college." This solution, of course, begs the question as to how and why science education in America ended up being seen as "dry and dispiriting" in the first place. One can also ask how this happened in a nation birthed from human values and knowledge. Clearly, the problems go deeper than the curriculum in science and how science is currently taught. "The emerging consensus among educators is that students need early, engaging experiences in the lab — and much more mentoring than most of them receive now — to maintain their interest and inspire them to take up careers in the sciences." This is all well and good but it seriously misses the point. In fact, it couldn't miss the point any more so. Making science education more entertaining and engaging will not hurt a thing but, as one might expect of thought under capitalism, that is not the core problem. It is not even close. The problem is that science and natural philosophy (from whence came American democracy) are no longer employed in making American policy at home, in the community, in our nation or abroad. Science is taught without obvious relationship to anything natural philosophical or political, and it ends up having little relevance to the comprehension of the world and current reality. Science has come to be mostly dedicated to technology, a tool for use in the corporate agenda of making money and buying power. The year 1984 marked the turning point in America, when most U.S. youth gave up on science to opt for a degree in business, an "MBA" degree. We are talking here about learning, presumably as a branch of knowledge, the "bidness" of "bidness." How this constitutes a knowledge base upon which to build a meaningful life is anybody's guess. It only defines how business works at a given point in time, which over the past three decades would sketch out the path to corporate and governmental corruption.
This was part and parcel of capitalism's imposed change in the "why" of getting a college or university education. By the mid 1980s, one no longer went to college to learn how the world works and discover oneself in human knowledge. Under capitalism, one went to college to get a "good education," so one could get a "good job" and make "good money."
Just exactly what the holder of an MBA degree "knows" can be left largely up to the imagination. Consider, for example, George W. Bush. We do know that MBAs make good money playing games with the money that new ideas bring into the world. We do know that Bush is a graduate of both Harvard and Yale, so we know that such degrees are not difficult or demanding to obtain.
We do know that MBAs cum CEOs can be enormously creative in corruption (e.g., Enron™). Indeed (and this is a central point), a knowledgeable education would be a detriment to being a good MBA because one is certain to encounter knowledge that is inconsistent with the monied and control-oriented goals of capitalism. Its a no-win, sure-lose situation in which it is easier to simply dispense with logic and go for the goals.
In the cultural sense, capitalism has screwed American socioeconomics up entirely, from the top down, by convincing people one way or another that religion and money make better bottom lines than knowledge and democracy, by convincing the people that money is the source of everything American. If only America had enough money, of course, we could possibly even consider honoring human rights.
We have created an economic system in which generally-applicable human knowledge (knowledge that can be employed to better comprehend life and even religion and politics) is irrelevant to successful surviving and thriving in America. Mostly, Americans do not want into the idea end of things but into the retail end of things, never mind the learning and doing, just cut the business "managers" in for the larger portion of the profits.
In a manufactured world in which knowlege and natural philosophy no longer play a role, in which human rights are trampled every day, and in which money and capitalism seem to define and dominate everything, we might anticipate America's youth to have no particular interest in science. It may be the only legitimate human starting point, but that was yesterday and we are making money today.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 July 2006 )
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Non ce n'est pas une affiche de campagne en Turquie, mais bien celle du parti socialiste autrichien (SPÖ) pour les élections d'octobre prochain à Vienne. Après les affiches de campagne de Strache qui plaide pour le " pur sang viennois" c'est la course au populisme?
Wien-Wahl: Politiker sprechen türkisch: 200.000 Neoösterreicher Wähler haben Migrationshintergrund. Die Parteien buhlen um ihre Stimmen - gerne auch in einer Fremdsprache.( Kurier 25/08/2010)
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La deuxième rencontre du cycle
“LA DEMOCRATIE EN DANGER”,
consacrée à la Justice en Europe
Le lundi 13 septembre
de 19h30 à 22h00
Salons de l’Aveyron
17 Rue de l'Aubrac
75012 Paris
 A l’heure où les discours et les mesures sécuritaires et judiciaires se durcissent dans nombreux pays européens, où l’on sait les atteintes aux droits les plus élémentaires et aux principes fondamentaux des simples citoyens, quels traitements sont réservés à ceux qui tiennent les pouvoirs politiques, financiers, économiques entre leurs mains? Une conférence-débat organisée dans le cadre du cycle La démocratie en danger par Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris et le NewropMag.
Intervenants: les députés européens Luigi De Magistris, Sonia Alfano et Rosario Crocetta ; Harald Greib, vice-président de Newropeans en charge des affaires des institutions européennes ; Eric Alt, magistrat, membre de l’association MEDEL (magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés) et de l’association Anticor, et Corinne Lepage, députée européenne et ex Ministre de l’environnement, engagée dans la lutte contre la corruption politique et financière.
Parmi les sujets de discussion:
- L'infiltration des organisations criminelles et le vide législatif relatif en Europe
- Les récentes dépénalisations des crimes financiers et économiques en Italie, en France et leur traitement au sein des institutions européennes
- Présomption d'innocence ou de culpabilité? L'exemple de la “loi bâillon” sur les écoutes téléphoniques qui viole les recommandations de l’OSCE concernant l’emploi de sources et de matériels nécessaires aux investigations journalistiques au service de la démocratie.
Contacts:
Micaela Bracciaferri, Coordinatrice “Les Amis de Beppe Grillo à Paris »
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Marianne Ranke-Cormier, Rédactrice en chef du NewropMag
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